A scraggy, misshapen lad, claimed by Aboo Bekr as his own most dutiful nephew, now paddled alongside in a frail skiff, the devil dancing in his wicked eye; and having caught the end of a rope thrown by the doting uncle, he was on board in another instant. During a former cruise of the "Euphrates," this imp had contrived to pass on the purser a basket of half-hatched eggs, which he warranted "new laid," but with which he was subsequently pelted over the gangway. On being greeted as "Sahib el bayzah," "the master of the eggs," and asked if he had not brought a fresh supply for sale, grinning archly, he dragged forward by the topknot a dull, stupid, little wretch--his messmate--whose heavy features formed the exact reverse of his own impudent animation. "Here," he exclaimed, "is the identical young rascal of whom I told you I bought them; he actually stole the whole from under his mother's hen, and then assured me that they were fresh." "Why don't you grow taller as well as sharper?" enquired the party upon whom the precocious child of the sea had imposed; "'tis now twelve months since you cheated me, and you are as diminutive a dwarf as ever." "How can any one thrive who is starved," was the prompt reply; "were I to eat as immoderately as you do, I doubt not I should soon grow as corpulent." But the arrival of Ali Shermarki shortly changed this desultory conversation to weightier matters. This worthy old man, sheikh of the Somauli tribe Aber Gerhajis, possessing great influence and consideration among the entire Danakil population of the coast, had been invited from Zeyla, his usual place of residence, to assist in the extensive preparations making for the journey of the Embassy; and he now represented the requisite number of camels to be on their way down from the mountains, if the assurances of the owners, upon whose word small reliance could be pieced, were to be implicitly believed.