The valley is called Nghákeli, and is remarkable as well on account of its picturesque appearance as because it indicates the approach to a more favoured region. Besides being richly overgrown with luxuriant herbage of different species, as sebót, bú rékkebah, shiʿa, and adorned with fine talha-trees, it exhibited the first specimens of the _Balanites Ægyptiaca_ (or “hajilíj,” as it is called by the Arabs, “áddwa” by the Háusa people), the rope-like roots of which, loosened by the torrent which at times sweeps along the valley, grew to an immense length over the ground. I walked up the valley to a distance of two miles. Compared with the arid country we had been travelling over latterly, it made upon me just the same impression which the finest spots of Italy would produce on a traveller visiting them from the north of Europe. The Kél-owí had chosen the most shady talha-tree for a few hours’ repose; and I sat down a moment in their company. They gave me a treat of their palatable fura, or ghussub-water, the favourite (and in a great many cases the only) dish of the Absenáwa. In the evening Mr. Richardson bought from some sportsmen a quantity of the meat of the wadán, or (as the Tawárek call it) aúdád (_Ovis tragelaphos_), an animal very common in the mountainous districts of the desert, and very often found in company with the wild ox. As for myself, I kept my tent, filling up from my memorandum-book my last day’s journal, and then, full of the expectation that we were now about to enter more pleasant regions, lay down on my hard couch. [Footnote 84: This word “éneli” occurs in the Travels of Ebn Batúta.] [Footnote 85: See above, p. 229.] [Footnote 86: The appellative Sídi appears to be an honourable distinction among the Hogár; and the messenger who brought us this news generally called the chieftain of whom he spoke only by this name, Sídi. This is also the name by which Sultan Shafo’s father is generally called. The whole tribe of the Urághen seems even to have the surname Síd-azkár. To what extent this name Sídi is abused in Timbúktu, I shall have occasion to observe in the further course of my travels.] [Footnote 87: In Mr. Richardson’s Journal, vol. i. p. 194., this place has been confounded with Janet, the name having been probably written in the MS. “Tanet,” a form used also by Mr. Overweg, and which seems to be verified.] CHAP. XII. DANGEROUS APPROACH TO ASBEN. [Sidenote: Friday, August 9th.]