292 A NATIVE CHANT. 



knives, held close on one side the face, as, with 

 both hands, the bone was held most lovingly to the 

 mouth, glistened frequently in the blaze of the 

 fires, when, with sudden snatches, they detached 

 with their teeth, the raw remnants of flesh that 

 still remained. 



Somewhat amused with the scene, I took a 

 stroll among the cooking fires, and the recumbent 

 escort ; as I came near one of them, he, without 

 raising his head from the wooden pillow on which 

 it rested, reached his arm out, and rolling a stone 

 nearer to him, patted it with his hand, and calling 

 out, " Ahkeem," very politely invited me to take 

 a seat by his side. Here our conversation stopt; 

 for, besides " How do you," I did not understand 

 a word scarcely of their language. However, my 

 presence was the signal for a song; Carmel 

 Ibrahim, my present entertainer, and chief man of 

 the Hy Soumaulee escort, commencing. An 

 improvisatored chant, of which, of course, I was 

 the subject, was sung in alternate stanzas by a 

 noisy chorus, who followed Carmel's dictation, 

 something like a country congregation, when, 

 from the scarcity of books, the clerk, to accom- 

 modate them, gives out two lines of the hymn 

 at a time. I awaited, very patiently, the termina- 

 tion of the song, which only ended when supper 

 was reported ready ; music that moment lost its 

 charm, and the savage, good-humoured choristers 

 bounded to their feet, and thronged around the 



