NOISY CEREMONIES A SCOUPION. 
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chants fired in tlie evening salutes in lionour of the 
occasion. The dram was again kept beating all 
night, accompanied again by ihe crickets and the 
screech-owl. Oh for a quiet sleep ! 
2Sth. — Late in the evening another troop of 
twenty maharees came to visit En-Noor, and assist 
at the nuptials. They were known at some dis- 
tance by the jingling of the bells, which are always 
worn on their camels on such occasions. The 
drumming was kept up again the greater part of 
the night, the screech-owd and crickets joining the 
discord as before. 
29tk. — Several of our people have recently been 
unwell, Yusuf amongst the rest. They take little 
care of themselves, and attribute their illness to the 
ghaseb. I expect we shall have them all ill in 
Soudan. 
Early this morning I found Ibrahim, servant of 
the Germans, holding in his hand and playing with 
a huge scorpion, wdiich he had caught near the 
tents. He seemed to have fatigued it so much that 
it could not sting. It kept, indeed, always striking 
with its tail, but very feebly. Its head was not at 
all prominently brought forward out of its body, and 
it looked as if it had no head at all. It had ten legs. 
I told Ibrahim that he was a marabout, at which 
he was greatly flattered. 
The twenty maharees have joined the nuptial 
festivities this morning. A number of women are 
squatting in a group on the ground, and the men 
