176 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[August, 1901. 



rolling up the matting and cloth forming the walls of 

 the huts, and in a few hours disappeared, cari7iiig away 

 their roofs by the four comer poles, their rolled-up 

 walls, and all their goods and chattels. V\'hen asked 

 why they moved away from us they gave no rea.son 

 beyond remarking that they objected to our tents being 

 near them. 



lu two or three places we found natives living in a 

 much rougher sort of hut, built under very thick bushes 

 which had been cut out in the middle and thickened 

 on the outside, thus forming natural " Zareebas. ' 



The reason for such diversity in dwellings lies in the 

 mixed chai-acter of the population of this stretch of 

 country. Arabs and blacks of many tribes inhabit it. 

 and although rather thinly populated, the people were 

 so evenly distributed along our route that we were 

 bcarcely ever out of sight of a native. At the time of 

 our visit the men were enjoying idleness, but the women 

 were always hard at work carrying water or grinding 

 corn. The corn is placed upon a wide and heavy stone 

 and is then gi'ouiid with a smaller stone, which is rubbed 

 and rolled backwards and forwards. The stones wear 

 away rapidly, and a family must actually consume a 

 goodly number in a lifetime. The boys are also kept 

 busy shepherding the goats and sheep, which are in 

 thousands all over the country. These animals are 

 very rarely slaughtered and are kept merely for their 

 milk. In the wet season, of course, conditions are eutirel}' 

 changed, and the men are busily employed growing 

 " dhura," maize, cotton and other produce. At the end 

 of the dry season food becomes so scarce that the goats 

 are fed upon the roots of the grass, the grass being 

 hoed up, and the roots beaten soft with siioi-t wooden 

 clubs. 



Near the large villages we found the natives 

 decidedly independent and difficult to get on with. In 

 the smaller villages and isolated communities the dress, 

 or rather the greater want of dress, at once showed the 

 people to be of a more uusophisticated nature. They 

 greeted us with many salaams and much kissing of 



Fig. 3.~A .Vitiif loum. 



hands, and were more willing to give us such supplies 

 as they could, but very little work could be got out 

 of them. 



At every camp we harangued the " Sheikh of the 

 nearest village and asked him to procure us animals for 

 our collection, but wc stipulated that they should be 

 brought in alive and uninjured. Wc offered varying 

 rewards, but at only one camp did the natives shov.- 



any interest or take any trouble to earn the reward. At 

 this camp, near a rocky hill named Gebel Auli, the 

 natives brought us a number of bats and some rather 

 rai'e hedgehogs, caught in the caverns on the hill. The 

 bats were brought by a boy who appeared with his shirt 

 bulging out and held up to his neck. Out of the shirt 

 were extricated, amidst considerable amusement and 

 excitement, half-a-dozen live bats with long and very 

 sharp teeth, which were more than once used with great 

 effect. The bats were swarming in the cracks and 

 cavenis of Gsbel Auli, and their squeaking could be 

 heard at a considerable distance. The natives poked 

 long sticks into the cracks and out flew the bats, which 



YiG. 4.— A Movable Hut made of Hatting. Tlie woman ou tlie left 

 is grinding corn, while the two seated on the " angarib," or nati^■e 

 bedstead, are spinning. 



were knocked down with cloths. The hedgehogs which 

 were brought to us from this same hill were exceedingly 

 pretty little beasts with dark spines and whit* hair. 

 On them we discovered some elegant yellow fleas, which 

 I gave to Mr. Charles Rothschild, who collects these 

 parasites. He proclaims them a new species, and has 

 done me the honour of naming them Pu/ex Witherbii ! 



Ill general, however, the offer of a reward for animals 

 would produce great keenness among the natives for 

 only a day or so. They would bring in any number 

 of the common rats of the country and. although we 

 stipulated for live animals, every bone, skull, or bit of 

 skin that could be found would be brought in the hope 

 of reward. But when they found that we needed no 

 more of the rats that swarmed in their hvits, these very 

 lazy natives returned to their normal occupation of 

 sleeping and eating and refused to hunt any fiu'ther. 

 This seems extraordinai'y, because luxuries to a certain 

 extent can now be bought for money m the markets of 

 all the larger villages through which we jsassed. 



In the days of the Khalifa it was rather a disad- 

 vantage for a man to become prosperous. The tyrant 

 would soon hear of it, sweep down upon him and carry 

 off his flocks and corn. As several natives said to us 

 when we asked them why they refused the money we 

 offered for goats' milk : " The Khalifa never took the 

 milk, he always took the goats unless thev w-ere driven 

 away and hidden. Now you come and onlj' w'ant the 

 milk and offer to pay for that ! " No doubt they think 

 the English fools. 



Although singularly uniuquisitive the natives pro- 

 vided one of the trials of collecting by their ubiquity. 

 One could never be sure on shooting at a bird v/hether 



