CHAPTER XXI.

THE BORDER REGION OF THE DESERT—THE TAGÁMA 229

Travelling in Earnest—Home of the Giraffe and _Antilope leucoryx_—The Mágariá—The _Cornus nabeca_ and the Feathery Bristle—Princely Present—Animals (_Orycteropus Æthiopicus_)—The Tagáma; their Peculiar Character—The Tarki Beauty—New Plants—Steep Descent—Ponds of Stagnant Water—Cornfields of Damerghú—The Warlike Chief Dan Íbra—Ungwa Sámmit—Negro Architecture—Name of the Hut in Various Languages—Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms—Horses grazing—Arrival in Tágelel—The Ikázkezan Freebooter—Niggardliness of the Chief—Towns and Villages of Damerghú—The Haunts of the Freebooters—Market of Tágelel—The “Devil’s Dance.”