1867.] THE ARABS INCENSE THEIR PRAYER-BOOK. 233 



so she, her attendants, and the guides decamped by night. 

 Haniees went again to Nsama and got other guides to 

 •enable us to go off at once. 



22nd September. — We went north for a couple of hours, 

 then descended into the same valley as that in which I 

 found Nsama. This valley is on the slope of the water- 

 shed, and lies east and west : a ridge of dark-red sandstone, 

 covered with trees, forms its side on the south. Other 

 ridges like this make the slope have the form of a stair 

 with huge steps : the descent is gradually lost as we in- 

 sensibly climb up the next ridge. The first plain between 

 the steps is at times swampy, and the paths are covered 

 with the impressions of human feet, which, being hardened 

 by the sun, make walking on their uneven surface very 

 difficult. Mosquitoes again ; we had lost them during our 

 long stay on the higher lands behind us. 



23rd September. — A fire had broken out the night after 

 we left Hara, and the wind being strong, it got the upper 

 hand, and swept away at once the whole of the temporary 

 village of dry straw huts : Haniees lost all his beads, guns, 

 powder, and cloth, except one bale. The news came this 

 morning, and prayers were at once offered for him with 

 incense ; some goods will also be sent, as a little incense 

 was. The prayer-book was held in the smoke of the incense 

 while the responses were made. These Arabs seem to be 

 very religious in their way : the prayers were chiefly to 

 Harasji, some relative of Mohamad. 



24:th September. — Roused at 3 a.m. to be told that the 

 next stage had no water, and we should be oppressed with 

 the midday heat if we went now. We were to go at 2 p.m. 

 Hamidi's wife being ill yesterday put a stop to our march 

 on that afternoon. After the first hour we descended from 

 the ridge to which we had ascended, we had then a wall 

 of tree-covered rocks on our left of more than a thousand 

 feet in altitude ; after flanking it for a while we went up, 



