Being obliged to remain here without the certain prospect of doing anything worth while, we at least thought we had some right to the hospitality of our hosts; and we expressed our desire to obtain a little more milk, as we ourselves possessed neither cows nor she-camels. Our request was complied with. Thus we accustomed ourselves entirely to camel’s milk, and found it by degrees more palatable and wholesome than the milk of cows. I attribute the recovery of my strength principally to this sort of diet. There was always some milk brought into the encampment by the daughters of the Bení Hassan; but this was generally milk in an unpleasant intermediate state between sweet and sour, and the vessels (the kórió, made of the leaves of the palm-tree) in which it was carried had usually a bad smell, which they communicated to the milk. As the renegade Jew ʿAbd-Allah (el Musulmáni) was the medium through which all our business with the chief was transacted, I made him to-day a present of a red sash, and continued to keep him in good humour by occasional small presents. This man was a curious specimen of a Jewish adventurer. He was by birth a Tripolitan, but had been obliged to leave his native home on account of a murder which he had committed. He then betook himself to the tribe of the Welád Slimán, exchanging his Jewish creed for that of Mohammed, and obtained protection. When he had gained a good deal of property as a silversmith, his new companions stripped him of his treasures: he then for a time separated from them, and in company with two other renegade Jews, Músa and Ibrahím, made a journey to Negroland—a memorable event, as they were the first of their nation who trod this road. On his receiving news of the prosperity of the Welád Slimán in Kánem, he once more joined them, and became a freebooter. He was a very good horseman; but that was all, his horsemanship but badly supplying his want of courage. However he was useful to us in many respects, although we had to take care that the people did not confound us with these Jewish adventurers. I began this day my little vocabulary of the Tébu language, or rather the “módi Tedá,” and provisionally that dialect of this language which is spoken by the inhabitants of Búrgu, and which varies considerably from the language as it is spoken by the inhabitants of Bílma and in the South of Fezzán. Already at that early period I became aware that this language is nearly related to the Kanúri, while it has scarcely any link whatever which externally connects it with the Berber language. [Sidenote: Wednesday, October 8th.]