Fortunately there had been no rain the afternoon of the preceding day, so that the country had dried up a little from the inundation of the last of July, and the weather was fine and genial. Thus cheerfully proceeding on our road, we met several people on their way to the town with fowls and milk; for during our stay in Tínge the communication with the neighbouring places had been entirely interrupted by the heavy rains. Ábu-Bakr escorted me to some distance, when he left me with a hearty wish for the success of my undertaking, and begged me urgently to be on my guard. In taking here quite a northerly direction, we now entered a province where the population of the Fúlbe entirely prevails, and this day we had passed several encampments of Fúlbe cattle-breeders on our route, consisting of oblong oval-shaped huts, constructed of matting. Cattle seemed to abound; but the cultivation of the ground was rather scanty, and the character of the country uniform, and without any interesting features, the trees consisting almost exclusively of talha and homéd. We had also to cross a river, at present about 200 yards wide and two feet deep, which the preceding day had evidently been impassable and had carried away several head of cattle, a fact we learned from a Púllo neatherd whom we passed on our road, as he was cheerfully stalking before his cattle, and leading them along merely by the sound of his voice. Thus, after a march of about thirteen miles, having crossed a swamp and left a larger sheet of water on our left, we reached a miserable hamlet called Déshi, belonging still to the district of Kséne (which comprises Fíliyo), and consisting of several groups of half-decayed clay dwellings inhabited by poor Songhay people, who appeared to be greatly oppressed. It was with some difficulty that we here obtained quarters; and we had the misfortune of falling into a dispute with the landlord, on account of the many dogs which beset his house, and would not cede their place to us. This was a certain proof that the natives were not far advanced in Islám, as the Mohammedans in general are averse to the company of this unclean animal, and the Fúlbe very rarely make use of dogs even for watching their numerous herds of cattle. Most of these dogs were of black colour, and almost all the fowls were of black and white colour. I here also observed that the native women carried the water in a pair of buckets slung across the shoulder, as I had remarked already in other Songhay places; but here, also, they did not wear nose-rings. The country around was well cultivated, and produced especially sorghum; but the harvest of the preceding year had not been a favourable one, as was the case almost all over the country, so that dearth was prevailing.