[Footnote 123: On this occasion, which was a rather serious one, a most ridiculous misunderstanding was caused by the peculiarity of the Arabic dialect used in Timbúktu, which puzzled me and my companions very often, and sometimes made conversation between me and my friends very difficult and intricate. When the servant said that we should remove all our “haiwán” from our house, supposing that she meant animals, we told her that we had only one animal in our house, viz. my horse; and it was some time before we learned that in Timbúktu, which is inhabited mostly by such Arabs as have been at a former period dwellers in the desert, and whose property consisted almost exclusively of camels and cattle, the word “haiwán” comprises all kinds of movable property.] [Footnote 124: For the whole genealogy of the Sheíkh see Appendix VII.] [Footnote 125: See Major Laing’s Letters in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxviii. 1828, p. 101, _et seq._, and vol. xxxix.] [Footnote 126: There cannot be the least doubt that, in addition to the love of plunder, it was also a certain feeling of revenge for the mischief inflicted upon their countrymen by the heroic Mungo Park which prompted this ferocious act of the Tawárek; and it is very curious to observe the presentiment that Major Laing had, on setting out from Tawát, of what awaited him, as most distinctly embodied in some of his letters, dated Tawát, Jan. 1826, especially in a letter addressed to James Bandinel, Esq., which General Edward Sabine, the great friend of the distinguished traveller, kindly allowed me to inspect.] [Footnote 127: Instead of communicating the itinerary from Timbúktu to the hillet in my collection of itineraries through the western half of the desert, at the end of the following volume, where it would be overlooked by the general reader, I prefer inserting it in this place:— 1½ day, Tenég el hay, or Tenég el háj, a well where all the roads meet. A great many celebrated localities along this part of the road. 1 day, Tin-tahón, about the heat of the day; a locality so called from an eminence, “tahón.” 1 day, Worozíl, a well with a rich supply of water, about the same time. 1 day, Én-eláhi, a whole day. From hence to the small town Bú-Jebéha, passing by the well e’ Twíl, 2 days. 2 days, Erúk; 3 days from Árawán; 1¼ from Bú-Jebéha. Close to Erúk is Mérizík. 1 day, Bel-Mehán, a rich and famous well; a long day, keeping along a valley enclosed between the sandhills, “Égif,” towards the W., and the black mountains of Áderár towards the E. 1 day, Hillet e’ Sheikh.] [Footnote 128: It is highly interesting and satisfactory to observe how Major Laing himself, in the letters published in the Edinburgh Review, speaks of the kind reception given to him, when severely wounded, by the Sheikh and maraboot (Merábet) Mooktar, or rather Sídi Mohammed. See, especially, p. 105.] CHAP. LXVIII.