it?' 'Ali's; what do you want with it?' 'Ali again!' I exclaimed; 'then I
must even look for stowage elsewhere.'"

The sight of a shark in the harbour let loose the old jester again. "A
friend of mine," said he, "pilot of a vessel almost as fast a sailer as my
own, which is acknowledged to be the best in these seas, was bound to
Mocha with camels on board. When off the high table-land betwixt the Bay
of Tajura and the Red Sea, one of the beasts dying, was hove overboard. Up
came a shark ten times the size of that fellow there, and swallowed the
camel, leaving only his hinder legs sticking out of his jaws; but before
he had time to think where he was to find stowage for it, up came another
tremendous fellow and bolted the shark, camel, legs, and all."

In return for this anecdote, the major gave him the story of the two
Kilkenny cats in the saw-pit, which fought, until nothing remained of
either but the tail and a bit of the flue. The old pilot doubted. "How can
that be?" said he, revolving the business seriously in his mind. "As for
the story I have told you, it is as true as the Koran."

After a short stay and presentation to the Sultan of Tajura, a slave-port,
with a miserable old man for its master, the mission once more set forth
for Shoa; yet even here we glean a specimen of Arab speech. "Trees attain
not to their growth in a single day," said an Arab, when remonstrating
with the sultan on his inordinate love of lucre. "Take the tree as your
text, and learn that property is to be gathered only by slow degrees."
"True," said the old miser; "but, sheik, you must have lost sight of the
fact, that my leaves are already withered, and that, if I would be rich, I
have not a moment to lose."

The packing up for the journey was a new source of trouble; every