286 
PRESENT FROM THE SARKEE. 
for the rest of the baggage — the boat and the heavy 
baggage left in the morning ; and seeing no signs of 
their preparation, I determined to be no longer 
duped by them, and told the servant of II a j Beshir 
that I would start to-day, be the consequence what 
it might. So off I went to the Shereef, and told him 
I must go at once, to follow the Kashalla, who had 
taken away the box in which was the chronometer, 
and I must go to wind it up early in the morning. 
He immediately informed the Sarkee, and asked for 
a soldier. A soldier was forthwith brought, and 
a message from the Sarkee, that the horse which had 
been sent for me to ride upon was a present from his 
highness to me. This is the first present of the kind 
I have received in Africa ; and after giving away 
about five hundred pounds sterling of Government 
money I have got in return, at last, a horse worth 
one pound fifteen shillings and fourpence, the cur- 
rent value of this country ! The Sarkee of Zinder is 
miserably poor, but he was afraid to let me go to 
Kuka, to his master, without giving me a present. 
I started from Zinder, riding my " gift horse," 
about an hour before sunset, and arrived at Dair- 
muinmegai, a very large village, where the Kashalla 
had pitched tent, after three hours' ride. Our 
course was due east, through a scattered forest of 
dwarf-trees, in which were fluttering about a num- 
ber of strange-looking birds, that reminded me I 
was in a foreign land. One solitary bird excited 
my pity ; its form was something like that of a 
