Having doubled the southern extremity of the lake, or marsh, more properly speaking, we passed across a level plain of the finest marl, in which scarcely a stone the size of a pea could be seen, and traversed in every direction by little narrow cracks, which told of the very recent evaporation of a still greater extent of water than that which had presented an obstacle to our direct progress. Upon this plain I saw for the first time those vast herds of antelopes, which I had all along looked forward to, as likely to afford me the exciting sport that has recently tempted so many adventurous Nimrods to follow up “war’s dim image” in the wilds of Southern Africa. In one herd I saw on the plain of Gurguddee, there were at least from four to five hundred antelopes; but they were so alarmed at the appearance and noise of the camels and people, that it was impossible to get within shot of them, so after two or three unsuccessful attempts, I resolved to husband my powers for the fatigues of the long walk that Ohmed Medina was anxious I should understand lay before me.
We were seven hours reaching our halting-place, the latter two hours of the march, having been along the shady bottom of the dry bed of a stream that sometimes flowed into the plain we had just crossed. Here were some large mimosa-trees, under the shade of which I was glad to sit and rest myself, towards the latter end of the journey, and await the coming up of the camels, which the pedestrian party I was with had left far behind. Whilst sitting here, one of the Hy Soumaulee brought me as a refreshment, a handful of the young green pods of one species of the mimosa-tree, which tasted not unlike the shell of the common pea, and after a long abstinence from fresh vegetable food, I enjoyed this singular kind of salad very well.
Six fine antelopes, part of a large herd that was browsing among the bushes now approached within fifty yards of us, and as soon as I observed them, without saying a word, or scarcely stirring from my position, I took up my carbine, and fired at one as she had just put her feet against the trunk of a low tree to reach, like a goat, the leaves and tender extremities of the branches. She fell, of course, for the ball had broken her backbone; and Adam Burrah springing up, rushed like a hound upon her, and cut her throat in the most orthodox manner, with his dagger, as he repeated the usual grace after the scrupulously pious Garahmee, who had also run to his assistance.
My mule coming up with the camels, the dead game was lashed across the saddle, after due examination by my Dankalli friends of the effect of gunshot, as exhibited in the wound, and who shook their heads with sundry emphatic grunts, as if the idea kept recurring to their minds of the possibility of a like thing occurring to them, at the same time balancing the open hand horizontally, giving the outer edges of it an undulatory movement, a mode of expressing surprise, very common among this people.
Khrabtu, the name of the place where we halted, was an open space, where three dry watercourses met, surrounded by high crumbling cliffs of a dark-coloured lava rock. A little pool of dirty water, at some distance from the camp, was the only representative of the streams which, during the rains, flow through this ravine into the plain we had just crossed. Around us were large mimosa trees, the lower branches of which were hung with the decaying and rotten remains of the uprooted palm and other trees and shrubs which had been brought down, and thus entangled, by the floods of the previous year. In what I should presume, during the time of the inundations, were small islands, young doom palms made a thick jungle with their large, strong foliage, and after the camels were unloaded, it appeared a great object with the drivers to collect large bundles of the green leaves, and during the rest of the day all were occupied in removing the strong midrib of each long lobe, the strips being preserved, as the material with which they sewed up the holes and worn-out corners of the salt-bags, that were beginning to be somewhat the worse for the journey. The Hy Soumaulee, who had no mats, or palm-leaf bags to repair, devoted themselves to the much more agreeable employment of skinning the antelope and preparing it for the cooking-pot, but not without indulging in some portion of the meat raw. Adam Burrah, for his share, took the bones of the back, and was now busy endeavouring to separate them by bending the whole with both hands against the upright sole of his foot, as, sitting upon the ground, he almost laid himself upon his back, by the force of his exertions, turning and twisting the many-jointed bones about, in a peculiarly determined manner, to have it broken into as many portions as he could. Allee and Moosa divided the raw kidneys between them, which they eat up on the spot, whilst Garahmee, in possession of a very great delicacy, sucked the almost liquid marrow from the shank bones; for this purpose having smashed them, one after the other, between two large stones.
In a short time Zaido brought his large wooden bowl, in which were heavy lumps of flesh, very hot, and but half boiled. On his approach, all hands forgot their employments to pounce upon the cooked meat, and I saw that if I did not make a push there was little chance of my getting any; so forcing myself between the scrambling parties, I seized hold of the first portion I could put my hand on and bore away the greater part of the haunch, and upon this, occasionally daubing my tongue with a piece of dirty rough salt I always carried in my ammunition-bag, I managed to make as hearty and as savage a meal as any of the rest. I could not help noticing the attention paid to new comers who were too late for the scramble at the contents of the bowl. Some of their more successful companions, would strip off a piece from the bone with their teeth, and throw it at them, not at all in the gentle manner that we might have expected, a kindness like that to have been performed.
Zaido managed to put by one whole leg, and to conceal it, had pushed it under the mats of the roof of my hut, close to my head; for a joke I took it down inside, and divided it, without his knowledge, among some hungry Bedouins, much to his indignant surprise, when he afterwards discovered his loss, for he unhesitatingly attributed the abstraction of the meat, to the thievish propensity of his countrymen, an unhappy failing he on more than one occasion had reason to lament.
Our Kafilah had now assumed the character of one united family, no divisions, no continual calahms, that had characterized our progress before the arrival of Ohmed Medina, who took his place as Comptroller-General, and all of us submitted without a murmur to his command. As for myself, I felt perfectly easy, for the same deference the rest of the Kafilah paid to Ohmed Medina, was reflected upon me by the respect and attention which he always showed, and which had a corresponding effect upon all the rest. This night particularly, I noticed the great change in the bearing of my Hy Soumaulee escort towards me, who, instead of coming with a stealthy sneaking pace, as they had frequently done before, to observe what arrangements of defence I had made for the night, now came boldly, but very civilly, one after the other, to the entrance of my retreat, and “negasseed” me almost to sleep. The usual salutation of the evening being a long repetition of the word “negassee,” signifying, I concluded, as much as our “good night.”
April 12th.—Left Khrabtu at sunrise, and three hours after, we reached the halting-place of Saggadarah, situated in the wide bed of a small stream called Korree. Its banks were composed of low hills of different coloured, irregularly stratified rock, that if not volcanic, had been greatly altered from their original character of deposited formations, by the agency of fire. The whole valley abounded with vegetation; wide-spreading sweetly-scented mimosas, and clumps of luxuriantly growing doom palm, made travelling beneath their shade delightfully agreeable. An immense number of a small kind of dove, with the slightest tinge of red, scarcely a blush, blended with their usual silvery grey plumage, kept darting from bush to bush, as we disturbed them anew, every few yards we advanced, whilst the little antelope of Salt, and a large kind of partridge, were not unfrequently seen running beneath the thin underwood. Hanging nests of fresh green grass, were suspended like immense bell-shaped blossoms, from the upper boughs of the mimosa-trees, and the evident care of the passing Bedouins to prevent their shouldered spears from injuring them, told of some innocent superstition, still keeping alive gentle feelings, amidst all the rudeness of their savage untutored nurture.
Ohmed Medina, on one occasion, when I was desirous of looking at the contents of one of these nests, cautiously pulled down by its farthest extremity a branch to which one was attached, without disturbing the position of a single blade of its building materials. I then looked through its little aperture on one side, but found, however, neither eggs nor young, which was to be accounted for by its recent construction.