XXVIII INTIMIDATION AND OBSTRUCTION 325 



down, while he sent to a neighbouring village for a man 

 who did. Meanwhile, he amused himself by telling my 

 men tales of how the outlaws shot down people from 

 ambush, waylaid them close to camp, and other such- 

 like yarns calculated to frighten them. A villager 

 happening to come along the path, we made inquiries 

 and found we were on the wrong one, so I offered him 

 a dollar to show me the way to the next stage, which 

 he gladly agreed to do, when the guide peremptorily 

 ordered him to go about his business, and then coolly 

 proposed we should camp where we were. To put an 

 end to this deadlock, I ordered Nasser to pitch the tents 

 by the first water he came to, took my two interpreters 

 with me, and started back to interview Dedjatch Merrit. 

 The guide ran after us, and, meeting on the way a lad 

 who was leading a horse, jumped on, and galloped ahead 

 of me to the stockade, but returned a little while after, 

 before I had time to reach it, and assured me he would 

 take me anywhere I wished. While he had been away, 

 my friend of the fat bullock episode had come up and 

 told my men that, unless I showed a bold front to the 

 Dedjatch, the latter would do nothing for me. I took 

 the hint, and, telling the guide briefly that I intended to 

 see his master myself, I rode up to the entrance of the 

 stockade, ordered one of my men to announce my arrival, 

 and, having dismounted, strode up to the tent. The 

 place was so packed with armed men that it was with 

 difficulty my two interpreters could make a way for me. 

 Refusing the Dedjatch's proffered hand or a seat, I 

 asked him what he meant by his treatment of me '^ 

 Did he think that I, an Englishman, who had been 



