RETROSPECT 335 



except to irritate noble man and make him use bad language ? 

 No self-respecting animal would deign to eat them, nor would it 

 touch, I feel sure, field and other fleas, and those disgusting 

 creatures ticks or leeches or jiggers ! 



One tableau remains differing from all the others a scene so 

 beautiful, engrossing, and solemn, as perhaps to have left the 

 deepest impression of all on my mind. 



It was on the borders of Abyssinia as already described in 

 the "Sketches in the Soudan" that I was present at the 

 evening (and morning) worship or confession of faith of a tribe 

 of the Beni Amer Arabs who, as nomads, had taken up their 

 temporary quarters in a sereba of mimosa scrub in the then dry 

 bed of a river. Against my will, but for my safety, for there 

 were many lions about, I and my camel had just before sunset 

 been brought among these most hospitable people, and thus 

 became a spectator at a most impressive scene. The sun was 

 about to disappear, beyond the sereba fence nothing met the eye 

 but date- and dome-palms lining the river bank ; within were the 

 low palm-leaf huts of the tribe. When the men had assembled 

 on the open space before the sheikh's hut, the chief in front with 

 the " faki," his people ranged behind them, the holy man recited 

 the Mohammedan formula of faith and all responded. The sur- 

 roundings, the knowledge that this same scene had been enacted 

 every evening for centuries with just the same ardour and intense 

 devotion and rapt attention on the part of these nomad worshippers 

 one and all, devotion such as is seen in no other faith, impressed 

 me, the only onlooker, very greatly. In what other religion will 

 the members so strictly and unfailingly carry out the rites pre- 

 scribed and kneel in public wherever they may be when the time 

 for worship comes and, utterly absorbed, remain unconscious of 

 all surroundings ? 



Man alone filled one tableau so remarkable, picturesque, and 

 as interesting in every detail as to be absolutely unique. It was 

 the last and probably the greatest spectacle staged by a great 

 man who, when the curtain had fallen on that wonderful show, 

 was shortly to lose not only his country but his life also. It was 

 Lobengula's great war-dance in 1890, during the visit of the 

 Queen's messengers to Bulawayo. The " dance," lasting a week, 

 was the largest that had been fifteen thousand fighting-men were 

 supposed to be present, as all available warriors had been called 



