The tract of Ázawád, although appearing to us a most sterile tract of country, and thus characterized already by Arab travellers from the N., as Ébn Batúta and Leo Africanus, is a sort of paradise to the wandering Moorish Arab born in these climes. For in the more favoured localities of this district he finds plenty of food for his camels, and even for a few heads of cattle, while the transport of the salt of Taödénni to Árawán and Timbúktu affords him the means of obtaining corn, and anything else he may be in want of. There are four small towns or villages in Ázawád, the most considerable of which is Árawán, a town small in extent, such as described by Caillié[60], the number of its inhabitants scarcely exceeding 1500, but a very important place for this part of the world, and where a great deal of business is transacted, principally in gold, as I have described on a former occasion (p. 22 et seq.). On account of this trade, several Ghadámsíye merchants are established here. It is a fact which was unknown before, but which is indisputable, that the original inhabitants of this place, as well as of the whole of Ázawád, belong to the Songhay nation, the Songhay-kiní, even at the present day, being the favoured idiom of which all the inhabitants, including the Arab residents, make use. The present chief or headman of the town is Sídi Mohammed, a younger son of the notorious chief El Habíb Weled Sídi Áhmed Agáde, who died the year previous to my arrival in Timbúktu. The younger son gained the precedence over his elder brother Óba, who has performed a pilgrimage to Mekka, solely on account of his mother being the sister of Hámed Weled ʿAbéda Weled Rehál, the chief of the Bérabísh, and the murderer of Major Laing. The family of El Habíb belongs to the Ígelád, forming at present a small section of the large group of the Áwelímmiden. They are now only distinguished by their learning, but formerly they were very powerful, and, together with the Imedídderen, were the most ancient inhabitants of the locality of Timbúktu. The inhabitants of Árawán pay an annual tribute of sixty mithkál of gold to the Hogár, in order not to be molested by their continual predatory incursions.