In an instant
he was on his back, with his heels in the air; and, as I prepared
to operate upon his backer, or upon any bystander who might have
a penchant for fighting, the crowd gave way, and immediately
devoted themselves to their companion, who lay upon the ground in
stupid astonishment, with his fingers down his throat searching
for a tooth; his eyes were fixed upon my hands to discover the
weapon with which he had been wounded. His friends began to wipe
the blood from his face and clothes, and at this juncture the
sheik of the village appeared for the first time.
To my astonishment he was extremely civil; a sudden reaction had
taken place, the Tokrooris had had their row, and were apparently
satisfied. 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. The natives say that there
is no water on the road, and their accounts of the distance are
so vague and contradictory that I cannot rely upon the
information.
"I could procure only one water-skin, and none of my old stock
were serviceable; I therefore arranged to water all the animals,
and push on throughout the night, by which plan I hoped to arrive
by a forced march at the Rahad on the following morning, without
exhausting both men and beasts by a long journey through an
unknown distance in the heat of the sun.
