374
 

TRAVELS IN AFRICA.
 

                 CHAP.  XXXIII.



          THE BORDER-COUNTRY OF THE MARGHI.



  Friday    ^E now  commenced travelling more in

  June 6th.   earnest.  Ibrahima  had been busy looking

after his  master's subjects, who  had been  carried

away into slavery, all about the villages in the neigh¬

bourhood, but with  very little  success.   Our  road

passed close by  Uje  Kdsukuld, which  to-day looked

quite deserted; and then through a populous country

with  numerous  villages and  fine pasture-grounds,

where I saw the  plant called " walde " by the Fiilbe.

  I had taken great pains in Kukawa, while gathering

information  about the country whither I was going,

to ascertain from my informants whether snow ever

lies there on the tops of the mountains or not; but I

could never get at the truth, none  of  the  natives

whom I interrogated having ever visited North Africa,

so as to be able to identify what he saw  on  the tops

of the mountains in  his country with the snow seen

in the north.  A'hmedu bel Mejiib, indeed, knew the

Atlas, and had seen snow on some of the  tops of that

range; but he had paid little attention to  the subject,

and did not think himself justified in deciding the

question.   Now this  morning, when we obtained