milk or a little butter, could not pass unscathed. Such is morality
here. May there not, however, be some promise in this respect for
education? A woodman left his axe a moment on the roadside; one of our
troopers immediately went off and seized it. The woodman, returning,
followed the trooper to the Kashalla, and falling down, and throwing
dust over his head, begged for his axe as for his life. The Kashalla
could not withstand the appeal, and ordered his trooper to restore the
axe. The fellow had concealed the axe, and it was lucky the owner
discovered the thief so soon. The poor man went away very thankful,
thanking me also. I believe I may be some check on these depredations,
for I told my interpreter last night that I never saw a village, or any
people, pillaged in the Christian countries; in fact, that I could not
have hitherto believed that men could do the things which I saw done
that day by the servants of the Kashalla. It is probable he will mention
what I said to some one, and it will get to the ears of the said
Kashalla. The Africans, in plundering one another, appear as if they
were avenging some old grudge; as if they remembered the various
occasions when they themselves had been pillaged. They rob with
wonderful _gusto_.

A monotonous uniformity begins to prevail over all these tracts. I am
afraid I shall soon get tired of this negro population and these towns,
all built and all peopled in the same manner. They seem remarkably
curious at first, but curiosity soon palls.

We have with us the Hajah, mentioned before. She is very quiet, being
_passee_, and also afraid of the Sheikh's people.

I went round the village and found some five hundred or six hundred
people nestled together. All the villages which we passed to-day have a
similar population. I saw the preparations for a wedding; it was a most
amusing sight. Two enclosures were crowded with people, all busy; but
the busiest were those grinding corn for the marriage-feast. The
bridegroom was with one group, haranguing them in the most persevering
manner, and rattling a hollow gourd filled with small stones. The group
replied in chorus, all on their knees, bending forward, rubbing grain
between two stones. The other group went on by themselves. Then, in an
enclosure close by, was the bride, attended with, all her maiden
friends, jammed together in a hut, all busy, doing nobody knows what. It
was with great difficulty I could get a peep at her. The bri