The sheik begged me not to kill his people by hitting
them, "as they were mere chickens, who would at once die if I
were to strike them with my fist." I begged him to keep his
"chickens" in better order, and at once to order them away from
our immediate neighbourhood. In a few minutes the sheik drove the
crowd away, who picked up their man and led him off. The sheik
then begged us to accept a hut for the night, and he paid us
every attention.
On the following morning, we left shortly after sunrise; the
natives very civilly assisted to load our camels, and among the
most active was my fighting friend of yesterday, who, with his
nose and mouth all swollen into one, had been rapidly converted
from a well-featured Tokroori into a real thick-lipped,
flat-nosed African nigger, with prognathous jaw, that would have
delighted the Ethnological Society.
"April 29.--It rained hard during the night. Our course was due
west, along the banks of a hor, from which the natives procure
water by sinking wells about twelve feet deep in the sandy bed,
which is dry in the hot season. Throughout this country the water
is bad. At 11 A.M. we reached Roumele; this is the last village
between Gallabat and the river Rahad.
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