Here the meat-eaters, who will not be contented till they catch some disorder, cannot resist the temptation to receive some cattle. As in some parts of Belled Sudàn, copper wire is used for the decoration of spears, I had brought some with me rolled on a stick, and here and there cut off into rings. I exchanged such a ring for a red club, not made of ebony, but of some other heavy wood. The black stuck the ring immediately on his finger, half covering it; and Thibaut had no sooner remarked this wire ring, than he tried to procure it from the black by exchanging any number of beads for it, whilst my servants stood by and laughed not a little. He shewed it afterwards on his own finger, and thought that it was gold, and that we should now gain endless treasures for our beads, because the people, fortunately for us, did not know the value. I did not wish to disturb his innocent wishes, and was silent till the ring changed colour, when it afforded us a subject for laughter. There was but little to purchase from the people, because they, with few exceptions, brought long reed-stalks in their hands, instead of any weapons, as a sign of their friendly intentions, according to the orders of their king, Biur, who had done so at our request. A pretty young woman, with tolerably long hair, stood at a little distance, holding a spear in her hand. At two o’clock we leave the sand-bank; immediately numberless birds settled there, and collected themselves for a banquet on the remains of the slaughtered beasts. We sailed S.S.W., a short tract, and then round the left to S.E.; here we saw, at half-past two o’clock, towards E., a large pastoral city, and people, and dogs,—the latter in unusually large numbers. From the mast:—on the right, to S.W., a lake; likewise one over the village to S.S.E.; and beside this village, five others up to the Haba: on the right shore, neither the one nor the other. The thermometer 29° at three o’clock. The above-named village of herdsmen, whose huts, like flat bee-hives, consist of reeds and straw, is followed by the huts of the women, built with a little more care, and also higher, having a square entrance, and on the top another thick irregular layer of reeds, so as to make the bent stalks of reeds heavier, and to keep off the rain.