e main article of food in Congo, used as flour.

[13] In Egypt it is made of rice.--ED.

I trust, under the auspices of a good Providence, to arrive strong in
Soudan. There our greatest enemy is fever! I walked a little to-day, and
found myself better for the exercise; but, as a rule, I avoid exposing
myself to fatigue.

CHAPTER IX.

Enter the Hamadah--Home of the Giraffe--Water of
Chidugulah--Turtles--Cool Wind--Jerboahs--Centre of the
Sahara--New-year's Eve--Cold Weather--Birds of Prey--Soudan
Date--Burs--Animals on the Plateau--Young Ostrich--The
Tholukh-tree--Severe Cold--Eleven Ostriches--Termination of the
Desert--Inasamet--The Tagama--Purchases--People begin to
improve--Fruit of the Lote-tree--Village roofed with Skins--Vast
Plain--Horses--Approach Damerghou--Village of Gumrek--Rough
Customers--Wars of the Kilgris and Kailouees--A small
Lake--Guinea-hens--Vultures--Party of Huntsmen.

_Dec. 29th._--About five hours after we started, the route opened into a
_bona fide_ hamadah. All around us stretched a limitless plain. Our
course lay always south, and we journeyed ten hours, with sand in the
evening.

Yesterday I had observed a few footmarks of the giraffe, but to-day they
were everywhere visible. They were double, as this animal does not move
its feet one after another, like the camel or the horse, but two of its
feet together, or simultaneously. We saw the footprints of young as well
as old ones. This plateau is the real home of the giraffe. No place
could be better adapted for such an unwieldy creature. There is
abundance of small tholukh, on which it feeds; all the country is open
around to it, and it is out of the reach of ferocious animals. Towards
the evening the marks of the giraffe disappeared, and were succeeded by
the footprints of what is here called the wild ox (but which Overweg
believes to be a large species of gazelle), so that one animal appears
to have made room for the other. The day was cool and cloudy.

The plain is intersected with shallow beds and streams, and in some
places evident marks of an abundance of water in the rainy season.

_30th._--We started early for the well, but did not reach it till late
in the evening, after a march of nine hours. The well is called
Chidugulah, and is situated on the side of a valley of some depth. In
the bed of this valley Overweg found some infusoria, clay or stone.

Many people started in the night to get water, and give their animal