Political circumstances were not quite so favourable as my host wanted to represent them to me; as, like many other people, he was not very particular, when endeavouring to obtain a good object, about saying things that were not quite true: and the following day, when Férreji paid a visit to the Sheikh, he designated me as a war-chief and a “mehárebi,” or freebooter, who ought not to be allowed to remain any longer in the town. Altogether it was fortunate that El Bakáy had provided for the worst by sending for the Kel-úlli, who arrived in the course of the afternoon, about sixty strong, with great military demonstrations and beating of shields. It was on this occasion that I first made the acquaintance of this warlike tribe, who, notwithstanding their degraded position as Imghád, have made themselves conspicuous by totally annihilating the formerly powerful tribe of the Ígelád and Ímedídderen, who in former times ruled over Timbúktu and were hostile to the Kunta. The Kél-úlli are distinguished among all the tribes of the neighbourhood by three qualities which, to the European, would scarcely seem possible to be united in the same person, but which are not unfrequently found combined in the Arab tribes, viz. “réjela,” or valour; “sírge,” or thievishness; and “dhiyáfa,” or generous hospitality. CHAP. LXXII. GREAT CRISIS. — OBLIGED TO LEAVE THE TOWN. — MILITARY DEMONSTRATION. There was now a fair opportunity offered me of leaving the town in an honourable way, under the protection of the friendly Kél-úlli, who for this very purpose had brought with them from the encampment my four camels; but the Sheikh missed this favourable occasion, by relying too much upon the promised arrival of the great Tawárek chief Alkúttabu. As for our friends the Tademékket, to whom Áhmed Wádáwi, the learned follower of the Sheikh, had been sent as a messenger, they did not come along with him, but sent word that they would follow him as soon as their presence was required; their chief Áwáb having gone to raise tribute from the degraded tribe of the Idélebó.