Escaping from this rough ground, the travellers entered a narrow valley,
trenched by a broad watercourse, along the sides of which was a thick
growth of palm-trees. There are two villages in this wady. Near one of
them slaves were seen yoked to a plough, and driven like oxen, by their
master. Further south the hoe replaces the plough in preparing the
ground. This valley, inhabited by the Imrad (a Targhee tribe), is
capable of producing not only ghaseb, but corn, wine, dates, and all
kinds of vegetables. Fifty gardens adorn, it is said, the neighbourhood
of Ifargen. But, in general, the rich soil is left uncultivated, and is
covered by wild and sickly vegetation, which checks the progress of the
traveller.

In Wadi Buddeh grows a prickly plant called karengia; and a parasite
(_griffenee_), producing a sweet but insipid berry of a red colour. A
party of five lions were pursued like so many jackals. A small caravan
of four persons, in Wadi Teffarrakad, were making use of four different
modes of progression: one was on a camel, another on a buffalo, the
third on a donkey, and the fourth used his own legs. In Wady Boghel were
the signs of a field of ghaseb having existed last year. The ground was
covered by a sickly wild melon; and in the thick foliage of the trees
the guinea-hens were cackling. Here Dr. Barth saw the first specimen of
the bauré tree, the trunk measuring twenty-six feet in circumference,
and the thick crown rising to the height of eighty feet. Here and
elsewhere wild beasts were observed. The whole country, indeed, abounds
in lions, wild boars, gazelles, ostriches, and monkeys.

On the seventh day the party reached Aghadez, which they entered about
an hour after sunset, it being the custom in this country never to enter
a town by day. Aghadez is situated on a hamadah, or lofty plateau of
sandstone and granite formation. Around, although there is no arable