Chap. XXIII. EXT0KT10NATE DEMANDS. 
61 
was thus cheering my spirits in the evening, as we lay 
round the fire in our courtyard, he frequently repeated 
the words, " Kaso mutum dondadi uyataso, kadda 
kakishi da kiimmia," contrasting his own faithful- 
ness with the faithless, frivolous behaviour of Mo- 
hammed el Tiinsi, whom he called "mogo mutum" 
(a bad sort of fellow). But Gajere also had his own 
reasons for not being so very angry at our delay, as 
the lean mare which I had hired of him had a sore 
back, and was in a rather weak state, so that a little 
rest and a full measure of corn every day was not so 
much amiss for her. 
El "Wakhshi returned the same evening, giving me 
hope that I might get off the next day. However, 
this proved to be empty talk ; for the following day 
my business with the pompous Bello made no progress, 
he demanding nothing less from me than one hundred 
thousand kurdi or cowries — a sum certainly small 
according to European modes of thinking, barely 
exceeding 8/., but which I was quite unable to raise 
at the time. Bello was mean enough to found his 
claims upon his noble but quite uncalled-for hospi- 
tality, having given me, as he said, two rams, two 
vessels of honey, and two loads of corn, altogether 
worth from eleven to twelve thousand cowries ; and I 
now felt myself fully justified in changing his noble 
title " Sultan ben Sultan" into that of " dellal ben 
dellal" (broker, son of a broker). Even my old 
friend El Wakhshi took the occasion of this new 
difficulty of mine to give vent to his feelings as a 
