On the 9th December, they were to arrive at Tegerhy.  The Arabs commenced skirmishing as soon as they came within sight of it, and kept it up in front of the town for half an hour after their arrival.  They were to halt here for a day or two, for the purpose of taking in the remainder of their dates and provisions, and never was halt more acceptable.  Almost the whole of the party were afflicted with illness; the servants were all so ill, that one of the negro women made them a mess of kouscasou, with some preserved fat, which had been prepared in Mourzouk, it was a sorry meal, for the fat was rancid, and although tired and not very strong, Major Denham could not refuse an invitation about nine at night, after he had laid down to sleep, to eat camels’ heart with Boo Khaloom; it was woefully hard and tough, and the major suffered the next morning from indulging too much at the feast.

The Tibboos and Arabs kept them awake half the night with their singing and dancing, in consequence of the bousafer or feast, on entering the Tibboo country.  Boo Khaloom gave two camels, and the major and his party gave one.  The sick seemed to gain a little strength; they had succeeded in purchasing a sheep, and a little soup seemed to revive them much, but they feared that Hillman and one of the servants must be left behind.  However distressing such an event would have been, it was impossible for men, who could not sit upright on a mule, to commence a journey of fifteen days over a desert, during which travellers are obliged to march from sunrise until dark.

The morning of the 12th December was beautifully mild.  After breakfast, all seemed revived, but it was with great pain that Major Denham observed the exceeding weakness of Dr. Oudney and Hillman; he fancied that he already saw in them, two more victims to the noxious climate of central Africa.

Almost every town in Africa has its charm or wonder, and Tegerhy is not without one.  There is a well just outside the castle gates, the water of which, they were told most gravely, always rose when a kafila was coming near the town; that the inhabitants always prepared what they had to sell, on seeing this water increase in bulk, for it never deceived them.  In proof of this assertion, they pointed out to Major Denham, how much higher the water had been previously to their arrival, than it was at the moment, when they were standing on the brink.  This Major Denham could have explained, by the number of camels that had drunk at it, but he saw it was better policy to believe what every body allowed to be true, even Boo Khaloom exclaimed, “Allah!  God is great, powerful, and wise.  How wonderful!  Oh!” Over the inner gate of the castle, there is a large hole through to the gateway underneath, and they tell a story, of a woman dropping from thence a stone on the head of some leader, who had gained the outer wall, giving him by that means the death of Abimelech in sacred history.