rzuk, stating that we had
nothing left. His highness pitied our case, and said he would look about
for a courier; observing, "The Consul has need of much money and many
presents in Soudan." He said, also, that he would recommend us to go to
Bornou.

_25th._--The days are now pretty hot, and the nights correspondingly
cool. We have a good deal of wind. I wrote a letter to Drs. Overweg and
Barth jointly, calling upon them to assist me in case the Sfaxee would
not wait for his money until the return of the courier. Dr. Overweg
consents. I wrote out the Tuarick alphabet.

The account of the Tibboos pounding the camels' bones and bleeding their
animals to make paste, is confirmed by the Gatronee of the Germans.[4]
He says, moreover, that this is the way in which they proceed. Every
Tibboo must fast three days before he thinks about eating. If on the
fourth day he do not arrive at the _belad_, or country, he then takes
his left sandal from his foot, and stews or soddens it, making something
of a soup. These sandals being leather, or untanned hide, it is,
perhaps, not impossible to make of them a palatable soup! If on the
fifth day he find no village, he then devours the sandal of his right
foot. After this, still not finding a village, he collects bleached
camels' bones and bleeds his camel as before mentioned.

[4] People are called here by the nation, and even town, to
which they belong, or in which they were born, as sometimes
in Europe.

A Tibboo always has a girdle with seven knots, and when travelling hard
takes in, as the sailors would say, a reef every day; if after seven
days he find nothing to eat, he is considered hungry and unfortunate.
The three Tuaricks who followed us from the well of Aisou declared that
they had had nothing to eat for fifteen days; and there cannot be a
doubt of the fact, that both the Tibboos and the Tuaricks can, on a
pinch, remain without food for a considerable time--say ten or twelve
days.

A Tuatee, who knows Algiers well, arrived here this afternoon, and is
going with us to Zinder. He brings an extraordinary report about the
copy of the treaty which I left with Haj Ahmed at Ghat. He says he heard
it read, and from it learned that "the Queen of England is now in
Tripoli, and wishes to come and live in Ghat, and has offered to buy
half Ghat." Such is the nature of Saharan reports.

More authentic intelligence arrived to-day by a courier, who made the
journey from Gha