THE CHAPLAIN. 



Ill 



permitted him, the general store of gunpowder, 

 a small leathern bottle wrung from the C. O. at 

 Chogwe : and having somewhat high-flown ideas 

 of discipline, he began by stabbing a slave-boy. 

 He talks loud in his nasal native Balochki, de- 

 based Persian, ridiculous Arabic, and voluble 

 Kisawahili ; moreover, his opinion is ever to the 

 fore. The Eider Eling, pleading soldier, refuses 

 to carry anything but his matchlock and a pri- 

 vate stock of dates, which he keeps ungenerously 

 to himself. He boasts of prowess in vert and 

 venison : I never saw him hit the mark, but we 

 missed some powder and ball, with which perhaps 

 he may be more fortunate. Literally, he was not 

 worth his salt. Yet this knave had resolved to 

 force himself upon me when in June I set out 

 for the Lake Eegions, and made a show of level- 

 ling his old shooting-iron. Por sixpence a shot he 

 might have fired ad libitum. 



Hamdan, a Maskat Arab, has seen better days, 

 of which strong waters and melancholia have re- 

 moved all traces except a tincture of lettres. Our 

 Mullah, or chaplain-and-secretary, is small, thin, 

 brown- skinned, long-nosed, and green-eyed, with 

 little spirit and less muscularity. A crafty old 

 traveller, he has a store of creature comforts for 

 the journey : he carries with his childish match- 



VOL. II. 12 



