Gabrone Is Not Unpleasantly Situated; It Is Surrounded By Sandhills And Mounds Of Earth, Covered With A Small Tree, Called Athali.

The person of the greatest importance at Gabrone, is one Hagi el Raschid, a large proprietor, and a marabout.

He was a man of very clear understanding and amiable manners, and as he uses the superstition of the people as the means of making them happy, and turning them from vicious pursuits, we become, as it were, almost reconciled to an impostor.

They departed from Gabrone at 11 o'clock, a.m. The marabout accompanied Boo Khaloom outside the town, and having drawn, not a magic circle, but a parallelogram on the sand, with his wand, he wrote in it certain words of great import, from the Koran; the crowd looked on him in silent astonishment, while he assumed a manner both graceful and imposing, so as to make it impossible for any one to feel at all inclined to ridicule his motions. When he had finished repeating the fatah aloud, he invited the party singly to ride through the spot he had consecrated, and having obeyed him, they silently proceeded on their journey, without repeating even an idea.

They passed a small nest of huts in the road, prettily situated, called El Bahhi, from whence the women of the place followed them with songs for several miles. Having halted at Medroosa, they moved on the next morning, and leaving an Arab castle to the south-east, and some table-top hills, they arrived at Kasrowa by three in the afternoon.

On the 9th December, they were to arrive at Tegerhy. The Arabs commenced skirmishing as soon as they came within sight of it, and kept it up in front of the town for half an hour after their arrival. They were to halt here for a day or two, for the purpose of taking in the remainder of their dates and provisions, and never was halt more acceptable. Almost the whole of the party were afflicted with illness; the servants were all so ill, that one of the negro women made them a mess of kouscasou, with some preserved fat, which had been prepared in Mourzouk, it was a sorry meal, for the fat was rancid, and although tired and not very strong, Major Denham could not refuse an invitation about nine at night, after he had laid down to sleep, to eat camels' heart with Boo Khaloom; it was woefully hard and tough, and the major suffered the next morning from indulging too much at the feast.

The Tibboos and Arabs kept them awake half the night with their singing and dancing, in consequence of the bousafer or feast, on entering the Tibboo country. Boo Khaloom gave two camels, and the major and his party gave one. The sick seemed to gain a little strength; they had succeeded in purchasing a sheep, and a little soup seemed to revive them much, but they feared that Hillman and one of the servants must be left behind. However distressing such an event would have been, it was impossible for men, who could not sit upright on a mule, to commence a journey of fifteen days over a desert, during which travellers are obliged to march from sunrise until dark.

The morning of the 12th December was beautifully mild. After breakfast, all seemed revived, but it was with great pain that Major Denham observed the exceeding weakness of Dr. Oudney and Hillman; he fancied that he already saw in them, two more victims to the noxious climate of central Africa.

Almost every town in Africa has its charm or wonder, and Tegerhy is not without one. There is a well just outside the castle gates, the water of which, they were told most gravely, always rose when a kafila was coming near the town; that the inhabitants always prepared what they had to sell, on seeing this water increase in bulk, for it never deceived them. In proof of this assertion, they pointed out to Major Denham, how much higher the water had been previously to their arrival, than it was at the moment, when they were standing on the brink. This Major Denham could have explained, by the number of camels that had drunk at it, but he saw it was better policy to believe what every body allowed to be true, even Boo Khaloom exclaimed, "Allah! God is great, powerful, and wise. How wonderful! Oh!" Over the inner gate of the castle, there is a large hole through to the gateway underneath, and they tell a story, of a woman dropping from thence a stone on the head of some leader, who had gained the outer wall, giving him by that means the death of Abimelech in sacred history.

The natives of Tegerhy are quite black, but have not the negro face; the men are slim, very plain, with high cheek bones, the negro nose, large mouth, teeth much stained by the quantity of tobacco, and trona or carbonate of soda, which they eat, and even snuff, when given to them, goes directly into their mouths.

The young girls are most of them pretty, but less so than those of Gabrone. The men always carry two daggers, one about eighteen inches, and the other six inches; the latter of which is attached to a ring, and worn on the arm or wrist. A Tibboo once told Major Denham, pointing to the long one, "This is my gun, and this" showing the smaller of the two, "is my pistol."

On the 13th they left Tegerhy and proceeded on the desert. After travelling six miles they arrived at a well called Omah, where their tents were pitched, and here they halted three days. Near these wells, numbers of human skeletons, or parts of them, lay scattered on the sands. Hillman, who had suffered dreadfully since leaving Tegerhy, was greatly shocked at these whitened skulls, and unhallowed remains, so much so as to stand in need of all the encouragement which Major Denham could administer to him.

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