i;8 LIFE WITH THE HAMRAN ARABS. 



was off like the wind, running as only an ostrich can run, 

 and escaped unhurt. Returning here, I placed my eight- 

 bore under the special charge of Ibrahim, as I knew I 

 should not want it for rhinoceros, and on my arrival I 

 learnt to my dismay that the stock and barrel had parted 

 company, through the carelessness of an Arab to whom 

 Ibrahim had given it to carry for a short time. The 

 only explanation I could get from this individual was 

 that God must have broken it. Still it is of little im- 

 portance how or by whom it was broken, for now some 

 of the steel is smashed, and its chequered career is defi- 

 nitely brought to a close, so far as this country is con- 

 cerned, and with, it my prospect of killing any more big 

 game. But there has been a loss far more grievous to 

 the individual concerned than mine, for the old soldier 

 has lost his donkey, Jarrone having decamped with the 

 sick horse during the afternoon unobserved by anyone, 

 and is now nowhere to be found. Hadji Basheer has 

 spent the entire evening by himself, crying piteously ; 

 but he has been somewhat comforted by the promise of 

 two horses to-morrow, that with an Arab he may follow 

 their tracks, and it is generally believed that if they do 

 not meet any lions or hygenas by the way (N.B. hyaenas 

 are reported to be particularly partial to donkeys), they 

 will be found at our last encampment on the Settite ; and 

 if they have gone there from sheer disgust at the 

 water they have had to drink here, they ought not to be 



