Now it so happened, that whilst he was discussing the matter with the Tademeket, El Beckay was seized with one of his attacks of prophetic delirium, and prophesied that some day the son of Abdul Kerim would return with three boats.
We had three boats. I claimed, giving irrefragable proofs, to be the nephew of Barth; it was impossible to deny that the prophecy was fulfilled. We must add, to round off the story, that Madidu is the son of the very El Khotab who saved my “uncle.”
Sala sent me word by his brother that he would not himself come on board for fear of doing me harm by showing the friendship which really now united us; but anxious to be useful to us, he would go to Madidu, or at least write to him, and he hoped to have the same success as his master, El Beckay, had had before him. Meanwhile he would supply us with all we needed.
In fact, the next morning we were able to buy as much grain as we wanted, and Sala gave us his own son Ibrahim as a guide.
THE ROCK BAROR AT TOSAYE.
We started about one o’clock on Saturday, February 29, and passed between the Baror rock and the left bank. We very soon saw the Tuaregs already alluded to gathering on the right bank. They were of the Tademeket tribe, against whom Sala had warned us. They followed our boats, but as yet made no hostile demonstrations.
We arrived at the picturesque entrance to the defile without incident.
From the right bank juts out a line of rocks, partly barring the passage. In the narrow opening, which is all that is left, the current is probably very strong when the water is low, but just now, when the river was at its highest, it was perfectly calm, and only moved very slowly round, its surface flecked with foam in the restricted space in which it is confined, the width of that space varying from 390 to 490 feet.
On either side rise red and black cliffs, which look as if they had been calcined, cut across here and there with veins of white quartz, giving to the scene a grand though somewhat melancholy character. Barth relates that according to the natives the skin of a young bull cut into strips and joined together would not be long enough to reach the bottom of the river at this spot. Business of a very different kind prevented us from verifying this belief.