66 
the country, the bridegroom came out with his head and 
face quite covered with a linen cloth. Some Arabians 
who accompanied him begged some trifle of my people. 
In return they gave us a great quantity of raisins. I 
was pleased with the innocence and simplicity of their 
manners expressed in their countenances, and even in 
their apparel. 
The passage of the river occupied us for three hours 
and a half, for besides the difficulty of lading and unlad- 
ing the mules, as there was no board for us to pass over 
into the ferry-boat or out of it, the animals resisted, and 
we were obliged to lift them by main force in and out of 
it. The fatigue of my people was increased by a furious 
tempest, in which a heavy rain accompanied by thunder 
wetted us all to the skin. 
We rested at the side of a douar, whose chief made 
me a present of a sheep, a good quantity of barley, and 
some milk. 
At half past eight in the evening, the thermometer in 
open air was at 12° 5.* and the hygrometer at 100°. The 
ground and the air were saturated with water. 
Monday, 31st October, we started again at a quarter 
past seven in the morning, in a south-westerly direction. 
At one in the afternoon we arrived on the right bank of 
the river Ordom, which we followed. We crossed a 
small mountain; and having twice passed the river Or- 
dom, I ordered our tents to be fixed at five in the after- 
noon. 
The country at first presented vast plains, surround- 
ed on all sides with small hills: over these, to the left, the 
tops of mountains were now and then seen to the east, 
and about twenty-two to twenty-five miles distant. I 
moved down the left side of the Sebou for about a quar- 
* 58 Q Fahrenheit. 
9 1 
