A LITTLE SURPRISE. 149 



leeches dropt out one after the other, as if mes- 

 merized by my touch. My Dankalli friends stared, 

 as well they might, at this striking illustration of 

 knowledge being power, especially as the modus 

 operandi was a mystery they could not fathom, and 

 they took themselves and the mule off, with an 

 idea that I must be a mighty magician, like Moses 

 of old, and that my knowledge must indeed be, as 

 they expressed it, " as extensive as the sea." 



I experienced a little surprise myself in the 

 evening of the same day, when the camels were 

 brought into camp for the night. These animals 

 are driven out every day, in charge of one or two 

 individuals, to browse, principally on the green 

 leaves and large clusters of curling pods of the 

 mimosa-trees, which abound in this neighbourhood. 

 A little before sunset, their owners and the slaves 

 proceed in all directions to bring them in, and 

 although sometimes a circuit of at least eighteen 

 miles has been cleared of what little vegetation it 

 boasts of, yet it is very seldom a camel is ever lost, 

 unless actually driven away by some robber lurking 

 on the outskirts of their feeding-ground. On this 

 evening, two or three men drove the numerous 

 herds of camels before them, and came into camp 

 on one side of a low hill, whilst on the other the 

 remainder of the men who had assisted in collect- 

 ing them came in a body, exactly like the Muditu 

 the preceding day. At a short distance before 

 them, pirouetting in a succession of bounding 

 leaps, his body bent towards the ground, whilst the 



