174 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



that at Zanzibar they were honourable men, and boast- 

 ing that the Baloch were entrusted with lacs of dollars by 

 the Sayyid Said. Again I offered reasons, which, as is 

 the wont of the world in such cases, served only to make 

 them more hopelessly unreasonable. The Jemadar ac- 

 cused me of starving the party. I told him not to eat 

 abominations, upon which, clapping hand to hilt, he 

 theatrically forbade me to repeat the words. Being 

 prostrated at the time by fever, I could only show him 

 how little dangerous he was by using the same phrase 

 half a dozen times. He then turned fiercely upon the 

 timid Said bin Salim, and having safely vented the excess 

 of his wrath, he departed to hold a colloquy with his men. 



The debate was purposely conducted in so loud a tone 

 that every word reached my ears. Khudabakhsh, from 

 first to last my evil genius and the mainspring of all 

 mischief, threatened to take " that man's life," at the 

 risk of chains for the remainder of his days. Another 

 opined, that " in all Nazarenes there is no good." All 

 complained that they had no u hishmat " (respect !), no 

 food, and, above everything, no meat. 



Presently Said bin Salim was deputed by them to 

 state that for the future they would require one sheep 

 per diem — men who, when at Zanzibar, saw flesh pro- 

 bably once a year on the Eed. This being inadmissible, 

 they demanded three cloths daily instead of one. I 

 would willingly have given them two, as long as provi- 

 sions continued scarce and dear, but the shade of con- 

 cession made them raise the number to four. They 

 declared that in case of refusal they would sleep at the 

 village, and on the next day would return to Zanzibar. 

 Receiving a contemptuous answer, they marched away in 

 a body, noisily declaring that they were going to make 

 instant preparation for departure. 



