the only living things we had seen, jackalls, gazelles, and water-fowl
excepted, since we quitted the little encampment at Sooleb. Sixteen
miles south of Mahad Hassan, the marsh finishes at Giraff; we
arrived there on the night of the 11th, and pitched the tents upon
some sand-hills bordering a plain thickly covered with low brushwood,
which extended as far as the eye could reach, and from its green
appearance seemed to promise some signs of habitation. Our
journey across the marsh had been monotonous and uninteresting in
the extreme; no objects had appeared to enliven the scene, and
no sounds were heard but the voices of our own camel-drivers, and the
tiresome unvaried songs of our Arab escort, which usually consisted
of no more than three or four words, repeated eternally without any
change of tone, and apparently without the.consciousness of the
performers themselves.
The only sounds which broke in upon the stillness of the night
were the prayers of our friend the Dfibbah as he chanted them at
intervals in a low and drousy tone, and the howlings of his namesakes
*, who prowled about the tents, occasionally mingled with the
shriller cries of the jackalls.
We had passed a tolerably comfortable night at Giraff, and were
preparing to proceed early on our journey the following morning,
when, to our no small surprise, we found that the camel-drivers
refused to load their camels, and, on inquiring the cause of this
strange behaviour, we were told they would not proceed any farther,
* We have already stated that Shekh Mahommed was called el Dubbah, or the
Hyaena.
unless we paid them their wages each day in advance. As this had
not been our agreement with the Shekh of Mesurata, who had hired
them for us at that place, we refused to comply with this ill-timed
demand, for which there appeared to be no reason whatever. We
well knew the impolicy of paying Arabs in advance, which is in fact
giving up the best hold which can be acquired upon their conduct ;
and had the demand been even made with a much better grace, we
should not certainly have complied with it. In the present case
we refused it most decidedly, and told the mutineers that we should
abide by our agreement and expected that they would keep theirs :
we added that we were determined at all events to proceed, and that
if they persisted in refusing to load the camels we should do so
without farther ceremony ourselves. They made no reply, but
instead of doing their duty, they all walked away together to a little
eminence a few yards distant, where they were presently joined by
all our Arab escort, with the exception of the Dûbbah ; and began to
prime their guns very ceremoniously, charging such of them with ball
as did not happen to be already loaded. We took no other notice of
this Arab manoeuvre than by having our own fire-arms in readiness,
and proceeded immediately to load the camels ourselves, in which we
were assisted by the Bashaw’s Chaous, the Dûbbah all the while
recommending us to comply with the demands of the malcontents.
This we told him, however, we were determined not to do ; and reproached
him at the same time with the unfriendly part which he was
himself taking on the occasion. I t here became evident how little dependence
was to be placed upon Shekh Mahommed el Dubbah and