The waters rose above the general surface of the wady full two feet and a-half. Had this deluge come during the night we should scarcely have saved ourselves; or, at any rate, the greater part of our property and our camels must have perished. The power of such a body of water rushing along is tremendous. A great number of houses of Tintaghoda were carried away, and the inhabitants declared that they never remembered such an occurrence to have happened before. I can well believe them, otherwise the site of the town would have been changed for higher ground. Trees numberless were uprooted, and brought down by the mighty current, which must have considerably altered the appearance of the valley. We could already see that the earth was ploughed up in all directions; and when the inundation was at its height, serious fears were entertained lest the island on which we stood should itself be swept from under our feet. When the waters had subsided a little the nephew of En-Noor came to us from the town, to see our situation. He then went to meet the Maharees which had arrived from his uncle, and soon sent to tell us that all was right, that this party came purposely to afford us protection, and that it included the sons of En-Noor, their nephews, and a son-in-law, besides many household servants; in all, thirty-one men mounted, and the rest on foot. In the evening we moved out of the valley, and encamped on the high ground. The rain continued to incommode us. The things of the Germans were all wet--I managed to keep mine dry; but our sense of security now kept up our spirits. Towards the evening the whole male population came out of the town to see the ravages of water, and learn how we fared. There might be fifty persons, men and boys. These marabouts pretend that when they first saw the escort of En-Noor, they thought it was an enemy come to attack us whilst isolated by the floods of rain. They said there were some hundred bandits and other lawless men collected behind the rocks, waiting for us, but on seeing the escort of En-Noor they had retired by small numbers. Certainly there may have been some twenty or thirty such people, and, undoubtedly, the escort of En-Noor produced a salutary effect upon these brigands, as well as upon the holy maraboutee population who drove away our camels.