I am now told that I made a great mistake about the wording of the
circular letter of Mustapha Bey. This letter begins by thanking the
Tuaricks of Aheer for exterminating the Walad Suleiman! It then hints
broadly at the necessity for the Turks in Mourzuk and the Tuaricks of
Aheer being friends; and to maintain this friendship one important
condition is required--that they, the Tuaricks of Aheer, shall protect
all the merchants or other travellers passing through their country, and
coming from Mourzuk. In the event of their committing a bad action, the
Bey says he may be compelled to make reprisals; so it is quite clear the
letter is written entirely on our account, and perhaps is a preliminary
measure to making reprisals. _Nous verrons._ This letter is only
addressed to the people of Aheer.

If water be the sustaining and even the generative force of vegetation
in the desert, it is also the destruction of trees and herbage; for
along the line of the current of the wady are seen immense numbers of
dead and overthrown trees, torn from their roots by the force of the
water in the rainy season. En-Noor paid me a visit this afternoon, and
took a nap in my tent.

_13th._--We rose early, but did not start till about nine o'clock. This
was the coldest day we have yet experienced: the heavens were overcast
with clouds. We came five hours; our course irregular, but always
south-east; the track through wadys filled with the usual trees of the
tholukh species. Yesterday were seen numbers of large butterflies, but
to-day, on account of the cold, few. Flies innumerable follow the
caravan. The rocks were, as yesterday, many conic-formed, and others
rounded or appearing in ranges, like huge haycocks: granite, sandstone,
and trachite. We have in the distance before us, a peculiarly shaped
rock of considerable height, called _Mari_, in the midst of a range. We
are encamped in the bed of an immense broad valley, and camels are
feeding about in considerable numbers. The salt-caravan is very near. We
are not yet in the regular caravan route, _via_ Asoudee, but expect to
reach it after to-morrow. En-Noor has with him as a guest the principal
man of Aghadez, before mentioned. This man was once a slave, but by his
address has risen thus high, as the slaves frequently do in Turkey: so
widely do similar manners prevail. Many slaves in Soudan rise to the
highest consequence.

The _shonshona_ (or practice of scarifying the face or neck) prevai