SCENE OF THE MURDER. 129 



liberty to take up salt on their respective shores. 

 He added, they were constantly fighting either 

 between themselves, or with the Issah Soumaulee 

 tribes, who in strong parties sometimes came down 

 and loaded great numbers of camels with the salt. 

 Gunguntur, our present halting-place, belonged to 

 the Muditu; on one side of the valley they had 

 some huts, but the other was not frequented by 

 them, as no food could be found for their flocks. I 

 rather suppose it was the contiguity of the Issah 

 Soumaulee, who on the opposite side held them 

 in check, and would not allow them to cross over 

 the ravine. 



In the evening I accompanied Ohmed Mahomed 

 to the scene of the murder of the soldiers. It was 

 a little open space surrounded by high red precipi- 

 tous hills, where two or three small streams joined 

 the one running into Bahr Assal. A triangular 

 plain of loose angular debris of several feet thick 

 had been channelled by water, and seemed as if 

 traversed by a wide road having flat topped banks 

 of three or four feet high. The sombre hue of its 

 high embosoming rocks, the bare surface of the 

 stone-covered plain, with the absence of all vegeta- 

 tion, formed a scene well suited for a deed of blood, 

 especially if it can be pictured upon a night when 

 the moon, sometimes obscured by clouds, cast occa- 

 sional shadows of a pitchy darkness upon the earth. 



It appears that the members of the Mission lay 

 in a long line beneath one of the low banks. 



VOL. I. K 



