But the people were not long left to enjoy their festivity, for just while they were glutting themselves a troop of Kél-hekíkan, the tribe who waged the bloody feud with the Gwanín, passed by, throwing the whole encampment into the utmost confusion. When at length it had again settled down, the festivities proceeded, and Mohammed el ʿAísh, with some of his countrymen from Tawát, rode a race up the slope of the downs towards the tents, firing their guns at the same time; but altogether the exhibition was rather shabby, and some of the men were very poor riders, having probably never been on horseback before, as they were natives of the desert where the camel prevails. The inhabitants of Timbúktu, who possess horses, are continually pestered with the request to lend them to strangers; and, with regard to these animals, a sort of communism prevails in the town; but they are of a very poor description, only the Sheikh himself possessing some good horses, brought from the Gibleh, or Western quarter of the desert. The Kél-hekíkan formed also a subject of anxiety to us in the evening, and, after a long and tedious consultation, it was decided to send some people to watch the movements of those freebooters. Having been met with, they declared they should feel satisfied if the Sheikh would consent to deliver up to them the person who had first slain one of their companions, for this had been the beginning of the feud with the Gwanín, although the murderer belonged to the Túrmus, and not to that other tribe which had taken up the quarrel. In consequence of these feudal relations I had an interesting conversation with the Sheikh, and Fandaghúmme, one of the chiefs of the Tademékket who had likewise come to join this festival, about the “fedʿa,” or the price of blood, many of the Tawárek tribes refusing to accept any fedʿa, but peremptorily requiring bloodshed. I have already mentioned these freebooters, the Kél-hekíkan, on a former occasion; and it is remarkable, that this very tribe, which at present is most distinguished by its lawless and sanguinary habits, and which in consequence of the almost uninterrupted state of warfare in which they are engaged, was at the time reduced to about forty full-grown men, exhibits the finest specimens of manly vigour and stately appearance which are to be found in this whole region.