Chap. XXXVII. SEIZING A HUT. 
513 
corn-fields, fine pasture-grounds, and villages succeeded 
each other, on the right an immense ghadir, or ffrki, 
still dry, and only sparingly covered here and there 
with a little coarse herbage, stretched out to an im- 
measurable distance. At an early hour in the after- 
noon, deviating a little from the path, we turned 
into the village of Kaliluwa Gremari, which belongs to 
e Abde' Rahman, the second brother of Sheikh e Oma>, 
and found the male inhabitants of the village sitting 
in the shade of a chedia or caoutchouc-tree, busily 
employed in making wickerwork. However, they 
proved too clearly that we had entered the inhos- 
pitable zone in the neighbourhood of the capital ; 
observing, with great coolness, that the sun was as yet 
high, and would enable us still to make a good march 
to some other place, they would hear nothing of our 
quartering in their village. But Billama was not the 
man to be laughed at; and, riding through the midst of 
them, he took possession for me of one of the best huts. 
I could not, in truth, approve of this despotical mode 
of dealing; but I was too weak to run the risk of 
spending a night in my tent on the damp ground. 
The villagers seemed to be drained to the utmost by 
their gracious lord, and did not possess a single cow ; 
even fowls were scarcely to be seen. 
In the evening I was greatly amused, at first, by 
the noisy hum of a " makaranchi," or school, close to 
my hut, where, round a large fire, some six or seven 
boys were repeating, at the highest pitch of their 
voices, and with utter disregard of the sense, a few 
