e camels; but it
was scarcely worth the trouble of loading and unloading, as the animals
could have been led up here to this portion of the wady.

Wady Aroukeen is in every respect a desirable place for the
resting-place of a caravan. It is full of trees and hasheesh, and lined
with lofty precipitous rocks, which afford shelter in winter and in
summer, and, as say the Scriptures, give "the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land." The well dug by the Tanelkums supplies very palatable
water. It lies about an hour and a-half from our encampment.

I sent off my Soudanese servant this morning to the Tanelkums, to ask
them to wait for us; or at least leave the things behind which I require
for our use.

Yesterday evening the new moon (second evening) was seen by our people,
telling them that the Ramadhan was finished. They saluted the pale
crescent horn with some discharges of their guns.

To-day is a great feast, but they have not the means of keeping it.

I cannot say that at this portion of my journey my mind is visited by
much cheerfulness. However agreeable may be the valley of Aroukeen, with
its grass patches, its clumps of trees, and the eternal shadow of its
rocks, I find my strength begin, to a certain extent, to fail me. For
several days I have had some threatening symptoms of ill-health; not
very serious, perhaps, to a person surrounded with any of the comforts
of civilisation, but much so to one in my position. Besides, despite my
endeavours to disbelieve the dangers with which we are said to be
menaced from lawless freebooters, it is difficult to disregard them so
far as to remain perfectly impassive.

My Kailouee friends do not seem to share our apprehensions. Sometimes
this circumstance cheers me; at others it suggests the idea that they
may be in league with their brethren. Let us hope not. At any rate I am
still displeased with them on account of their shabby conduct, and
disposed, perhaps, to look at them more unfavourably than they deserve.

A man came over the hills to our right in the course of the day. He
belonged to the Soudan caravan, the great body of which was passing at
no great distance by another road. Our presence does not seem to be
agreeable to such of these people as derive no profit from it. This
individual, in his own name and that of his companions, insists that we
Christians must not be allowed to enter the City of Marabouts, the Holy
City of Aheer. Many Musulman countries of the in