54 
REACH EDREE OF EL-SHATY. 
I always observe, that they are on more friendly terms 
than ever after they have almost come to beard- 
pulling. 
I interfere as little as possible in all these quar- 
rels, but now and then it is difficult to hold aloof. 
This morning, for example, the black who has two 
wives, took it into his head to beat one of them in 
public. I called upon him to desist, upon which he 
went to work harder than ever ; so that I was com- 
pelled to break a stick over his shoulders to reduce 
him to quietness. Tliese little caravan incidents 
were often the only ones that diversified oar day. 
On the 26th, after a march of ten hours, with 
cool weather at first, but suffocating heat afterwards, 
we reached Edree, a town of El-Shaty, in a state of 
great exhaustion. During the latter part of the 
march, however, we had been cheered by the sight 
of the town, which stands on a small mound of 
yellow clay and rock. The whitewashed marabout 
of Bou Darbalah gleamed a little distance in front 
of the place, which in itself is now a heap of ruins, 
having been destroyed by Abd-el-Galeel, on account 
of the resistance of the inhabitants to his usurped 
authority. He also, with a cruelty rarely prac- 
tised in Saharan warfare, cut down above a thousand 
pahns; thus rendering it impossible for the place 
to recover rapidlj^ from its disasters. Previously 
there had been a hundred and twenty heads of 
families ; now there are only twenty-five, and these 
are still diminishing it is said. However, many 
