‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST,’ 245 
European pattern, such as a Bohemian beetroot-sugar factory; 
for it is a very plain neglected sort of building, with some 
low chimneys, which only give it something of the look of a 
factory. In it the produce of the numerous sugar-cane fields 
is turned to account. 
We took a hasty breakfast in the very primitively arranged 
waiting-room of the station, and then hurried to get our 
caravan together. This is no easy business in the Hast ; for 
every one offers the services of himself, his horse, or his 
donkey in the most impetuous way. They all shout, gesti- 
culate, and jostle each other till the unfortunate stranger is 
perfectly deafened and throws himself into the arms of the 
nearest. However, with the assistance of some gendarmes 
and our trusty sticks, we soon managed to get this wild chaos 
into order. 
The gentlemen and the attendants were all provided with 
horses, and we also engaged some men to carry the dachs- 
hunds, which are so necessary to the sportsman in this 
country. On this occasion a regular pack had been got 
together ; for Baron Saurma had brought ten, and we four of 
these plucky pugnacious animals. 
With some difficulty the crowds of inquisitive gaping people 
who had gathered round us were pushed back and prevented 
from running after us. The Bedouin sportsmen, whom we 
really needed, rode and walked in front, forming a little com- 
pany, all clad in white, or rather in dirty yellow burnouses, 
and armed with long guns and curved knives. At their waists 
hung primitive tobacco-pouches and bags of powder and 
hacked lead, their long lean legs being bare and their feet 
thrust into red slippers. Here, as throughout Northern 
Africa, they were wretchedly poor, wearing no colours or 
pretty stuffs, not even turbans, but only the brown close-fitting 
tarbooshes, the younger men being even quite bare-headed. 
These people are of an interesting type, for they are true 
