A giraffe was caught to-day. I had been of opinion that this timorous animal was not found in the thickly inhabited regions near the equator; but I soon learned from experience that it is not at all rare in the wildernesses which alternate with the densely populated regions of these districts. The elephant, however, is the predominant animal of these quarters; and the large market-place, Fátawel, which I have mentioned on my journey to Ádamáwa, and the Logón town Jéna, or rather Jínna, seem to be of considerable importance for their ivory-trade. In the evening I had the misfortune to be stung by a scorpion, which had got into my bernús. As I had not noticed the animal in the dark, and thinking that it was nothing but one of the formidable black ants, the bite of which is very painful, I neglected the wound at first, so that the poison penetrated to the shoulder, and rendered my right arm useless for two days. [Sidenote: Thursday, December 18th.] Seeing that we were now entirely in the hands of the vizier, my companion and I used to present ourselves at his tent every morning, and to ride for some time near him. I, however, soon found it pleasanter to keep more in the rear of the army, a little in advance of his female slaves; and in the narrow paths in the midst of the forest, where the crowding became very disagreeable, I used to keep behind his led-horses. Of female slaves on horseback and led-horses the vizier had with him the moderate number of eight of each kind, while the sheikh had twelve; but this appeared to me a small number when I afterwards saw the king of Bagírmi returning from the expedition with a string of forty-five mounted female partners. These black damsels were all clothed in white woollen bernúses, with their faces completely veiled, and were closely watched. To-day we had a more complete specimen of that peculiar kind of shallow water which I have mentioned above; and the army, while they were winding around it, on the fresh green meadow-lands, closely hemmed in on their left by a grove of fine trees, presented a highly interesting scene. From thence, passing through a thick covert, we entered the beautiful open district of Wolóje, which comprises several hamlets. Here I was amused at seeing the head man of a village successfully putting to flight, with a large branch of a tree, a troop of pilfering horsemen. A little beyond these hamlets the encampment was chosen, at some little distance from a very extensive “ngáljam.”