The drum beat a little after six o'clock in the evening. We then had a very comfortable dinner sent us, camels flesh stewed with an herb of a viscous slimy substance, called Bammia. After having dined, and finished the journal of the day, I fell to unpacking my instruments, the barometer and thermometer first, and, after having hung them up, was conversing with Adelan's servant when I should pay my visit to his master. About eight o'clock came a servant from the palace, telling me now was the time to bring the present to the king. I sorted the separate articles with all the speed I could, and we went directly to the palace. The king was then sitting in a large apartment, as far as I could guess, at some distance from the former. He was naked, but had several clothes lying upon his knee, and about him, and a servant was rubbing him over with very stinking butter or grease, with which his hair was dropping as if wet with water. Large as the room was, it could be smelled through the whole of it. The king asked me, If ever I greased myself as he did? I said, Very seldom, but fancied it would be very expensive. He then told me, That it was elephants grease, which made people strong, and preserved the skin very smooth. I said, I thought it very proper, but could not bear the smell of it, though my skin should turn as rough as an elephant's for the want of it. He said, "If I had used it, my hair would not have turned so red as it was, and that it would all become white presently when that redness came off. You may see the Arabs driven in here by the Daveina, and all their cattle taken from them, because they have no longer any grease for their hair. The sun first turns it red and then perfectly white; and you'll know them in the street by their hair being the colour of yours. As for the smell, you will see that cured presently." After having rubbed him abundantly with grease, they brought a pretty large horn, and in it something scented, about as liquid as honey. It was plain that civet was a great part of the composition. The king went out at the door, I suppose into another room, and there two men deluged him over with pitchers of cold water, whilst, as I imagine, he was stark-naked. He then returned, and a slave anointed him with this sweet ointment; after which he sat down, as completely dressed, being just going to his women's apartment where he was to sup. I told him I wondered why he did not use rose-water as in Abyssinia, Arabia, and Cairo. He said, he had it often from Cairo, when the merchants arrived; but as it was now long since any came, his people could not make more, for the rose would not grow in his country, though the women made something like it of lemon-flower.