324 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



favour. He said that he expected them to attack us 

 almost any day ; and that not a night passed but he went 

 to rest with the thought that he might never waken. 



The members of our caravan did not seem con- 

 vinced of the friendship of the Rendile ; instead of 

 sono:s and lausfhter over their food and about their 

 camp-fire at night, perfect silence reigned, and conver- 

 sation was only in whispers. This was the conduct 

 of the porters and Soudanese. The Somali, however, 

 had at every opportunity urged the advisability of 

 immediate attack upon the Rendile. They said that 

 a battle would be hard, but that they were convinced 

 we should succeed, and that then all trouble would be 

 at an end. We should then possess camels and horses 

 in great numbers, and be able to travel like gentlemen. 



On the occasion when the 4000 camels passed 

 near our camp, cupidity gleamed from the eyes of 

 the Somali, and when the last animal passed from 

 sight, they shook their heads and sighed. The temp- 

 tation to take advantage of the vast herds and flocks 

 of the Rendile was, I may freely confess, a great one. 

 Their treatment of us had been anything but kindly. 

 They had accepted our gifts and offer of friendship, 

 it is true ; but in return for these they had given us 

 little but unfriendly treatment. They were absolutely 

 unwilling to trade, and both Lieutenant von Hohnel 

 and I felt that further efforts toward that end would 

 be useless. 



On the other hand, we could not permit ourselves 

 to fall upon these people, even though the issue of 

 the present situation would be of most doubtful char- 

 acter, until they had done something more than to 



