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At Sibeh, which we reached after a very hot ride of twelve or thirteen miles, we found water with scores of camels lying round it, for there were two or three other kafilas, or caravans, beside our own. It was dreadfully cold that night, and we could not get at our bag of blankets.

Beere-Kashifery lay within his territories, and no kafilas pass without paying tribute, which, as he is absolute, sometimes amounts to half what they possess. In the present case, the visit was one of respect. Boo Khaloom received him in his tent, and clothed him in a scarlet bornouse of coarse cloth, and a tawdry silk caftan, which was considered as a superb present.

At one time, I have been told, many kafilas came that way, but the trade was killed by goods being carried in ships to other points, while it is recorded among my people that the curse of Allah fell on the land, and blighted it, and the trees died, and the streams dried up, until it became as you now see it."

No considerable body of men can follow them; their tents are in the heart of the desert, and there are no wells for four days in the line of their retreat. Geddy Ben Agah is their chief, and I alone would give fifty camels for his head: these are the people, who often attack and murder travellers and small kafilas, and the Gundowy, who respect strangers, have the credit of it."

They said they would take us for one rupee a day each camel, but we did not know how many days they would take; they had also said that they would stop where we pleased, or go on all day if we liked, but we had had experience which led us to doubt this. They had now been asked to name their stages; kafilas can go in seven or eight days.

Kisbee is a great place of rendezvous for all kafilas and merchants, and it is here that the sultan always takes his tribute for permission to pass through his country. The sultan himself had neither much majesty nor cleanliness of appearance; he came to Boo Khaloom's tent, accompanied by six or seven Tibboos, some of them really hideous.

On the second day from Womba, the travellers passed through another large and populous town, called Akinjie, where also kafilas pay toll; beyond which, the route lay for two days over a very hilly country, for the most part covered with wood, and but little cultivated, till they approached Guari.

They here broke in upon the retreats of about a hundred gazelles, who were enjoying the fertility of the valley. It was, however, not without great difficulty, from their extreme shyness, that one was shot, which afforded an ample and salutary meal to the distressed travellers. Aghadem is a great rendezvous, and the dread of all small kafilas and travellers.