As might have been expected, the Kailouees--princes and people--are not very refined in their ideas or luxurious in their habits. Their food consists principally of the grains ghaseb and ghafouley, or guinea-corn. They have also flocks and herds of sheep, camels, and bullocks; but the bullocks are used chiefly for draft, and to carry goods from Aheer to Soudan. Asses are exceedingly numerous, and likewise go to Soudan to fetch guinea-corn. The population of Aheer, being scattered about in small towns and villages, a few hours journey apart, these animals are found very useful for the transport of the persons and effects of the poor. The richer people have camels of the maharee species, like all the Tuaricks; and in some respects it is the possession of this splendid animal which distinguishes the Kailouee population from the people to the south. For example, all their sports and pastimes would be exactly Soudanese, were it not for the introduction of the maharee. On the celebration of a wedding, the Kailouees ride round the groups of guests on their silent-treading camels, which measure their movements to the sound of a big rude drum. Such scenes would otherwise be perfectly Nigritian. The men dance, flourishing their lances; and the slaves both dance and sing. But I have already noted down all that I observed remarkable in manners, and need not here repeat myself.
The great natural features of Asben, also, are doubtless by this time impressed on the mind of the reader. They consist of a series of naked granite rocks or mountains, some of them rising to upwards of three or four thousand feet, ranging in every direction, with many isolated peaks; and of picturesque valleys winding along between steep precipices--threads of green, in which the tholukh and all species of mimosa and acacia, with the souag and other trees, flourish in immense growth, sometimes adorned by garlands and festoons of luxuriant parasitical plants. Wild animals of various kinds range at will in unfrequented places, but do not seem to excite much terror. There are gardens and cornfields in the neighbourhood of some of the towns and villages, the cultivation being kept up during the dry months by irrigation; but only a few of the inhabitants, mostly slaves, cultivate the soil. Besides the grains I have mentioned, a few vegetables, principally onions, are produced. Date-palms bear fruit, which is good, but will not keep.