262 LIFE WITH THE HAM RAN ARABS. 



cow would be a match for twenty of them as to quantity, 

 and as to cream the whole herd perhaps would not produce 

 so much. Still, a good draught of milk from the united 

 efforts of sundry Soudan cows is not to be despised after 

 a long ride under a tropical sun. We thoroughly en- 

 joyed it, though not able to repeat the performance so 

 often as our men expected, for bowl after bowl was 

 brought us, until we were obliged to point to our throats 

 to prove to them that our capacity to swallow milk had 

 a limit. We soon arrived at our old camp, and then 

 took a stroll to find something for the larder, and bagged 

 two Dorcas gazelles. 



Vivian's hunter Mohamed, surnamed, we find, Fage- 

 role, has obtained three days' leave to go to his village to 

 pray for his father, of whose death he heard to-day from 

 the cattle-drovers. The news has not apparently dis- 

 tressed him, nor was he anxious to go if Vivian wished 

 to keep him. 



March 30. Our second visit to El Effaara has quite 

 settled the important fact in our minds, that there is no 

 game to be obtained here excepting by very long journeys 

 from the river, and then only antelope, and these keep 

 in such open country that no amount of stalking is of 

 avail in its present burnt-up state. Even our very 

 domestic friends, the tetel and hind koodoos, keep well 

 out of shot, and indeed, were it not for guinea-fowl, we 

 should soon find ourselves on the short commons of 



