None of the Gunda Tibboos were above the middle size, well made, with sharp, intelligent, copper-coloured faces, large prominent eyes, flat noses, large mouth, and teeth regular, but stained a deep red, from the immoderate use of tobacco; the forehead is high, and the turban, which is a deep indigo colour, is worn high on the head, and brought under the chin, and across the face, so as to cover all the lower part, from the nose downwards; they have sometimes fifteen or twenty charms, in red, green, or black leather cases, attached to the folds of their turbans.

The majority of them have scars on different parts of their faces; these generally denote their rank, and are considered as an ornament.  Their sheik had one under each eye, with one more on each side of his forehead, in shape resembling a half-moon.  Like the Arabs of the north, their chieftainship is hereditary, provided the heir be worthy, any act of cowardice disqualifies, and the command devolves upon the next successor.  Their guide a sheik, Mina Tahr ben Soogo Lammo, was the seventh in regular succession.  This tribe is called Nafra Sunda, and are always near Beere-Kashifery.

The watch of Major Denham pleased him wonderfully at first but after a little time, it was found that looking at himself in the bright part of the inside of the case, gave him the greatest satisfaction; they are vainer than the vainest.  Mina Tahr was now habited in the finest clothes that had ever been brought to Beere-Kashifery, and what to him could be so agreeable as contemplating the reflection of his own person so decked out?  Major Denham, therefore, could not help giving him a small looking-glass, and he took his station in one corner of the major’s tent, for hours, surveying himself with a satisfaction that burst from his lips in frequent exclamations of joy, and which he also occasionally testified by sundry high jumps and springs into the air.

After regaining the road, they moved till noon, when their horses were watered at a well called Kanimani, or the sheep’s well, where some really sweet milk was brought to them, in immensely large basket bottles, some holding two gallons and more.  They had drank and acknowledged its goodness, and how grateful it was to their weak stomachs, before they found out that it was camel’s milk.

No traveller in Africa should imagine that this he could not bear, or that could not be endured.  It is most wonderful how a man’s taste conforms itself to his necessities.  Six months ago camel’s milk would have acted upon them as an emetic, now they thought it a most refreshing and grateful cordial.

The face of the country now improved in appearance every mile, and on this day they passed along, what seemed to them a most joyous valley, smiling in flowery grasses, tulloh trees, and kossom.  About mid-day, they halted in a luxurious shade, the ground covered with creeping vines of the colycinth, in full blossom, which, with the red flower of the kossom, that drooped over their heads, made their resting place a little Arcadia.