On the morning of the _18th March_, about twenty skins were filled, but the Ababde were not yet satisfied, and the merchants, rather than protract their stay, and see their store of water diminished by the hourly waste, preferred ceding some of their skins to the guides, upon the condition of departing immediately. After much patience and labour, I had succeeded in filling two large skins, and having still some water left, I should thus have been at least as well provided as any other individual in the caravan but I was not to be so fortunate. Having taken one of the skins upon my shoulder to the camp, I had left the other near the well, with the intention of coming back with the ass to take it away. When I returned, I found it empty. My Daraou friends had poured its contents into one of their own skins; and although they excused themselves by saying it was done by mistake, I could not by any means prevail upon them to refill it; indeed the water, now left in the well was rendered so muddy by the blueish clay which covers the bottom, that it was quite unserviceable. It was in vain that I offered two dollars for a full skin. My companions only laughed at me, saying that the price was indeed enormous, but that no one would part with his provision of water, and that they had never been in the habit of doing so. I was thus obliged to retreat from the well with the melancholy reflection that my stock of water was at the utmost sufficient for myself and ass for two days. It may here be remarked that it is of little use in travelling through deserts, to have a very large stock of water; for if the other travellers are in want of water they will take it by force; the rule being that water and bread are common to all, that is to say, that the stronger takes it from the weaker. The eastern Arabs allow the poor traveller to partake of their stock of water even when it is scarce, but the Africans are not so liberal, and all that an individual can do among them, is to lay in such a stock of water as will last as long as that of the great merchants; for he will find no supply from others, while he must give up all he can spare, and sometimes, even his whole stock, to meet the necessities of his more powerful companions. I searched about the well for some traces of ancient works, in the supposition that the place was as well known and frequented in the time when the trade of Meroe flourished as it is at present. But I could find nothing, although the situation is well suited to the construction of a fortress. The road leading up to the cavern which contains the well is almost blocked up by large masses of stones. And near it is another source, which has lately been entirely choaked up by the falling down of a projection of the mountain.