198 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



All eyes are directed to the distance, to the farthest 

 Koms of the city of Menas, for there will the cavalcade 

 first appear again. Joyful notes in a high treble 

 are heard a woman's figure draped in black climbed 

 up the tent and discovered a cloud of dust. Women 

 and girls rush out, and a hundred voices greet the 

 horsemen with the chanting of the sarlul of the bedouin 

 women. The rhythm of the hand-clapping grows 

 slower, attention is fixed on those who are approach- 

 ing. Individual riders are seen galloping in front of 

 the rest and winning the field. Terrified, we perceive 

 they are standing in the saddle, bent almost to the 

 horse's mane, swinging their guns in their free right 

 hand. Sadaui, our bold young* sheikh, is the first. 

 His pride would not let it be otherwise, even if he 

 rode his horse to death. Now he flies forward, hold- 

 ing his gun aloft, balancing it on his bent head, and 

 letting his hand fall. The fluttering figure flies over 

 the plain, while the cavalcade gains on him from behind, 

 and this display being successful, he again seizes his 

 gun as he flies, swings it over head and shoulders, and 

 fires twice at short intervals at the very moment he 

 rushes past. So far as they can, the rest imitate the 

 sheikh. Then the foam-flecked horses are reined in 

 and paraded round for a time to recover breath. The 

 performance was twice repeated in the course of the 

 day." 



Mr. Bennet Burleigh, the famous war correspondent, 

 spent a Christmas in Ashanti. 1 That it was not a very 

 enjoyable experience is evident from the details he 

 gives in his record of the Ashanti campaign. " Keep- 

 ing Christmas in Fantee-land is>, not an everyday 

 1 See Bibliography, 38. 



