Flight from Ebaddan 
little soul. The woman who screamed was its 
mother. She first discovered the desperate ill¬ 
ness of the child and gave the alarm. The men 
ran for their “ medicine” gourds and rattled them 
over the child to drive away the evil spirit. For 
some minutes the frantic mother continued to 
call its name while she forced apart its eyelid and 
breathed into its nostrils. Then it revived and 
all was as quiet again as if nothing had happened. 
So soon as we could see, we resumed our jour¬ 
ney. Knowing that the gatekeeper was our 
enemy for some cause, and that he had had 
plenty of time to communicate with Ebaddan, 1 
rode for an hour or more in constant dread of an 
ambush, but we met no one who seemed to be 
hostile. We met soldiers hurrying on to join 
Ogumulla’s army, but they passed us without 
even saluting or noticing us in any way. Our 
path led through a very dense forest of lofty 
trees. About noon we came to the Orbar river 
where we had to pay a kind of internal revenue 
tax. Just before reaching this place, I heard a 
man yell, “Allah Mohammedu!” When I came 
up to the place, I found him crouching in the 
vines by the path as if very much afraid of me. 
When he saw my big horse and Mexican saddle, 
and the cadaverous face of the rider, he doubt- 
147 
