When the horsemen had alighted and set themselves in a circle on the ground, we were ordered to approach, and the same series of questions by which we had already been so often tormented was put to us, and written down in the same way, and our answers written down in the same way, and compared with the former ones. After this we passed the night tranquilly, and next day began to march, accompanied by the Kamkolak Nasser. We advanced three days until we reached Abaly, a place where all strangers arriving in Wadaï are placed, as it were, for three days in quarantine, although there is no reason for doing so, in the fear of pestilence. We resigned ourselves to our fate, and prepared to pass our time as best we might; but shortly after sunset my uncle Zarouk, who had heard of my arrival, came and told me that my father had departed for Tunis, no longer expecting me to be able to escape from Darfur. My uncle had asked permission of the Sultan to withdraw me immediately from Abaly; and I accordingly loaded my camels, and went with him to a house that belonged to my father, and was situated at no great distance. A good night’s rest soon made me forget my fatigue. Next morning I remarked the red colour of the walls of the house, and remembered the sand-diviner, Ishak of Darfur, and his marvellous predictions. Zarouk prepared in my honour a repast of welcome, and invited guests, and the Sultan himself sent the materials of a veritable banquet. The messes were carried in twelve oblong wooden tubs, with chain handles, each carried by four slaves. This present was preceded by a young eunuch, according to the custom of the country on such occasions. I was told that this was meant as a compliment to my father, who had been a vizier of the Sultan. The tubs were full, some of rice cooked in honey; others of fowls fried in butter; others of young pigeons; others of cakes of delicious taste. We gave a share to the slave-porters, and ate ourselves, and fed our servants, and treated the guests and the neighbours, and yet there remained still a vast quantity of viands.