all, drawing his fword, that we ihould inftantly provide'
him with a new fcabbard, his own being but a piece of
common leather, which he threw with a kind o f indignation
down upon the floor. T ill that time I had been writing
thefe very memoirs, at leaft the journal o f the day. X
was not any w ay afraid o f one drunkard, but laid down
my pen, wondering where this infolence was to end. Before
I had time to fpeak a word, 1 heard my old Turk, the Aterrille,
Hagi Ifmael, fay, “ You are o f the Jehaina, are you?
then I' am o f the Dayeina and with that he caught the
flranger by the throat, taking his fword from him, which
he threw out o f the houfe, after calling the owner violently
upon the floor. The fellow crept out upon all-four, and, as
foon as he had picked up his fword, attempted again to enter
the houfe, which Solimán perceiving, fnatched his owm
ihort, crooked fword, from a pin where it hung, and. ran
readily to meet him, and would very fpeedily have made;
an end o f h im, had I n ot cried-out, “ For God’s fake, Solimán,
don’t hurt h im ; remember where you are,” Indeed,,
there was little reafon for the caution for when the Arab
obferved a drawn fword in the Turk’s hand, be prefimt-
ly ran away towards the town, crying, U lla h ! Ullah !!
U lla h 1 which was, G o d ! God t God-! an exclamation o f terror,
and we farw no more o f him whilft, inllead o f a new
fcabbard, he left his old one in the houfe. Seeing at once
the cowardice and. m alice o f our 'enemies, we were now
apprehenfive o f fire, things w ere come to. fuch an , extremity
; and as our houfe was compofed o f nothing but d ry
canes, it feemed the only obvious way o f deftroying us..
On the 9th, in the morning I fent Solimán with the
fcabbard to Fidele, and- a grievous complaint againft the
■ fuppcfedf
fuppofed Shekh o f the Jehaina for his infolence the night
before, Shekh Fidele pretended to be utterly ignorant o f
the whole, made light o f what had palled, and faid the fellow
was a fool. But a violent altercation took place between
him and my fervant black Soliman, who then told
him all his mind, threatening him with Yaline’s immediate
vengeance, and a f l u r i n g him he was, before this, fu lly
informed-of his behaviour. They, however, both cooled before
parting. Fidele only recommended to Soliman to
perfuade me to give him 2000 piaftres, without which he
fwore I never Ihould go alive out o f Atbara. Soliman, on the
other hand, declared, that I was a man that fet no value upon
money, and therefore carried it not about with me, other-
wife I ihould not refufe what he defired, but warned him to
th in k well before he uttered fuch expreflions as he now
h ad done, jj
I n the courfe o f converfation, as Soliman told me, the
Sh ekh gave him feveral hints, that, i f he would agree with
him, and help to rob and murder me* he Ihould ihare the
booty with 'him, and it never would be known. But So-
iiman pretended not to underftand this,always afluring him
that I was not the man he took me fo r ; and that, except
the kin g’s prefent, all I had was brafs, iron,and glafs bottles,
o f no value to any but myfelf,- who only knew how
to ufe them. They then finiflted their difcourfe; and he
defired Soliman to tell me, that he expefted me at the
ufual hour o f -6 o’clo ck to-morrow evening, which was
.Friday the 10th.
T h i s f e e m e d to me to be an extraordinary appointment,
becaufc Friday is their fellival, when they eat and drink
- 3 B 2 heartily