I gave to the Kaid a handkerchief, as well as some snuff and tobacco. In
return, he sent a little bread and a fly-flapper; so that we parted good
friends. During our stay, we heard this jolly fellow entertaining the
chaouches and his own horsemen with a description of the ladies of the
Wady, who had no reason to be flattered by his account. And yet he seems
to have married one himself: _hinc illae lachrymae_, perhaps. My chaouch
had already given me a confirmation of these libels, and was evidently
greatly delighted by this testimony to his exactitude.
There are several roads from the Wady to Mourzuk, all much about the
same distance. It is said, also, that Ghat is only ten days from
Laghareefah. We moved on a little further on the evening of the 4th, but
did not start properly until next day, when we made a long stretch of
more than thirteen hours, and encamped at the village of Agar, where I
remembered having halted once before on my way from Ghat. During this
day's march we found, that what we had supposed to be the border of the
Mourzuk plateau was not in reality so. We soon reached the summit of the
cliffs, and having cast back a glance upon the valley, with its expanse
of corn-fields and thousands of palm-trees, expected to find an elevated
plateau beyond; but the hills gradually softened down into a plain on
their eastern side. Our route may be said to have led through a
wilderness, not a desert.
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