Abban's honesty whether his client can succeed in doing anything in
the country he takes him through. Arabs, when travelling under their
protection, have to ask his permission for anything they may wish to
do, and cannot even make a march, or purchase anything, without his
sanction being first obtained. The Abban introduces the person under
his protection to the chief of his clan, is answerable for all
outrages committed on the way, and is the recognised go-between in all
questions of dispute or barter, and in every other fashion. The second
man was also a Warsingali,[8] by name Ahmed, who knew a slight
smattering of Hindustani, and acted as interpreter between us. I then
engaged two other men, a Hindustani butler named Imam, and a Seedi
called Farhan. This latter man was a perfect Hercules in stature, with
huge arms and limbs, knit together with largely developed ropy-looking
muscles. He had a large head, with small eyes, flabby squat nose, and
prominent muzzle filled with sharp-pointed teeth, as if in imitation
of a crocodile. Farhan told me that when very young he was kidnapped
on the Zanzibar coast by the captain of a small Arab vessel. This
captain one day seeing him engaged with many other little children
playing on the sandy seashore, offered him a handful of fine
fruity-looking dates, which proved so tempting to his juvenile taste
that he could not resist the proffered bait, and he made a grab at
them. The captain's powerful fingers then fell like a mighty trap on
his little closed hand, and he was hurried off to the vessel, where he
was employed in the capacity of "powder-monkey." In this position he
remained serving until full grown, when, finding an opportunity, he
ran away from his master, and has ever since lived the life of a
"free-man."

As a soldier, he had been tried in warfare, and was proved valorous
and cunning in the art, and promised to be a very efficient guard for