Keeping along the narrow slip of level shore, which gradually became more and more compressed, from which circumstance the locality is called Tin-shéran, we found ourselves, after a march of about a mile, opposite an encampment of the Gá-béro, spreading out on a flat sandy beach, which at present formed the border of a very extensive grassy plain, but which, when the river rises to a greater height, forms a sort of sandbank, till it is overwhelmed, in its turn, by the rising waters of the Niger. These being the people who had invited us to come and pay them a visit, we chose our camping-ground on the high sandhills forming the offshoots of the rocky slope, which here rose to the height of 200 or 300 feet. It was a beautiful open place, and the Gá-béro[40], as soon as they observed us, began to beat their drum, or tobl, and prepared to cross over to us. To accomplish this, however, it was first necessary for them to borrow some boats, as they themselves did not possess any, from fear of the Tawárek, who might easily cross over to them, and annoy them. Having sent three oxen swimming across the river as a first token of hospitality, they began to raise a very neat matting-dwelling for the Sheikh; but my noble friend, with great courtesy, gave it up to me, and ordered another for himself. These people exhibited great superiority both in carriage and intelligence over the Songhay inhabitants, although their dress is not very different from that of the Fúlbe, being only a little fuller and less shabby. A few, such as their chief, Hanna, and his people, wear black tobes, with pockets of red cloth, like the Tawárek. Their wives dress like the Songhay women, wrapping a woollen shawl round the lower part of the body, below the breast, and fastening it over the shoulder. They derive their descent partly from Fúta, and partly from the tribe of the Úrube settled in Másina. Some sherífs are also stated to have intermarried with them: and it was with considerable interest that I beheld among them several individuals with real Púllo features. They are greatly afraid, not less of the Fúlbe of Hómbori (the place mentioned in my outward journey, which is only four good days’ march distant from here), than of the Kortíta, a division of the Songhay settled further down the river. They were therefore most anxious to possess a double talisman against this twofold danger which threatened them, and received a blessing from me as well as from the Sheikh; for although I told them repeatedly that the blessing of the Sheikh was quite sufficient for them, they insisted upon receiving my own benediction likewise. I now learned that several of them had made my personal acquaintance on a former occasion, having been among the troop of natives who assisted me in crossing the dangerous swamp a few miles from Áribínda.