Oct. 1st.—Yesterday evening I saw the first drove of bullocks in this country; it belonged to En-Noor. Overweg made a bet with me that En-Noor would give us one of these animals to-day. I took his bet of twelve small Aheer cheeses against his six, and won; for the greedy old dog has sent us no bullock. This morning a man offers me a draught bullock for sale. The price demanded is fifteen metagals of this country, two and a-half of which are equal to a Spanish dollar. He lowered his price to eight, and the blacks offered seven, but eight were at last given. One of our people mounted the naked back of the bullock, and rode him as quietly and easily as a little pony.
[18] Answering to the gown and head-veil of the fellâhs.—Ed.
NOTE ON THE TERRITORIAL DIVISION OF AHEER OR ASBEN.
In the text, a list of towns and villages has already been given. The following, obtained from another source subsequently, is far more complete, and probably more correct. In it the towns and districts are all described according to their situation from Tintalous, the point from which they are made to radiate, both with regard to their compass direction and distance. This account of the territorial division of Aheer is nearly an exact translation from an Arabic paper, drawn up by Mahommed Makhlouk, Fighi and Secretary of the Sultan En-Noor. I have not distinguished any of the emphatic letters, the present transcript being enough for my purpose.