FROM TIMBUKTU TO TOSAYE 109 our tent was up, our camp-stools were beneath its shelter, and our visitors the Kel Temuiai arrived, including R'alif, the brother of R'abbas, chief of the tribe, with the two sons of the latter and a small retinue.

The palaver was carried on under difficulties for want of some one understanding the Ta-Mashcg or the Tuareg language, and wc had to converse in Songhay, our servant Mam acting as interpreter. This was the first time we had seen the Tuarcgs in their own land, and we were all deeply interested in them. They are many of them very finely built fellows, and their features, all you can see of them, for the lower part of their faces is always obstinately