My host sent me, about eleven o’clock in the morning, a plate of well flavoured rice and meat, and about eight in the evening a plate of couscous for my supper. The water for my drink was brackish and luke-warm. On the 11th and following days, I inspected the town of El-Arawan. It is situated in a hollow, and surrounded by sandy hills, which extend to the west. The streets are wider than those of Timbuctoo, and equally clean. The houses, built in the same manner as at Timbuctoo, are much lower and less solid; for the sand here is not of so clayey a nature. The roofs are flat; instead of the small pieces of wood, which are used in the buildings at Timbuctoo, they here substitute the stalks of a bullrush which grows in the neighbourhood of the town. Thin rafters of ronnier wood support these reeds, which are slightly covered with sand. The magazines are very small. The houses are all of very frail construction, and their number may be five hundred, each containing about six inhabitants, including slaves. Before the doors is sprinkled a yellow kind of sand, which is found by digging to a certain depth. El-Arawan, like Timbuctoo, possesses no resources of its own. It is the entrepot of the salt of Toudeyni, which is exported to Sansanding, on the banks of the Dhioliba. Its soil is even more barren than that of Timbuctoo. As far as the eye can reach, no trace of vegetation is to be perceived. The camels of the numerous caravans have to go a great distance for forage. Wood is so scarce, that nothing is burned but camel-dung, which is carefully collected by the slaves. This is the only fuel used even for cooking. The Moors collect their camels every six days, in order to take them to drink at the wells, which are in the environs of the town. These wells are about sixty paces deep. They employ a camel to draw up the bucket, which is made of hide. A pulley is also used. The water of these wells is brackish, warm, and very unwholesome. The springs are numerous. At the depth of four feet from the surface is found a grey sand mixed with a little clay of the same colour. This sand is tolerably firm. At the bottom of the pits there is a very white kind of earth, resembling chalk, of which I carried away a specimen. There are also some black and grey pebbles, and a small quantity of calcareous stones, of which the Moors make a brim round the wells. The place in which they are dug is flat, and surrounded by large hillock of sand. I have often seen the Moors employed in watering their camels. They have a trough of tanned hide, which stands on three supports of twisted wood. For drawing up the water they use a rope made of straw, first damped and beaten and afterwards twisted. Though water when kept in the houses is always exposed to a current of air, it is invariably warm, and consequently very disagreeable for drinking.