CHAPTER VIII 



We meet with a hostile reception from the Ayibbas at Nyanabec — A very 

 unpleasant conversation — The effect of a gun — The Agibbas — The 

 dress and habits — On again. 



An hour or so brought me to Nyanabec, which I hiter 

 discovered was the name of the village I had visited 

 the night before. 



My presents would, I felt sure, have shown that I 

 was friendly, so I again sent a couple of men to invite 

 the sheikh to come to me. They had not been gone 

 half a minute before I saw them tearing back. As the 

 Maxim gun was ready for action I was able to wait for 

 their explanation, which was that they had advanced 

 a little way by the main path and had then noticed 

 that the high grass on either side of it was full of 

 armed savages, who gave chase when my people began 

 to retire. Such a lapse of routine — I had served only 

 in semi-civilised Kordofan till now — appeared to me 

 incredible. I waited for a rush if there was to be one, 

 and as nothing happened, and the men would not go 

 back, I decided to go myself. It was evident that the 

 natives were merely frightened. I therefore moved up 

 the path (at right angles to the one we had followed 

 the night before), shouting out greetings in Arabic, 



which my interpreter, from fifty yards behind, trans- 



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