THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 133 



would have been vexatiously wearisome. This diversion was 

 afforded, strange enough, l>y the fighting black women on board, 

 who worried, quarreled and scratched like Gehenna cats. Among 

 these was one little black terrier named Gaddum Her, very short, 

 but wonderfully strong and plucky ; she was the embodiment of 

 long-cultivated vice, and was always spoiling for a fight. On 

 one occasion this little wretch fought with another of her tribe 

 until they rolled all over the boat, and finally down into the hold, 

 where they landed upon a number of water-jars, which they 

 broke. On the next day the fight was renewed, and did not end 

 until both had fallen into the river. This irritability was not 

 only manifested among the women, but the donkeys, horses and 

 camels also had their daily fights. 



THE ALTAB TRIBE. 



ON January zoch Baker passed two bivouacs of Aliabs, who 

 were tending large herds of cattle. These people appeared quite 

 friendly ; they were hardly so bad as the Kytch tribe, but were 

 very low in the scale of humanity. They not only milk their 

 cows, but bleed them every month, by driving a lance into a vein 

 of the neck, and boil the blood for food. Living in a country 

 where mosquitoes are so numerous, they make tumuli of dung, 

 which are kept constantly on fire, fresh fuel being added as fast 

 as wasted ; this burns like smudge, producing a heavy smoke 

 that drives the mosquitoes away. Around these smouldering 

 dung-heaps the cattle crowd in hundreds, living with the natives 

 in the smoke. By degrees the heaps of ashes become about 

 eight feet high ; they are then used as sleeping places and watch 

 stations by the natives, who, rubbing themselves all over with 

 the ashes, have a ghastly and devilish appearance positively hor- 

 rible to look upon. 



THE SHIR TRIBE. 



Two days later, Baker came upon the Shir tribe, which he 

 describes as follows : ' The men are, as usual in these countries, 

 armed with well-made ebony clubs, two lances, a bow (always 

 strung), and a bundle of arrows ; their hands are completely full 



