72 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. XL. 
'Abbas, had made her escape during the night ; they 
were eagerly searching from dawn of day, but could 
not find her. At length they discovered her necklace 
and clothes, and the remains of her bones, — evident 
proofs that she had fallen a prey to the wild beasts. 
She belonged to the Yedina or Budduma, and was 
represented as having been possessed of considerable 
charms ; and it was supposed that her loss would affect 
the vizier greatly, who, as I have before observed, 
was rather fond of an ethnological variety of female 
beauty. There was a great deal of unpleasant con- 
versation about this affair, the girl not yet having 
been delivered up to Haj 'Abbas when she made her 
escape. 
But there were many other causes of discord among 
this little horde, and when the vizier's officer set out, 
a great many more of the Arabs made use of this 
opportunity to go to Kiikawa than had been agreed 
upon. The most serious loss to us was certainly the 
departure of Sheikh 'Omar, Ghet's uncle, who, on ac- 
count of his experience and knowledge of the English, 
which much exceeded that of his youthful nephew, 
might have been of considerable service to us. At 
any rate he ought to have informed us of his inten- 
tion to leave, as by his accepting our present, it was 
understood that he undertook the obligation of as- 
sisting us in carrying out our project ; and having 
nothing to spare, we felt rather disappointed. But 
although our prospects were not too flattering, at least 
we had hopes of moving a little onwards, as our 
