448 AN ALARM IN THE CAMP. 



deluged the camp, and it was well we had crossed 

 Aleekduggee Sageer before it came on, or the 

 march would have been much more laborious and 

 painful to the heavily loaded camels, if even it 

 could have been performed at all. 



Another name for How, I understood, was Billin, 

 although I think this latter name is given to the 

 whole ridge, whilst the former properly belongs 

 only to our particular halting-place. Just before 

 sunset, whilst nearly all the men of our Kafilah, 

 stript to their waist-cloths, were engaged in the 

 bustle and the dust of their boisterous game of ball ; 

 and I was amusing myself with Zaido and the two 

 Allees, trying our respective strength in balancing 

 and heaving away heavy slabs of pewter ; a sudden 

 cry among the women, followed by a general rush 

 of the players to shields and spears, and a plunge by 

 Zaido into my hut to be out of the way, put an end 

 to our sports. Some cause of alarm had arisen, 

 but what it was I could neither see nor learn, but I 

 never shall forget the tumultuous crowd, whooping, 

 leaping, and yelling, that almost in a moment I 

 was in the centre of; whilst the shrill screaming of 

 the women, gathering upon and around some large 

 anthills in our rear, pierced through all the roar. 

 I was unarmed, my pistols and knife being in my 

 hut, so almost as quickly as Zaido I turned to get 

 at them, and seeing him on his hands and knees 

 creeping up to the farther end, I caught hold of 

 his waist-cloth to give him a lug out, and divested 



