ABUNDANCE OF SUPPLIES. 369 



distance of not more than five yards from each 

 other, and towards evening I often took a walk, 

 along the naturally formed lanes, to pick up 

 some trait of character, by observing the inmates 

 and their occupation in these human nests. If 

 they were not sleeping, which was most frequently 

 the case, they would perhaps be mending a tobe, 

 or making their ox-skin sandals. Sometimes two 

 idle rascals, lying upon their stomachs, would be 

 passing away the time by a game called gubahtah, 

 played with thirty-two pieces of dried camel's 

 dung, which were to be duly apportioned, according 

 to certain laws, into sixteen holes, and depends, 

 somewhat like backgammon, upon the choice of 

 position and chance of number. 



Many of the bushes were festooned inside and 

 out, with strings of meat drying in the sun, upon 

 which the circling falcon, which in great numbers 

 always accompany a Kafilah, would make frequent 

 stoops, scarcely scared, by the yell and often-hurled 

 stones of the watching slave-boy. 



In this place, as was usual where there was 

 plenty of grass and water, we had constant supplies 

 of milk. We also readily purchased young kids for 

 needles or tobacco, and I generally preferred one of 

 these to the dry venison of the chase, in the pursuit 

 of which I always incurred much trouble and disap- 

 pointment. Had I been possessed of a good rifle, 

 it would have been very different, but for hunting 

 purposes my short double-barrelled carabine was 



VOL. I. B B 



