212 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER contrary to the generally-received opinion, — the Tuareg is faithful to his promises and hates petty theft.

" Never promise more than half what you can perform/' says a Tuareg proverb, and even in the opinion of their enemies this is no idle boast. Our own adventures are a striking proof of this.

As for what I have said about thieving, I can testify that all the time we were amongst the Tuaregs not the very smallest larceny was committed by them, although all manner of very tempting articles, such as various stuffs, beads, looking-glasses, knives, etc., were lying about in our boats, on deck, and in our cabins. Nothing could have been easier than for our Tuareg visitors to run off with a few odds and ends, and if I had seen any one take anything I should probably have said nothing, for fear of a dispute leading to a rupture.

At the sight of these riches of ours, which surpassed anything they had ever seen before, the eyes of our guests would gleam with desire for their possession, and they would ask for things, keep on begging for them without ceasing, but they would not take anything without leave.

I often had hard work to resist their importunity, but, for all that, not one of them ever appropriated a single object however small.

I said, it is true, a few pages back that the Tuaregs were pillagers, and the reader may very well ask how they could be pillagers yet not thieves. We must, however, judge people by their own consciences, not by the ideas current amongst ourselves. Now to pillage and to thieve are two essentially different things amongst the Tuaregs.

All nomads are pillagers, and as a matter of fact war with them is generally simply a pillaging expedition.

Migrations are constantly taking place as a very necessity of their mode of life, and as a result casus belli diS constantly