In the gardens are found two kinds of rats, which, from the description given of them, must be curious. I despatched a man to catch me some, promising him a dollar if he brought four. One sort is black, and burrows in the ground; the other yellow, with a white belly and red eyes, and lives principally amongst the boughs of the palm trees. Tuesday, Feb. 29th.—A man arrived from my friend, the Shreef Sādig, bringing two letters, one from himself, and the other from his brother the Shreef Abd el Ateef. These letters contained many kind wishes that I might succeed in all my undertakings, and return to their country; and concluded by saying, that prayers had been offered up in their Mosque for my safety. Four ostrich eggs, and two skins of peculiarly fine dates, accompanied these kind epistles. Never was I so much out of patience with any people as with the natives of this place; night and day my door was surrounded, not by the poor alone, but by high and low. I really envied poor Belford his deafness, for had I too lost my hearing, I might have enjoyed a little peace. If any of these people obtained admittance, they sat down, and could not be induced to move for an hour or two, all the time flattering and begging. Ill as I was, these tormentors never allowed me to close my eyes. Belford, besides being deaf, understood but little Arabic, and could not assist me in keeping them off; consequently I was continually obliged to answer questions, to admit some, and to turn out others, and was thereby thrown into a fever far more severe than that which at first attacked me. The flies literally covered the walls, and fell by spoonfuls into all we eat or drank; in fact, so many evils overwhelmed me at once, that I have ample reason to recollect Sockna, and the miseries I endured there are too strongly imprinted on my mind to be ever forgotten. I managed, in spite of my weakness, the foregoing night, to go out with a man to see his wife, who was afflicted with sore gums. She was handsome, with large black eyes, and a complexion almost as fair even as that of an Englishwoman. I prescribed as well as I could, by advising her to bleed, and then to wash her gums with bark, which I gave her, and which, I afterwards heard, completely cured her. My fee was honey from Soudan, meat, and what was of far more value than all, about a gill of sweet milk. We heard this day of the arrival of our friend Bouksaysa at Hoon, his native place, with a large Kafflé.