356 TREAT FOR THE RECOVERY 



They then took away Abu Mahomed Allee, and 

 after a long discussion among themselves, they all 

 again returned to my hut, and sitting down round 

 the entrance, said they had come to have a calahm, 

 to consider what sum of money they should receive 

 in Shoa for taking up the abandoned property with 

 us. I could promise them nothing more than the 

 hire of the camels, which should be paid at half 

 the rate given for those, which were engaged in 

 Tajourah, as I understood that there was still 

 to be performed, about the same distance as 

 we had already come. This did not satisfy them 

 at all; two hundred dollars they demanded as a 

 present for themselves, independent of the camels' 

 hire, and unless I promised that, they said they 

 would not interfere in the matter at all, or exert 

 themselves to procure the restoration of the pro- 

 perty. This I refused at once, and as I felt it to 

 be another attempt at extortion, I threatened in 

 return, that I would not stir from the halting-place 

 we were at, until the boxes were given up, and if 

 they chose to proceed without me, I would go and 

 live at Errur with Abu Mahomed Allee, in whose 

 kraal I should be as secure as I was with the 

 Kafilah. 



This determination had its weight in their 

 deliberations, and they never alluded to the present 

 again, but insisted upon receiving in Shoa, and not 

 in Tajourah, the ten dollars per camel required to 

 carry this addition to my charge. I agreed to this 



