AND CASSIM. 83 



for he appeared in a short time afterwards, and 

 asked me to give him some lucifer matches, with 

 which request I immediately complied, and in this 

 manner established peace again between us. 



On the present occasion Cassim began the con- 

 versation by saying, how anxious he was for the 

 Kafilah to proceed, which was false ; as Zaido had 

 told me but a short time before that we were 

 waiting for some friends of Cassim himself, who 

 were going to join our Kafilah with a few camels, 

 which they intended to load with salt for the 

 Shoan market at the Bahr Assal, and that they 

 would not be ready till the next day. Cassim, 

 however, went on to state, that he was exceedingly 

 angry with his brother, Ohmed Mahomed, for 

 detaining us, and that it was his intention to go 

 back to Tajourah to hasten him on to rejoin the 

 Kafilah ; and added, that Ibrahim would also 

 accompany him for mutual protection on the road. 

 He concluded, by representing that the smallest 

 offering would be gladly accepted, but hinted his 

 expectation of a considerable boxeish for his attend- 

 ance so far, and proportionate to the very impor- 

 tant position he held among the Tajourah people, 

 which, he said, would be considerably dimi- 

 nished, if what I should give him were not what 

 his admirers might expect. As I was not in a 

 humour to understand all this, my little knowledge 

 of Arabic wonderfully diminished, and it was absurd 

 to see the grave personage Cassim, in consequence, 



g 2 



