“We therefore will expect your determination, that is to say your coming, after the departure of the salt-caravan of the Itísan, fixed among you for the fifteenth of the month. God! God is merciful and answereth prayer! Come therefore to us; and we will tuck up our sleeves[161], and drive away the marauders, and fight valiantly against them as God (be He glorified!) hath commanded. “Lo, corruption hath multiplied on the face of the earth. May the Lord not question us on account of the poor and needy, orphans and widows, according to His word:—‘You are all herdsmen, and ye shall all be questioned respecting your herds, whether ye have indeed taken good care of them or dried them up.’ “Delay not, therefore, but hasten to our residence where we are all assembled; for ‘zeal in the cause of religion is the duty of all;’ or send thy messenger to us quickly with a positive answer; send thy messenger as soon as possible. Farewell!” The whole population was in alarm; and everybody who was able to bear arms prepared for the expedition. About sunset the “égehen” left the town, numbering about four hundred men, partly on camels, partly on horseback, besides the people on foot. Bóro as well as Áshu accompanied the sultan, who this time was himself mounted on a camel. They went to take their encampment near that of Astáfidet, in Tagúrast, ʿAbd el Káder pitching a tent of grey colour, and in size like that of a Turkish aghá, in the midst of the Kél-geres, the Kél-ferwán, and the Emgedesíye, while Astáfidet, who had no tent, was surrounded by the Kél-owí. The sultan was kind and attentive enough not to forget me even now; and having heard that I had not yet departed, Hamma not having finished his business in the town, he sent me some wheat, a large botta with butter and vegetables (chiefly melons and cucumbers), and the promise of another sheep.