SKETCHES IN THE SOUDAN 21 



being one after another untied, they slowly rise and stalk off 

 towards some specially inviting branch on the green river bank 

 in search of breakfast. Our factotum, the dragoman, is busy 

 with his ablutions, consisting of washing his face, feet and 

 hands ablutions which must precede his morning prayers 

 according to the tenets of the Mohammedan religion. There is 

 abundance of water left in the skins, and we shall reach wells 

 again to-night, so there is enough for every one, otherwise sand 

 or earth would have to do instead, with which, in the absence of 

 water, an Arab rubs his hands, afterwards passing them over his 

 face. Thus cleansed, the worshipper, after spreading his mat, or 

 smoothing the sand in front of him, turns to the east, standing 

 bolt upright with naked feet ; he slowly raises his hands, 

 touches with the finger-tips the top of each shoulder, and then 

 lets his arms fall again to the side, exclaiming, " Allahu 

 Akbar ! " God is great ! the opening sentence of his worship. 

 The Mohammedan's prayer is not a prayer in our sense of the 

 word, it is adoration and praise of the Deity ; prayer with 

 him would be useless, his fate is unalterably fixed and nothing 

 he can do can change it. 



Suleiman Ayoob, a native of Berber on the Nile, and drago- 

 man in Cairo, is an excellent man in every way; he never shirks 

 hard work and speaks English extremely well. A most devout 

 follower of Islam, and a violent opponent of the abolition of 

 slavery, he had a great objection to the vicinity of wild beasts in 

 general and of lions in particular, and at night would fence 

 round his angareb native bedstead by a barricade of all our 

 boxes, carefully filling up every crevasse, while two men, whom 

 he had constituted his own special guards, slept at his side with 

 shield and spear. We had engaged him in Cairo, and having 

 already accompanied a shooting expedition into the Soudan, he 

 was conversant with every detail and proved a most valuable 

 head-man. 



G. and I in the meantime had completed our toilets, for which 

 but little time is required, and are already busy with breakfast. 

 That over, the boxes are packed, corded, and the camels sent 

 for. Every one as it comes in is made to lie down between two 

 boxes, its destined load, which boxes are soon slung, one on 

 each side, by means of cords across the saddle. The loaded 

 camel rises, and, if the boxes are properly balanced and every- 



