212 LIFE WITH THE HA MR AN ARABS. 



favourite camping-ground, as it is quite free from lions, 

 and there certainly are some good trees for shade. Some- 

 times it is no easy matter to find a place under the trees 

 so completely shut off from the sun as to allow me to 

 obtain the correct temperature in the shade, and a hollow 

 in an old trunk is prized accordingly. A party of Hamran 

 Arab hunters passed onwards to-day from the Royan. 

 They declared they had caught nothing, and had had no 

 meat for fifteen days, and attributed their want of suc- 

 cess to our having driven all game from the country by 

 our guns. We sent them on their way rejoicing, by 

 giving them a freshly-killed ariel ; but whether their 

 statement was true or not our men don't care, for 

 besides feasting daily on fresh meat, they are accumu- 

 lating an immense store of it in the dried state in their 

 villages. One Arab said the other day that he had not 

 eaten so much meat in thirty years as he has done since 

 he came to us ; but as the Arabs who stay at home 

 only eat meat when their cattle die from disease or old 

 age, it is not surprising that the total consumption 

 during this long period should have been so limited. 



March 8. We have been giraffe-hunters to-day, but 

 beyond seeing our game three times half a mile off it 

 has been a very blank day. The tiresome part of giraffe- 

 hunting is that it is a long day's ride to get to their 

 woods, and the trees are sufficiently scattered for them 

 to see our approach from a great distance, and with their 



