en. XX.] Gazelle Hnniers. 



109 



have mentioned, and we have sent all our animals 

 to drink and the skins to be filled. 



We have been much interested this afternoon in 

 a family of Sleb who are staying in the Gomussa 

 camp. The head of the family Hut3ran il^n Malck is 

 considered the principal slieykh of the Sleb, and as 

 such is allowed to sit in Beteyen's tent, but the 

 others remain outside. He is a man of thirty or 

 thereabouts, with a dark not very prepossessing coun- 

 tenance, and a rather sensual look. He is dressed as 

 an Arab, and mio-ht be taken for one at first sio;lit. 

 Two younger men, however, his relations, are exceed- 

 ingly good looking, with delicately cut features, 

 and the whitest possible teeth. There is a boy too 

 who is perfectly beautiful, with almond-shaped eyes, 

 and a complexion like stained ivory. A little old 

 woman, not more than four feet high, and two girls 

 of fourteen or fifteen, the most lovely little creatures 

 I ever saw, complete the family. They are all very 

 short, but in perfect proportion, their hands and 

 feet exaggeratedly small, and all have a strange half- 

 frightened smile, and an astonished look in the eyes, 

 which remind one rather of wild creatures than of 

 men and women. Indeed, they go about the camp 

 as if expecting every minute to have to run for 

 their lives, and I am sure they would do it like 

 gazelles. Their dress is made entirely of gazelle 

 skins, and consists of a long garment reaching to 

 the ankles, something in the style of the Arab 

 mashlakh, but with sleeves reaching to the wrists 



