THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 213 



and then to his great delight smeared all over from head to toes 

 with red ochre and grease, with a cock's feather stuck in his 

 woolly pate. He was then a most charming pet savage, and his 

 toilette completed, he invariably sat next to his mistress, drinking 

 a gourd-shell of hot milk, while I smoked my early morning pipe 

 beneath the tree. I made bows and arrows for my boys, and 

 taught them to shoot at a mark, a large pumpkin being carved 

 into a man's head to excite their aim. Thus the days were 

 passed until the evening ; at that time a large fire was lighted to 

 create a blaze, drums were collected, and after dinner a grand 

 dance was kept up by the children, until the young Abbai ended 

 regularly by creeping under my wife's chair, and falling sound 

 asleep : from this protected spot he was carried to his mat, 

 wrapped up in a piece of old flannel (the best cloth we had), in 

 which he slept till morning. Poor little Abbai ! I often wonder 

 what will be his fate, and whether in his dreams he recalls the 

 few months of happiness that brightened his earliest days of 

 slavery." 



ON THE HOMEWARD MARCH. A SAD SCENE. 



THE want of porters still detained Ibrahim, and seeing little 

 hope of procuring men for that service, in February Baker de- 

 cided to start for Gondokoro with a party of Mohammed's men, 

 who had to go there for new supplies. As the oxen were saddled 

 to start, crowds of people came to say "goodbye." There were 

 ties, even in this savage country, which were painful to sever, 

 and which caused sincere regets to both Baker and his wife when 

 they saw their little flock of slave children crying at the separa- 

 tion. He says, "In this moral desert, where all humanized 

 feelings were withered and parched like the sands of the Soudan, 

 the guilelessness of the children had been welcomed like springs 

 of water, as the only refreshing feature in a land of sin and 

 darkness. * Where are you going?' cried poor little Abbai in the 

 broken Arabic that we had taught him. Take me with you, 

 Sitty ! ' (lady,) and he followed us down the path as we regret- 

 fully left our proteges, with his fists tucked into his eyes, 

 weeping from his heart, although for his own mother he had not 



