his own account. It will have been seen that Mr. Richardson
(see vol. i. "Note on the Territorial Division of Aheer,")
makes a much lower estimate. I may here remind the reader,
that even when in his diary Mr. Richardson inserts two
different and contradictory statements, I do not undertake
to select one and suppress the other, except in the case of
an obvious slip of the pen. Nor have I thought it necessary
to burden the page by indications of slightly different
assertions. A diary must necessarily abound with imperfect
observations, which correct or complete one another; and
perhaps the general impression left on the mind of the
reader--who accompanies, as it were, the writer in
receiving its various elements--is more like truth than it
would be after the perusal of one absolute dogmatic
statement.--ED.

[8] As an illustration of the previous note, I will observe
that this word is spelt in several different ways in the
MS., and I do not know which is the correct one.--ED.

The Sultan of Aghadez, the great Koku Abd-el-Kader, does not receive any
direct contribution towards his revenues, from the people of Aghadez,
but levies a kind of _octroi_ of ten mithkals on every camel-load of
goods that enters the town, provisions being exempt. He has property of
his own, however; receives presents at his installation; and can always
raise a sum by making a razzia on any neighbouring freebooters.

It is a fundamental law in Aheer, that the Sultan of Aghadez shall
belong to a particular family, which is said to derive its origin from
Constantinople. Therefore when, in consequence of some discontent,