{"id":269,"date":"2026-01-22T18:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/word\/?p=269"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:29:12","slug":"upon-our-arrival-at-a-large-town-called-kattaga-my-vakeel-reported-the-desertion-of-five-of-my-men-to-mahommed-hers-party-with-their-guns-and-ammunition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/upon-our-arrival-at-a-large-town-called-kattaga-my-vakeel-reported-the-desertion-of-five-of-my-men-to-mahommed-hers-party-with-their-guns-and-ammunition\/","title":{"rendered":"Upon our arrival at a large town called Kattaga, my vakeel reported the desertion of five of my men to Mahommed Her’s party, with their guns and ammunition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upon our arrival at a large town called Kattaga, my vakeel reported the desertion of five of my men to Mahommed Her’s party, with their guns and ammunition. I abused both the vakeel and the men most thoroughly, and declared, “As for the mutineers who have joined the slave-hunters, Inshallah, the vultures shall pick their bones!”<\/p>\n

This charitable wish–which, I believe, I expressed with intense hatred–was never forgotten either by my own men or by the Turks. Believing firmly in the evil eye, their superstitious fears were immediately excited.<\/p>\n

I had noticed during the march from Latome that the vicinity of every town was announced by heaps of human remains. Bones and skulls formed a Golgotha within a quarter of a mile of every village. Some of these were in earthenware pots, generally broken; others lay strewn here and there, while a heap in the centre showed that some form had originally been observed in their disposition. This was explained by an extraordinary custom, most rigidly observed by the Latookas. Should a man be killed in battle the body is allowed to remain where it fell, and is devoured by the vultures and hyenas; but should he die a natural death he is buried in a shallow grave within a few feet of his own door, in the little courtyard that surrounds each dwelling. Funeral dances are then kept up in memory of the dead for several weeks, at the expiration of which time the body, being sufficiently decomposed, is exhumed.<\/p>\n

The bones are cleaned and are deposited in an earthenware jar, and carried to a spot near the town which is regarded as the cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upon our arrival at a large town called Kattaga, my vakeel reported the desertion of five of my men to Mahommed Her’s party, with their guns and ammunition. 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