HADENDOWA ARABS AGAIN. 315 



apparent amusement of some natives who looked on 

 from a respectful distance ; then drink milk to our hearts' 

 content, and buy a sheep. The Arab with our two sheep 

 did not come into camp last night, so that we must hope 

 that he, at least, found his way to some cattle-drovers, 

 whatever became of our doubtful property. At 10 P.M. we 

 encamped for the night, and therefore so far we are 

 dividing the day's work into easy stages. This 

 unfortunately cannot depend upon our will, but on 

 the nature of the ground, for where there is water 

 or food for the camels there we must break the 

 journey. 



April 30. The Hadendowa Arabs are at their old 

 games again. Though they were called at 4 A.M. no 

 camels were ready before 9 A.M., and the oft-repeated 

 story that their camels had strayed and could not be 

 found was all that we could obtain from them as a 

 reason for the delay. There was certainly some truth 

 in it this morning, for one camel could not be found, 

 and the unfortunate owner on his return to camp 

 after a long unsuccessful search received a good 

 thrashing from the soldier with a koorbatch, possibly 

 as a warning to the others to be more careful in 

 future. The man appeared to accept without a 

 murmur the justice of his sentence, for he laid 

 himself down on his face very quietly and bore the 

 severe punishment without flinching. We have 



