SHIHAH. 
15 
but we were much incommoded by smoke, being obliged to cook 
in our sleeping-room. It is, probably, this smoke which injures 
the sight of the inhabitants, for we observed that even the children 
were many of them nearly blind, and almost every woman advanced 
in years had lost one, and many of them both their eyes. 
^' We were roused about two o'clock in the morning by the Ba- 
harnegash, who called out most vociferously that an enemy was at 
hand. It was some time before we could get a hght, during which 
our own party had armed, and was prepared for the expected 
attack. A rumbling noise or sound like that of a drum, or tom-tom, 
from the hill in our rear, confirmed us in the belief that some 
danger was at hand. A light being brought, we found the whole of 
the Baharnegash's attendants ready armed, with lighted match- 
locks, spears, and shields ; and a most " warlike" figure they made. 
Captain Rudland in the mean time had gone out to reconnoitre, and 
discovered that what had been mistaken for the beating of a drum, 
was nothing more than the noise made by an old woman in grinding 
her corn, which here, as well as in Arabia and India, is always done 
in the night. The alarm however continuing, we at length learned 
from Hamed Chamie, that two brothers, Agoos and Subagadis, with 
their army, were coming to take possession of the town, and that the 
whole country was in a state of uproar ; we were informed at the 
same time, that the only danger to ourselves was the risk of being ac- 
cidentally molested during the confusion of a nocturnal attack, for 
it was by no means their intention to do us any voluntary injury. 
" In the mean time, Hadjee Hamed and Negada Moosa prepared 
themselves to go out and meet them, should the news be true. 
Spies had been already sent, who returned one after another w^ith 
