Mussulmans, they were constant in their time of prayer, and abused my
interpreter for never saying his. When I made him cut the deer's
throats a little lower down the throat than their canons permit, to
save the specimen, they spat on the ground to show their contempt, and
abused him heartily. If I threw date-stones in the fire (the seed of
paradisiacal food), they looked upon it as a sacrilege. They were also
very suspicious. If I walked up and down the same place to stretch my
legs, they formed councils of war on my motives, considering I must
have some secret designs upon their country, or I would not do it, as
no man in his senses could be guilty of working his legs
unnecessarily.

Considering all the northerners were said to have been driven up here
by the war, I was much surprised to see so few habitations or flocks
in the valley; all there were consisted in a few kraals scattered over
the plain, which were constantly moved as soon as each plot of ground
in turn was eaten up by the cattle. In changing ground, these nomads
pack up everything on their camels, mat and stick, hut and all, and
placing the wife, with perhaps a baby also, on a donkey, march to any
unoccupied watering-place they can find. Their food is very limited,
except in the rainy season, when milk prevails: in consequence of
this, it being now the dry season, my servants accounted for their
increasing appetite for my dates. Some of the poorer men are said to
pass their whole lives without tasting any flesh or grain, but to live
entirely on sour milk, wild honey, or gums, as they may chance to come
across them, and they are almost naked; but notwithstanding this,
disease is scarcely known, and excepting in a few cases of endemic
ophthalmia, which appears to attack the country periodically, at
intervals of two or three years, I never heard of any. The climate was
very delightful at this season, and the nights so cold I had to wrap