Four o’clock.—From E. to W., S.E., S.S.E., and from S. to S.E., all in an hour, in nearly equal sections of time. At five o’clock, a city on the left shore, but the smoke extending near it, does not proceed from herds, but from the kindled reeds. At six o’clock, near sunset, on the left shore lagoons and birds; five men are standing close to them, but do not approach nearer. Towards the south of the village we remark a lake, which receives its water from the river, and is a broad, old river-bed, stretching from W. to E. The lower end is choked up with slime and rises only a little above the present level of the water. We halt, and the eastern horizon is illumined with the visible flames of the reeds. _28th December._—The bustle of departure awoke me before day-break. No mist is to be seen, and even the ram’s skin of the Turkish Gideon, Hüsseïn Aga, stretched out before the cabin, is but slightly wet. He had remained with us the night, in order to help Feïzulla Capitan (who even seeks to stimulate his thirst by eating anchovies in rancid oil) to drink his wretched dram made from dates. Gnats do not appear from without; the old guests from the reeds were soon killed. With a gentle N.E. wind we steer towards S.S.W. Even before sun-rise we see on the left a village of thirty-six tokuls, on the slope of a hill. This has been formed, perhaps, by the hand of man from the first dam thrown up. Judging from the houses still falling to ruin, the clay walls of which remain, it may have ascended to a height of twelve to fifteen feet. The river has full play here in the free level field, yet its power of rooting up, through the falls, is so little, that it is not able, with the want of sand, to pile up Downs. The roofs of the tokuls run, indeed, to a point, but their superficies is cut away into ring-formed layers, so as to form steps. The roofs are elevated to an unusual height. The oval doors look, as usual, towards different directions, for they serve also as windows. One looks straight to the river, another up the river, and the third wants to see what is taking place down below. I have not seen any doors looking towards the country. The high water seems here to have done mischief to the lower huts, as we see by the make-shift ones which have been erected in all haste. Inland, on the left shore, a village shews itself for a moment, through an aperture in the high reeds.