In the afternoon, I went into the town, to pay my respects to the chief whose name is Mai-Bákr. The place, which seems to have attracted the notice of Arab geographers from an early date, consists of about 120 cottages, built with rough stones, and scattered about on the slope, besides a few yards erected with palm branches. The cottages are very low, and covered in with the stems and leaves of the palm tree. A solitary conical hut, like those of Sudan, was likewise to be seen. One of the stone houses exhibited a greater degree of industry by its whitewashing, but the residence of the chief was not distinguished in any way. The latter, who bears the title of Maina, was a man of advanced age and of respectable behaviour. At the time of our entrance he was squatted on fresh white sand in front of his “diggel,” placed in the ante-chamber or segífa. He received my present (which consisted of a black tobe, two túrkedís, and a harám, worth altogether about four Spanish dollars) kindly, and expressed his hope that I might get safely over the tract before me, if I did not lose any time by a longer delay. Meanwhile a Tebu merchant who was present gave me the very doubtful information that the people of Tawát paid to the French an annual tribute of 60,000 dollars. The inhabitants of Áshenúmma and of the neighbouring places, are very differently situated from those of Dírki and Bilma, for the latter on account of their being the medium of communication in the salt trade, are respected by the Tawárek, for whom they prepare that article, and who, in consequence, do not plunder them even when they meet them in the desert. Nay, they even protect them, as I have described in the former part of my journey, so that merchants from Dírki and Bilma were proceeding to Háusa by way of Ásben. The inhabitants of the other places, on the contrary, such as Áshenúmma, are exposed to all sorts of oppression from the former, and even run the risk of being slain by them when met alone. With regard to the Tebu in general, I have already spoken repeatedly about their intimate connection with the Kanúri race, and have enumerated the names of the sections of their tribe, so far as I have become acquainted with them, and I shall say more on the subject of their language in a preface to my vocabularies. It was a remarkable fact, but easily to be explained, that the greatest heat which I experienced in the desert was in this valley, the thermometer at two o’clock in the afternoon rising daily to between 110° and 112°.