r the camels are laden with rich
burnouses or salt, it is all the same thing.

Camels are very cheap in this country, and the best of all will not
fetch more than 40,000 wadas, or about sixteen Spanish dollars. The
Shereef is to purchase ours, four of them for 120,000 wadas; they cost
about three times the sum in Mourzuk. Horses are not quite so cheap; the
best will fetch 100,000 wadas.[14] The exchange here is the same as in
Kanou; 2500 wadas is the value of the large dollar, or douro ghaleet, as
it is called amongst the Moorish and Arab merchants.

[14] See p. 216.

CHAPTER XII.

Presents from Officials--Mode of treating Camels--Prices--Cowrie
Money--Shereef Interpreter--Visits--Harem--Houses--Grand
Vizier--Picturesque Dances--Tuaricks at Zinder--Kohlans and
Fullans--Province of Zinder--Account of its Rebellions--Trees--Details
on the Slave-trade--Prices--Mode of obtaining Slaves--Abject
Respect of the Sultan--Visits--Interview with the Sarkee--The
Presence--Curious Mode of administering Justice--Barbarous
Punishments--Hyaenas--Gurasu--Fighis--Place of Execution--Tree of
Death--Hyaena Dens--Dancing.

_Jan. 17th._--The Sultan this morning sent me an ox. I made him my
personal friend by giving him the powder and shot, in spite of the
servant of Haj Beshir from Kuka. The Shereef is excessively generous;
whether at his own cost or that of Kuka I do not know. I suppose the
latter, as he had orders from head-quarters to supply us with
everything. He sends rice, honey, fowls, eggs, milk, tomatas, and all
things in abundance. I repeat, for the third time, that the world is
turned upside down, so far as the supply of provisions and hospitality
is concerned. It is true that the Tuaricks are desperately poor, and
their generosity must always be very limited.

Our maharees of the salt-caravan went very well, and ate little on the
road, so that much time was saved in this way. The Tuarick camels are
far better travellers than the Arab, which sometimes are allowed to eat
all day long. The females and the young ones are the most troublesome. I
was much amused to see one of the Kailouee camel-drivers overcome the
obstinacy of a young camel. The fellow actually bit the loose skin which
hung over the muzzle of the rebel, and in this manner dragged it to the
string, and there tied it to the rest. All the male camels are gelded,
whilst many breeding maharees carry no weights, but follow their
burdened kind with their foa