There was, also, no lack of intercourse. Sometimes it was some fishermen of the Songhay who solicited my hospitality in the evening; at others, it was a troop of Tawárek horsemen, who came to see the Christian stranger of whom they had heard so much. The most remarkable among them were the horsemen of the Kél-tabórit, and the Kél-támuláit[27], with whom I had a long conversation, in the course of which I endeavoured to make them understand that the whole of this extensive region, of which they knew only a small part, was “nothing but a large island, or gúngu” (“gúngu ghás”), in the great salt sea, just as the island of Rábara, opposite to us, was with regard to the Niger, or the Eghírrëu, the only name by which this river is known to all the Berber tribes. They thus became aware that the dominion of the sea was of some importance, as it gave access to all these countries, whereas before they had only looked with a sort of contempt upon people living only, as they thought, in vessels on the sea; and they were not a little surprised when I told them that we were able to come up this river from the sea. They likewise had heard, and some of them perhaps had even seen, something of that adventurous Christian who, fifty years ago, had navigated this river, and who, even after this lapse of time, remains a mysterious and insoluble enigma to them, as to the place from whence he so suddenly appeared, and whither he was going. The influence of conversation is great among these simple dwellers of the desert, and the more we talked the more friendly became the behaviour of my visitors, till at last they asked me why I did not marry one of their daughters and settle among them. On the other side of the river there were encampments of the Imedíddiren and Terféntik, and some of the latter paid our hosts a rather abrupt visit, taking away from them a head of cattle, so that the Sheikh’s nephew, Mohammed ben Khottár, was obliged to cross the river in order to obtain damages from them. The Kél-n-nokúnder, who in former times had been greatly ill-used by the free Imóshagh, have been imbued by their protectors the Kunta with such a feeling of independence, that they are now not inclined to bear even the slightest injustice, and they had certainly some right to demand that, at the very moment while they were treating so large a party belonging to their protector, they should not themselves suffer any violence. However, I heard to my great surprise, that they likewise pay zekʿa to the Fúlbe, or Fullán. My friend, who had some trouble in persuading the freebooters from beyond the river to restore the property, represented them to me as fine tall men, kinsfolk of the Tarabanása, but very poor. It is really surprising that a family of peaceable men should exercise such an influence over these wild hordes, who are continually waging war against each other, merely from their supposed sanctity and their purity of manners.