RANFURLY RAPIDLY LOSES STRENGTH. 291 



he is quite indifferent to what is passing around him. 

 Our position is therefore becoming complicated, having 

 to communicate our wants through Ibrahim by the means 

 of the little French he knows, and through Mohamed the 

 cook, with his few words of English or ours of Arabic. 

 Though Ranfurly has been quite free for a week from 

 all evidence of dysentery, it is but too apparent that he 

 is almost hourly losing strength now probably from 

 being unable to eat any of the food our reduced supplies 

 can afford him, excepting Liebig's Extract, nor will he 

 hardly taste some chicken we have obtained here for 

 him. In this respect we have no difficulty with Albert. 



Sheik Aghill has tried his little game of robbery 

 again, but has been on this occasion completely beaten. 

 In fact it is quite evident that, though nominally Sheik, 

 he has lost all power ; for when we refused to pay his 

 demand of four dollars per camel to Kassala, an Arab 

 from a neighbouring village offered, to supply us at one 

 and a half dollars per camel, and finally we engaged 

 our own camel-men with some others at this rate, with- 

 out Aghill having anything to do with the arrangement, 

 great change must have come over the spirit of 

 his dream since our previous visit to him. 



April 19. Last night we had our first experience of 

 a thunderstorm breaking over our heads, and a very 

 disagreeable one it was. The lightning had been, as 

 usual, forked and very vivid, and sometimes travelled in 



U 2 



