viii TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

able to maintain with the chiefs to a fiction, for acting on

the advice of a certain Bdchir Uld Mbirikat, a native of

Twat, whom he had met at Timbuktu, he passed himself

off as the nephew of Dr. Barth, the great German traveller,

who had everywhere won the love and respect of the

people with whom he was brought in contact. Assuming

the name of Abdul Kerim, or the Ser\'ant of the Most

High, the Frenchman solved all the difficulties which

threatened to stop his progress by the simple assertion

that he was the nephew of Abdul Kerim, as Barth was

and still is called in the Sudan. " I was thus able," says Abdul Kerim, "to emerge safely from every situation,

however embarrassing," explaining that the natives do not distinguish between different European nationalities, but

simply class all together as " the whites."

Apart from this initial falsehood, of which the Lieutenant

does not seem to be in the least ashamed, his dealings with

the natives were marked by perfect straightforwardness ;

ever>' promise, however trivial, made to one of them he faithfully performed, whilst from the officers under him and the coolies in his service he won the utmost devotion

and love. He deser\'es indeed very great credit for the ever ready tact with which he turned aside rather than

met the difficulties assailing him at every turn, and Dr. Barth would have had no cause to be ashamed of his

relative if the young gentleman had indeed been his

nephew.

Lieutenant Hourst's chapter on the much misjudged Tuaregs is especially interesting, and, most noteworthy fact,

full of hope for the future. He attributes their many

excellent qualities to their reverence for their women.