138 ATTACK OF THE MUDITU. 



reluctantly by their owners, as the designs of Ga- 

 rahmee were fully understood, when all at once a 

 general rush was made for spears and shields, Oh- 

 med Mahomed calling hastily upon me to bring my 

 guns, and take my place with the rest in a line of 

 defence which was formed a few yards from my 

 hut. The women, all collected together, were 

 crying out u koo, koo, koo," in a long continued 

 strain, whilst the men brandished their spears with 

 loud cries of defiance. Garahmee, Moosa, and Adam 

 Burrah performed the usual stamping pas de trois 

 in front, and a man with the most ludicrous gravity, 

 armed with spear and shield, dancing round and 

 round, with a very small and slow step, from one 

 extremity of the semicircle to the other, completed 

 the scene on our side of the preparations made on 

 the occasion of this sudden commotion. Before I 

 made these observations, however, Zaido, the black 

 colour of whose cheeks was now changed to a 

 motley grey, pointed out to me about an equal 

 number of Muditu, assembled upon the irregular 

 slope of the opposite side of the valley, who were 

 approaching in a close compact body, and not in 

 the straggling manner as did the Bursane Bedouins 

 on the previous occasion. Every one of our party 

 anticipated a certain attack, and each had provided 

 himself with a large fragment of rock, which was 

 to precede the hurling of the spear. As the enemy 

 approached very rapidly, and was now but a few 

 hundred yards off, every one of my party called 



