Our servants have nearly procured all the ghaseb which they require for the journey from this to Zinder, viz. one hundred sahs.  This they have purchased with various little wares, principally knives and looking-glasses.  The ghaseb is always mixed with ghafouley, a species of grain about a third the size of a small pea.  Ghafouley is called koula in Soudanese.  The Aheer cheese has appeared for the first time amongst us to-day.  It is made in little squares, three by two inches broad, and a quarter of an inch thick.  It is eaten fresh, but has a poor flavour.  The people prefer pounding it into dust when dry, and drinking it with ghaseb-water, which is white as milk, and very cool.  The paste thus made is very white, and becomes as hard as a stone when dry.  I have also made acquaintance with doua doua, round black balls of a vegetable composition, eaten with various dishes as seasoning.  It is very abundant in Soudan.  There is also a species of ghaseb-paste, called d[=a]bo[)a], not unlike macaroni in very small pieces.  This is very much esteemed.  It swells exceedingly when boiled, like paste.  We begin to get into regions where the preparation of food is greatly changing.  Yesterday my servants purchased me a fowl, and I learned for the first time that this delicacy was to be procured.

I have studied but little since I left Tripoli.  Our affairs have always been worse and worse, and we have had a continual battle to preserve our existence.  Such is the beginning of this expedition:  God only knows what may be its end.  There is left for us but a firm reliance in His goodness and protecting providence.

16th.—­This was a warm, hazy day, and we were troubled with considerable languor.  I have slept but little these three nights, and feel somewhat indisposed for want of rest.  I read a good deal of Clapperton’s “Journey to Sakkatou,” besides beginning a vocabulary of the Kailouee language, with the assistance of Mokhlah Bou Yeldee, who is a very clever young man.  He gets his living by writing charms, and sells a good number for the cure of disease.  People pour water on the ink or writing of the charm, and then drink the magic liquid.  The remedy is doubtless as effectual as many patent medicines in Europe.  As is well known, this superstition of drinking the Koran is of old date.

En-Noor sent a message this morning by the slave of Makersee, that we were not to say a single word to any one, not even to our servants, about the money, or its amount, which we have paid him for our escort to Zinder.  He says, “If the people hear of this money, they will all come down upon me for a portion; and if I do not comply with their wishes they will abandon us, and not go with us to Zinder, and I want as many of them to go with me as possible.”

Our wealth is still noised abroad!  The people believe all our boxes to be full of gold and silver.  Even En-Noor sought for secret information respecting the amount of dollars which he supposed to be concealed amongst our baggage.