and marmalade with
me. He drank the tea and ate the other delicacies with evident pleasure,
not being afraid, like the greater part of his subjects, to eat the food
of Christians. Possession of power seems to have one good effect--the
destruction of prejudice; pity that it sometimes goes further and
destroys belief. En-Noor told us that the Sultan of Asoudee had gone out
on a razzia to the west. We are obliged to hope that it will be
successful, as otherwise our affairs will most materially suffer. We
talked also of the state of Zinder, which is represented to be a walled
town, with seven gates built amidst and around some huge rocks. The
governor, Ibrahim, keeps fifty drummers at work every night, but whether
with a purpose superstitious or political I do not know.

En-Noor admired much the portraits of the personages who figure in the
accounts of the former expedition to this part of the world,
particularly that of Clapperton. He had also a wonderful story to tell
of this traveller's magic. He said that Abdallah (Clapperton's
travelling name) had learned from his books the site of his (En-Noor's)
father's house, that near it was a gold mine, and that he had intended
to come and give intelligence of this treasure. "See!" exclaimed the
Sultan, "what wonderful things are written in the books of the
Christians!"

My young fighi (or writer of charms) tells me, as a secret, that he
cannot write a talisman for himself, but must ask another of the
brotherhood to do this for him. Neither in this place can physicians
heal themselves. This civil youth made me a present of a piece of his
workmanship to-day, observing, "There is great profit in its power; it
will preserve you from the cut of the sword and the firing of the gun."
I pray not to have occasion to test its efficacy, but hope it may also
serve as a protection from the bite of scorpions, which are so plentiful
about here, and are said, at this season, to jump like grasshoppers.
According to the people of Tintalous there are three species of them,
each distinguished by a different colour--black, red, and yellow.
Despite the talk of these disgusting reptiles I went in the evening to
see the wells which supply Tintalous with water. They are nothing more
than holes scooped out of the sand in the bed of the wady, and supplied
by _ma-el-matr_, "rain-water," which collects only a few feet under the
sand, and passes through no minerals.

I afterwards proceeded to the encampme