ained by
establishing a panic, I seized my rifle and rushed into the midst of
the wavering men, catching first one by the throat and then another,
and dragging them to the camels, which I insisted upon their immediately
loading. All except three, who attended to the ruined ringleader,
mechanically obeyed. Richarn and Sali both shouted to them to "hurry";
and the vakeel arriving at this moment and seeing how matters stood,
himself assisted, and urged the men to obey.

Ibrahim's party had started. The animals were soon loaded, and leaving
the vakeel to take them in charge, we cantered on to overtake Ibrahim,
having crushed the mutiny and given such an example that, in the event
of future conspiracies, my men would find it difficult to obtain a
ringleader. So ended the famous conspiracy that had been reported to me
by both Saat and Richarn before we left Gondokoro; and so much for
the threat of firing simultaneously at me and deserting my wife in the
jungle. In those savage countries success frequently depends upon one
particular moment; you may lose or win according to your action at that
critical instant. We congratulated ourselves upon the termination of
this affair, which I trusted would be the last of the mutinies.

Upon our arrival at a large town called Kattaga, my vakeel reported the
desertion of five of my men to Mahommed Her's party, with their guns and
ammunition. I abused both the vakeel and the men most thoroughly, and
declared, "As for the mutineers who have joined the slave-hunters,
Inshallah, the vultures shall pick their bones!"

This charitable wish--which, I believe, I expressed with intense
hatred--was never forgotten either by my own men or by the Turks.
Believing firmly in the evil eye, their superstitious fears were
immediately excited.

I had noticed during the march from Latome that the vicinity of every
town was announced by heaps of human remains. Bones and skulls formed a
Golgotha within a quarter of a mile of every village. Some of these were
in earthenware pots, generally broken; others lay strewn here and there,
while a heap in the centre showed that some form had originally been
observed in their disposition. This was explained by an extraordinary
custom, most rigidly observed by the Latookas. Should a man be killed in
battle the body is allowed to remain where it fell, and is devoured by
the vultures and hyenas; but should he die a natural death he is buried
in a shallow grave within a