Our camels had not finished drinking until the sun was full six fathom high, as the Arabs say; and as we were in want of fresh meat, and, indeed, every thing, Mina Tahr proposed that we should go to a well nearer his people—a well, he assured us, which was never yet shown to an Arab. At eleven, therefore, on the 29th of January, we moved on, accompanied by the Tibboos, nine miles nearly south; where, about half a mile west of the road, we came to the well Duggesheinga: here were the marks of immense herds, which had been drinking in the morning. This was a retired spot, undiscoverable from the ordinary route of travellers, from which it was completely hid by rising sand hills. Here the Tibboos left us, promising to return early the day after with sheep, an ox, honey, and fat. This was joyful news to persons who had not tasted fresh animal food for fourteen or fifteen days, with the exception of a little camel’s flesh. We were terribly annoyed the whole of the day by a strong easterly wind, and such volumes of sand, as quite obscured the face of nature. Jan. 30.—The wind and drifting sand were so violent, that we were obliged to keep our tents the whole day; besides this, I was more disordered than I had been since leaving Mourzuk. I found a loose shirt only the most convenient covering, as the sand could be shaken off as soon as it made a lodgment, which, with other articles of dress, could not be done, and the irritation it caused produced a soreness almost intolerable: a little oil or fat from the hand of a negress (all of whom are early taught the art of shampooing to perfection), rubbed well round the neck, loins, and back, is the best cure, and the greatest comfort, in cases of this kind; and although, from my Christian belief, I was deprived of the luxury of possessing half a dozen of these shampooing beauties, yet, by marrying my negro Barca to one of the bashaw’s freed women slaves, as I had done at Sockna, I became, to a certain degree, also the master of Zerega, whose education in the castle had been of a superior kind; and she was of the greatest use to me on these occasions of fatigue or sickness. It is an undoubted fact, and in no case probably better exemplified than in my own, that man naturally longs for attentions and support from female hands, of whatever colour or country, so soon as debility or sickness comes upon him.