WE MARCH AGAINST A VILLAGE 
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men,’ and retrieve my stolen rifles. My men had twenty - 
five rounds of ‘ angulation ’ each, and I took my *256 
Mannlicher and revolver. 
We marched without incident to the 'well’ at Gerigeree 
and along the shore of the shallow lake, past crowds of 
natives watering their flocks and herds, to a shady tree, 
where we quietly halted. We then sent our guideman, who 
belonged to the same tribe as the thieves, to the village to 
ascertain if they intended to give up the rifles. We 
awaited events for several hours. I was beginning to get 
very tired of sitting under the very inadequate shade 
aflbrded by the tree, when in the distance we saw our guide 
walking alone, bearing in triumph my looted rifles. I must 
own I was perhaps a little bit disappointed at the tame 
ending of hostilities, as I should dearly have loved to have 
given those villagers a good thrashing. 
When our guide came up, we all turned and marched 
back to camp, where we found the Sultan of the Marehan 
country, who had come to pay his respects to me. He told 
me he had seen but one white man before me. He begged 
food, as he said his men had come a long distance. It 
sounded rather odd that a Sultan should have to beg for 
food, but so it was. I gave him a sheep and a red tohe, 
and he promised to keep his people from molesting me 
further. 
During the night a lion walked all round our camp, but 
luckily did not jump in. The caravan which had joined us 
at ^W ardair gave us this information when they came up to 
us at the mid-day halt at Alanli. It was then too late to 
go back and attempt to track the lion. Here the caravan, 
which had marched with us for over 100 miles, left us. I 
had not encountered a single head of game throughout the 
day. 
Next morning, after killing a fine male Clarke’s gazelle, 
we left the red- sand country and encountered uneven 
ground covered with horrid white loose stones, like the 
ground in the Boorgha country in the west. These stones 
