ext caravan. We have heard of our friends
at Aghadez. They are expected here in a few days. The new Sultan of
Aghadez is said--but there is little accuracy in these desert
reports--to have gone on an expedition west, to settle some differences
between some tribes in arms against one another. The people also say
that the new Sultan is "hungry," and is glad of such an opportunity to
get "something to eat." This is the way in which they would describe a
Chancellor of the Exchequer planning a new tax.

Some say the object of the razzia is to chastise the Fadeea for
attacking us; but still the main object is to fill the Sultan's "own
hungry belly." Such are Asbenouee politics.

_Bakin-Zakee_, the Soudanese name of the Kailouee green cap, I know here
means the "_lion's mouth_." This is the phrase with which I always
salute Zangheema, En-Noor's chief slave; but the terms are much more
appropriate for his master, as intimating his avaricious, nay voracious,
disposition. Zangheema, however, might be called "Karen Zakee,"
the jackal of the lion, or "the lion's provider," so anxious is he to
minister to the voracious appetite of his lord.

We have received the news that Dr. Barth is near. He is expected
to-morrow evening, or early next day.

_29th._--En-Noor paid me a visit at sunset to-day, and talked of how
many children people had in this country. His highness said he knew a
sultan in Soudan who had seven hundred children.

_30th._--The Gatronee of the Germans confirms the report of the
circumstance, that, when the Kailouees go to the Tibboos to trade for
salt, all the male Tibboos run away, leaving all the business in the
hands of the females; which latter, besides trading in salt with the
Kailouees, make a good mercantile speculation with their charms. Each
woman, in fact, has her Kailouee husband or lover, during the carrying
on of this singular commerce. If the traders catch a single Tibboo man
staying behind, they at once murder him, with the most marked
approbation of the Tibboo women. Such is the state of connubial fidelity
in this part of the Sahara.

The Tibboos have been very greatly neglected by persons writing on
Africa, chiefly on account of the slighting, summary way in which they
are spoken of by the members of the former English expedition to Bornou.
They are, however, divided into a great number of tribes, are spread
over a considerable extent of country, and are partly the guardians of
the Bornou route.