CHAP. IV.] 
IBRAHIM AND HIS MEN. 
115 
drels filed by us within a few feet, without making the 
customary salaam ; neither noticing us in any way, 
except by threatening to shoot the Latooka, our guide, 
who had formerly accompanied them. 
Their party consisted of a hundred and forty men 
armed with guns; while about twice as many Latookas 
acted as porters, carrying beads, ammunition, and the 
general effects of the party. It appeared that we were 
hopelessly beaten. 
However, I determined to advance, at all hazards, 
on the arrival of my party; and should the Turks 
incite the Ellyria tribe to attack us, I intended, in the 
event of a fight, to put the first shot through the 
leader. To be thus beaten, at the last moment, was 
unendurable. Boiling with indignation as the insolent 
wretches filed past, treating me with the contempt of 
a dog, I longed for the moment of action, no matter 
what were the odds against us. At length their leader, 
Ibrahim, appeared in the rear of the party. He was 
riding on a donkey, being the last of the line, behind 
the flag that closed the march. 
I never saw a more atrocious countenance than that 
exhibited in this man. A mixed breed, between a 
Turk sire and Arab mother, he had the good features 
and the bad qualities of either race. The fine, sharp, 
high-arched nose and large nostril; the pointed and 
projecting chin; rather high cheek-bones and promi¬ 
nent brow, overhanging a pair of immense black eyes 
full of expression of all evil. As he approached he 
took no notice of us, but studiously looked straight 
before him with the most determined insolence. 
The fate of the expedition was, at this critical 
moment, retrieved by Mrs. Baker. She implored me 
to call him, to insist upon a personal explanation, and 
to offer him some present in the event of establishing 
amicable relations. I could not condescend to address 
the sullen scoundrel. He was in the act of passing 
us, and success depended upon that instant. Mrs. 
Baker herself called him. For the moment he made 
i 2 
