The news of the return of the army had so frightened the people here, that I could not find either a sheep or goat, and was obliged to kill a beautiful Majiggri (which I had brought from Tegerry, and intended taking to England) to make soup for poor Belford.—My hostess informed me that she had lost three children in three successive years by the sting of scorpions. Each child was, at the time it died, two years of age: all were boys, and all had received the sting in the room in which we were. The fondness of these people for show is quite as great as at Tripoli. This afternoon a Marāboot, brother to my friend El Hadge el Raschid, and one of the chief men here, came in from the Ghrazzie, which he had left at El Bakkhi. He arrived in the gardens early, but could not enter the town until some gaudy clothes, and a fine horse, had been sent out to him, that he might make his entrance as a great personage. In the evening I heard the Tubbel sounded for the first time. This is a large drum, which is generally kept at the house or hut of the Sheikh. When sounded, it is to announce to the natives that news, or some order from the Sultan has arrived, which is loudly proclaimed by the Sheikh, or people who may be ordered to do so. Those who are at a distance come and listen to the proclamation, and carry it to their neighbours. This evening it was an order to every family to supply a certain quantity of food on the morrow for the Ghrazzie “of our Lord the Sultan,” and a proportionate allowance of straw and dates for the horses; we took the hint, and secured three days’ fodder for ours. I was informed that all the towns south of Morzouk have these drums, but I had never seen one; the poor people consider this kind of sound as not very agreeable, for they never hear the music without paying the piper. In the course of our journey Besheer often mentioned his having been at the Bahr el Ghazal; and his account agrees with almost every one I have heard. He says that there must once have been a great sea there, as he himself has picked up handsome shells, (according to the Arabs, Beit el Khoot, بيت الخوت, or fishes’ houses,) imbedded in the earth, and as large as his double fist; also backbones of fish the size of his arm, (no small one,) which were petrified; and he added, that if the pieces were joined together, it would appear that the fish, when alive, must have been ten or twelve feet in length. The Kaid dressed and dried, with the hair on, the skin of the sheep I had killed, by stretching it on the ground, and rubbing it with Gurd pods pounded, and afterwards with salt; he allowed it one day to dry, and then softened it by rubbing it with butter, the hair remaining perfectly firm.