HOSTILE FEELING AMONG THE TRIBES. 437 



groups at some distance from each other, were 

 dotted all over the plain. 



The day passed very quietly, and some ostriches 

 coming in sight, it was even proposed that I should 

 go out with a party to shoot one. Ohmed Medina 

 and the greater part of my escort, were as anxious 

 as possible for me to do so, but the more cautious 

 of the Tajourah people, with Ohmed Mahomed at 

 the head, objected, from the chances of our coming 

 into collision with the Assa-hemerah : a very 

 general feeling among the Hy Soumaulee and the 

 Owssa Muditu Kafilahs with us being, to take this 

 opportunity of retaliating some recent outrage upon 

 a Kafilah of their friends that attempted to proceed 

 to Shoa, but had been obliged to return by this 

 very tribe. Much to the gratification of Carmel 

 Ibrahim, I gave him the half leopard's skin I had 

 purchased here, as a return for his attention to me 

 on several little hunting excursions, for next to 

 Ohmed Medina, he possessed more of my confidence 

 than any of the rest of the Kafilah. 



In the cool of the evening, when the Assa-he- 

 merah council had broken up, and our men were 

 preparing for rest, I sat some time upon the boxes 

 forming my hut, and beneath a beautifully bright 

 moon, indulged in reveries that grew out of my 

 strange situation. These musings, which I always 

 recollect as the most unalloyed of all the enjoy- 

 ments of my desert life, were a sufficient equivalent 

 of themselves, for all the hardships and exposure 



