IV GOVERNMENT EXPLORATIONS 107 
of the Rer Haréd, Jibril Abokr, who were out raiding the 
Bahgoba sub-tribe, and I came upon some of the robbers in 
rather a curious manner. 
Our caravan was marching from Gebili to a small hill called 
Bohol-Kawulu, while with four hunters I took a short-cut across 
a deep valley, the direct distance being four and a half miles. 
We had passed the Gebili sand-river and were working our 
way up some low foothills, intersected by deep narrow ravines 
having perpendicular sides, and choked with thorn-jungle, when 
I observed about fifty vultures circling over a tributary gully. 
Thinking a lion might have killed a koodoo, we made our way 
towards the place, and found ourselves at the foot of a platform 
of ground with nearly perpendicular sides, about forty feet high. 
It was above this little plateau that the vultures were circling, 
and climbing noiselessly up I peeped over, expecting to see some 
dead game. 
Instead of this, about thirty yards away were some fifteen 
nen sitting in a circle round a fire eating camel meat, which 
they had been roasting, the carcase of a camel lying close by. 
One of the men saw my head above the edge of the platform, 
and all of them, giving a look of horror, snatched up their spears 
and shields and bolted, only a few having the presence of mind 
to take away pieces of meat! I jumped up and shouted to them 
to stop, but they disappeared ; and soon afterwards we obtained 
a glimpse of their white tobes as they topped a crag a mile 
away, still running hard, after which we never saw them again. 
We saw vultures several times during the next two marches, 
and once again I came to a smouldering fire and roasting 
meat, which had been thrown down ina hurry. The vultures 
had been circling and screaming above the place, but as we 
approached they all slanted down one after another, wings 
extended and motionless, and legs hanging perpendicularly, 
showing, in the language of the jungle, that human beings, or 
perhaps a lion, had been keeping them from the meat. 
Two of our men, who had lagged behind the caravan, saw 
another party of twenty men running along with camel meat 
slung over their shoulders. All these parties were Rer Haréd 
robbers who had been engaged in the late raid, and were retiring 
in groups with the stolen Bahgoba camels. The raiding tribe 
always attacks unexpectedly in a concentrated force, but on the 
return journey through the enemy’s country splits up into 
small parties, taking to the most hilly ground, and hiding in the 
