part of the world--the lads were engaged at one and a half dollars per
month and their keep.

Mahomet, who was a great man, suffered from the same complaint to which
great men are (in those countries) particularly subject. Wherever he
went he was attacked with claimants of relationship. He was overwhelmed
with professions of friendship from people who claimed to be connections
of some of his family. In fact, if all the ramifications of his race
were correctly represented by the claimants of relationship, Mahomet's
family tree would have shaded the Nubian desert

We all have our foibles. The strongest fort has its feeble point, as the
chain snaps at its weakest link. Family pride was Mahomet's weak link.
This was his tender point; and Mahomet, the great and the imperious,
yielded to the gentle scratching of his ear if a stranger claimed
connection with his ancient lineage. Of course he had no family, with
the exception of his wife and two children, whom he had left in Cairo.
The lady whom he had honored by admission into the domestic circle of
the Mahomets was suffering from a broken arm when we started from Egypt,
as she had cooked the dinner badly, and the "gaddah," or large wooden
bowl, had been thrown at her by the naturally indignant husband,
precisely as he had thrown the axe at one man and the basin at another
while in our service. These were little contretemps that could hardly
disturb the dignity of so great a man.

Mahomet met several relatives at Cassala. One borrowed money of him;
another stole his pipe; the third, who declared that nothing should
separate them now that "by the blessing of God" they had met, determined
to accompany him through all the difficulties of our expedition,
provided that Mahomet would only permit him to serve for love, without