MUEDEE OF MUSSAAD. 
211 
ride, I found all our people in groups with faces of dismay; none 
approached me. I hastened to our tent, dreading some harm had 
happened to my wife; she was weeping bitterly. Extracting a 
promise from me that I would be patient, she told me Mussaad had 
been shot and was dead. 
Majoub, a youth of Moorish descent, had been under Mussaad 
for two years, always serving him willingly. This morning he 
received a sharp rebuke from Mussaad (I believe undeserved), and 
unable to brook it, he seized a rifle he had just cleaned and loaded, 
and, without a word, fired, and Mussaad fell dead. Majoub no 
sooner beheld his prostrate victim than he attempted to shoot him- 
self, but was prevented, and he quietly awaited my return, believing 
that I would shoot him. Not so; he was handcufied, and I shall 
give him up to the Egyptian authorities. 
Dr. Murie examined the body of poor Mussaad, and declared 
that death must have been instantaneous. The ball, having entered 
the chin, broke the jaw-bone, severed the jugular vein, and damaged 
the spine in its exit. 
The loss of Mussaad is serious; his knowledge of the country 
was considerable, his courage and forbearance great ; all sincerely 
mourn him. In a few hours he was buried in a deserted ant-hill, 
where his remains will be above the water-level of any ordinary 
inundation of the lagoon. My wife, herself grief-stricken, strove 
to offer consolation to the loud-sorrowing young widow. The effect 
of Mussaad^s death on the negroes was striking. Chief Afar^s 
brother, his mother, and several men silently left the camp, whilst 
our porters reluctantly remained. In the evening we noticed a 
negro in the lagoon, swimming towards us. It was chief Jickwi, 
to announce the arrival, from the Rhol, of Poncet^s dragoman with 
14—2 
