We Spread Our Hides Under A Tree, And Were Soon Surrounded By
Bedouins, Who Brought Milk, Sun-Dried Beef, Ghee And Honey In One Of The
Painted Wooden Bowls Exported From Cutch.
After breakfast, at which the
End of Time distinguished himself by dipping his meat into honey, we went
out gun in hand towards the bush.
It swarmed with sand-antelope and
Gurnuk: the ground-squirrels haunted every ant-hill, hoopoos and spur-
fowls paced among the thickets, in the trees we heard the frequent cry of
the Gobiyan and the bird facetiously termed from its cry "Dobo-dogon-
guswen," and the bright-coloured hawk, the Abodi or Bakiyyah [29], lay on
wing high in the cloudless air.
When tired of killing we returned to our cow-hides, and sat in
conversation with the Bedouins. They boasted of the skill with which they
used the shield, and seemed not to understand the efficiency of a sword-
parry: to illustrate the novel idea I gave a stick to the best man,
provided myself in the same way, and allowed him to cut at me. After
repeated failures he received a sounding blow upon the least bony portion
of his person: the crowd laughed long and loud, and the pretending
"knight-at-arms" retired in confusion.
Darkness fell, but no caravan appeared: it had been delayed by a runaway
mule,--perhaps by the desire to restrain my vagrant propensities,--and did
not arrive till midnight. My hosts cleared a Gurgi for our reception,
brought us milk, and extended their hospitality to the full limits of even
savage complaisance.
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