On the evening of June 23d I was lying half asleep upon my bed by the margin of the river, when I fancied that I heard a rumbling like distant thunder. I had not heard such a sound for months,…
We were thus leisurely returning home through alternate plains and low open forest of mimosa, when Taher Sherrif, who was leading the party, suddenly reined up his horse and pointed to a thick bush, beneath which was a large gray…
“Well,” I replied, “you are the rain-maker; why don’t you give your people rain?” “Give my people rain!” said Katchiba. “I give them rain if they don’t give me goats? You don’t know my people. If I am fool enough…
At that time we were stationed under cover of a high bank of sand that had been left by the retiring river in sweeping round an angle. We immediately dismounted, and remained well concealed. The question of attack was quickly…
The Latookas gash the temples and cheeks of their women, but do not raise the scar above the surface, as is the custom of the Arabs. Polygamy is, of course, the general custom, the number of a man’s wives depending…
Mahomet, Achmet, and Ali are equivalent to Smith, Brown, and Thompson. Accordingly, of my few attendants, my dragoman was Mahomet, and my principal guide was Achmet, and subsequently I had a number of Alis. Mahomet was a regular Cairo dragoman,…
After hunting and exploring for some days in this neighborhood, I determined to follow the bed of the Royan to its junction with the Settite. We started at daybreak, and after a long march along the sandy bed, hemmed in…
Be ready, and take care of the rocks! said Taher Sherrif, as I rode forward by his side. Hardly had he uttered these words of caution when the bull gave a vicious jerk with its head, and with a shrill…
The next few days we spent in exploring the Salaam and Angrab rivers. They are interesting examples of the destructive effect of water, that has during the course of ages cut through and hollowed out, in the solid rock, a…
With the greatest labor I led the way, creeping frequently upon my hands and knees to avoid the hooks of the kittar bush, and occasionally listening for a sound. At length, after upward of an hour passed in this slow…