They had accordingly combined to attack the station at
night, and had set fire to the straw huts, by shooting red-hot arrows
into the inflammable thatched roofs.
These calamities had happened since the arrival of Abou Saood in the
Shooli country, and it was he who had given the order to attack the
Umiro. His own people, being naturally superstitious, thought he had
brought bad luck with him.
It appeared that when Abou Saood had first arrived at Fatiko from
Gondokoro, the vakeels of his different stations were all prepared for
the journey to deliver the ivory. They had given the cattle obtained in
the first attack upon Umiro to the native carriers of Madi and Shooli,
and the tusks had been arranged in about 2,000 loads for transport.
The sudden arrival of Abou Saood changed all their plans, as he
immediately gave orders to return the ivory to the store huts; he did
not intend to deliver it at Gondokoro that year. He also sent a letter
to his Latooka station, nine days' march to the north-east, together
with a party of eighty men, with instructions to his vakeel to deliver
the ivory at the Bohr station below Gondokoro.
