A FIGHT WITH THE TUBUS 3 



again on the war-path. Besides, the Mecca caravan was 

 passing through the country, and as this always affords them 

 a great opportunity for plunder, they were hovering like 



.MKTIIDD OF IlvlilUATIUN U^. lilVKll Yu 



vultures all along the line of peaceful pilgrims and their 

 flocks. 



This caravan was part of the great pilgrimage that goes 

 yearly to Mecca from all the Mahomedan districts of Africa. 

 The pilgrims from the west go by way of Fort Lamy and 

 Fittri to Wadai, and so on through Darfur to the Nile, where 

 they take boat to Khartoum, through which place, I am 

 told, 80,000 passed this year. From Khartoum the 

 British Government gives to all those who can show that 

 they have no means a free passage by the railway to Suakin, 

 and thence by boat across the Red Sea to Hedjaz. As one 

 travels along the line to Suakin, it is a picturesque sight to 

 see the pilgrim camps with their white tents against the 



