jackalls, gazelles, and water-fowl excepted, since we quitted the little encampment at Sooleb. Sixteen miles south of Mahad Hassan, the marsh finishes at Giraff; we arrived there on the night of the 11th, and pitched the tents upon some sand-hills bordering a plain thickly covered with low brushwood, which extended as far as the eye could reach, and from its green appearance seemed to promise some signs of habitation. Our journey across the marsh had been monotonous and uninteresting in the extreme; no objects had appeared to enliven the scene, and no sounds were heard but the voices of our own camel-drivers, and the tiresome unvaried songs of our Arab escort, which usually consisted of no more than three or four words, repeated eternally without any change of tone, and apparently without the consciousness of the performers themselves. The only sounds which broke in upon the stillness of the night were the prayers of our friend the Dúbbah as he chanted them at intervals in a low and drousy tone, and the howlings of his namesakes[12], who prowled about the tents, occasionally mingled with the shriller cries of the jackalls. We had passed a tolerably comfortable night at Giraff, and were preparing to proceed early on our journey the following morning, when, to our no small surprise, we found that the camel-drivers refused to load their camels, and, on inquiring the cause of this strange behaviour, we were told they would not proceed any farther, unless we paid them their wages each day in advance. As this had not been our agreement with the Shekh of Mesurata, who had hired them for us at that place, we refused to comply with this ill-timed demand, for which there appeared to be no reason whatever. We well knew the impolicy of paying Arabs in advance, which is in fact giving up the best hold which can be acquired upon their conduct; and had the demand been even made with a much better grace, we should not certainly have complied with it. In the present case we refused it most decidedly, and told the mutineers that we should abide by our agreement and expected that they would keep theirs: we added that we were determined at all events to proceed, and that if they persisted in refusing to load the camels we should do so without farther ceremony ourselves. They made no reply, but instead of doing their duty, they all walked away together to a little eminence a few yards distant, where they were presently joined by all our Arab escort, with the exception of the Dúbbah; and began to prime their guns very ceremoniously, charging such of them with ball as did not happen to be already loaded. We took no other notice of this Arab manœuvre than by having our own fire-arms in readiness, and proceeded immediately to load the camels ourselves, in which we were assisted by the Bashaw’s Chaous, the Dúbbah all the while recommending us to comply with the demands of the malcontents. This we told him, however, we were determined not to do; and reproached