brisson's narrative. €93 
with small smarting pimples. This plain was even 
shunned by wild beasts. After traversing this 
plain, they entered another, where the wind had 
thrown up in furrows the sand, which was of a 
reddish colour. On the tops of the furrows grew 
a few sweet-scented plants, which were devoured 
by the camels. On quitting this sandy plain, 
they entered a valley surrounded by mountains, 
where the soil was white and slimy, and where 
they found water of a noxious smell, covered w^ith 
green moss, and soon after discovered a horde of 
the friendly tribe Rousaye. Sidi Sellem, one of 
the chiefs of this horde, and brother-in-law to Sidi 
Mahomet, proposed to Brisson to put himself 
tinder his protection, and offered to purchase him ; 
to which Brisson, who expected soon to reach 
either Senegal or Marocco, gave a firm refusal. 
After another journey of sixteen days, they ar- 
rived at the tents of the Labdesseba horde, to 
which Sidi Mahomet belonged. The tents, pitch- 
ed among thick bushy trees, and the numerous 
flocks feeding along the sides of the hills, present- 
ed at a distance an aspect of happiness and pas- 
toral simplicity. On approaching near, the trees 
of beautiful green foliage proved to be only old 
gummy stumps, almost void of branches, so en- 
circled with thorns that their shade was inacces- 
sible. The women approached with loud cries 
and the most fawning servility, to welcome their 
