In the afternoon, after travelling about four miles, we reached the town of Rén. This was formerly a considerable place, but it is now almost deserted, and the wall has fallen to ruins; the aspect of the place, however, is very picturesque,—beautiful and wide-spreading fig-trees shading the ruins of high, well-built clay houses. My quarters were better than I had expected,—an excellently-built hut, provided with all the comfort which such a building is capable of affording; but the comfortable repose which the neat appearance of my hut promised me was greatly disturbed by swarms of mosquitoes, that owe their existence to a large swamp at the northern side of the wall. The town of Rén was formerly the centre of a petty kingdom, but it is at present reduced to utter ruin. Its inhabitants have a peculiar dialect of their own. But although the governor was very eloquent in his description of the misery to which his people were at present reduced, yet he treated me very hospitably. [Sidenote: March 10th.] Leaving the swamp abovementioned on one side, we pursued our march through a fertile and well-inhabited district full of open hamlets, while the corn-fields were enlivened with numbers of kórna-trees, at present laden with fruit. I was pleased to see that the inhabitants of this district follow the same custom as the Músgu people, storing their provision of herbage for the dry season on the branches of the trees. All the inhabitants are Arabs, and belong to the tribe called Welád Megébel, whose chief is called Ísa Áshe; the name of the district is Ránganá. At a considerable distance towards the south there is a walled town called Déma, belonging to the sheikh Abba. The Arabs are either cattle-breeders or corn-growers; but further on we saw some cotton under cultivation, after which we again entered upon fírki ground, where my companion called my attention to a new variety of grass called “útutú,” the seeds of which, besides the kréb above-mentioned, constitute a great part of the food of the poorer people of this district.