Next morning we directed our course to Tigger-urtín, making almost a right angle towards the north, and crossing a desolate plain incrusted with salt, after we had left the fine plantation of Óm el hammám. Having reached the village of our camel-drivers, which consists entirely of huts of palm-branches, we looked long in vain for a tolerable camping-ground, as the strong wind filled the whole air with sand. At length we pitched our tents a few paces south from the well. It was an extremely sultry and oppressive day, and the wind anything but refreshing. In the afternoon we went to pay our compliments to Mohammed Bóro, who had left Múrzuk several days before us. He informed us that he had consumed all his provisions, and that he would have left to-day for Tasáwa, in order to replenish his stores, if he had not seen us coming. We consoled him with the intimation that we hoped our whole party would be soon ready for starting, and sent him a quantity of dates and corn. The next day I went roving through the valley, which a little further to the north-west was much prettier, and had several fine clusters of palm-trees; but the most picturesque object was the old village, built of clay, now entirely in decay, but surrounded by a dense group of fine date-trees. Subjoined is a sketch of it. At the south-west end of the grove also is a little village, likewise deserted. Here I met a Felláta or Pullo slave, a full-grown man, who, when a young lad, had been carried away from his native home, somewhere about Kazaure, and since then had been moiling and toiling here in this half-deserted valley, which had become his second home. He told me that fever had driven away the old inhabitants of the village long ago, after which the Tinýlkum seem to have taken entire possession of it, though it is remarkable that its name seems rather to belong to the Berber language, its original form being Tigger-odén (ŏdē means the valley), which has been changed into the more general form Tigger-urtín. The whole valley, which makes a turn towards the south-west, is full of ethel-bush, and affords shelter to a number of doves. Groups of palm-trees are scattered about. [Illustration]