While we were breaking up our encampment and loading our animals, the opposite camp of our friends was enlivened by numerous herds of sheep and goats, and we should have made a very interesting day’s march, as we were now approaching a better-inhabited district, if it had not been for the hospitable treatment of our hosts, who, in order to satisfy their numerous visitors, had probably, the preceding night, mixed together all sorts of milk, so that almost all the people were seriously ill; and the first part of our march presented so distressing a spectacle that most of my companions thought the milk had been poisoned. Thus we passed a remarkable locality on a rising sandy bank behind a considerable creek, which, by its name Tamizgída, evidently indicates the site of a former dwelling-place, and is probably identical with the Tírka (or rather Tírekka) of Arab geographers[29], if that identity does not apply to Ghérgo. Having passed this place, we followed the shallow water, which gradually widened, being intersected by fences and dykes for the purpose of cultivating rice and catching fish. Larger trees became gradually more scanty, indicating our approach to a still existing dwelling-place, as is generally the case in Negroland, the trees being consumed for firewood; but just as we came in sight of this place, which is Ghérgo (pronounced Rérgo), in order to avoid the heat during the midday hours, on an almost unprotected shore, we thought it better to halt in the shade of the last trees. I myself found shelter under the densely woven foliage of a fine group formed by the union of a géza with an aghelál, where I had nothing better to do than to treat all my people with tea and coffee, in order to restore their wasted spirits and strength, as they had suffered greatly from their last night’s diet. Our road from this point to the town led along the border of the swampy lowlands, following a great many windings round the indented shore of the creek. Thus we reached, after a march of a little more than two miles, the bank opposite the village of Ghérgo, and began looking about for some time for a fit place to encamp, for the village itself, situated as it is behind a large backwater, could not be reached. The opposite shore is extremely bleak and unbroken, being destitute even of bush, while only three isolated trees dotted the ground for a great distance, and these were unfortunately too far off from the ford, where we chose our camping-ground, to be of any use to us during our stay.