However, it was not prudent for me to witness this scene (which was so little flattering to my friends) for too long a time; for when they saw that I had my gun with me, they called upon me urgently to fire at these scoffers, and when I refused to do so, reproached me in terms which very often fell to my lot—“ʿAbd el Kerím fáida nsé bágo,” meaning that I was a useless sort of person. It is a remarkable fact that in almost the whole of the Músgu country, except near a few isolated granite mountains, there is not a single stone, else it would have been almost more profitable to have thrown stones at these people, than to fire at them with the pewter balls. With regard to those peculiar shields of wickerwork with which these courageous Músgu people managed to protect themselves so adroitly, I had afterwards an opportunity of examining them, and found them to be about sixteen inches broad at the top, twenty-two at the bottom, and about forty in length, but hollow. The material consists of the same kind of reed with which their huts are thatched. About noon the army began its march homewards. Certainly it was not overburdened with spoil; for scarcely fifteen slaves had been taken, mostly decrepit old women, who either could not or would not leave their comfortable cottages. The anger and disappointment of the army was vented upon the habitations of these people; and all the cheerful dwellings which we passed were destroyed by fire. This certainly was a heavy loss to the inhabitants, not so much on account of the huts, which they might easily rebuild, as on account of the granaries, the grain having been harvested some time previously; and, as far as I became aware, there being no subterranean magazines or catamores, as I had observed with the Marghí, and the fugitives in the hurry of their escape most probably having only been able to save a small portion of their store. In estimating, therefore, the miseries of these slave-hunts, we ought not only to take into account the prisoners led into slavery, and the full-grown men who are slaughtered, but also the famine and distress consequent upon these expeditions, although nature has provided this peculiar tribe with innumerable shallow watercourses swarming with fish, which must tend greatly to alleviate their sufferings under such circumstances. The forest intervening between these villages consisted almost exclusively of “kindín” or talha-trees, which were just in flower, diffusing a very pleasant fragrance, while here and there they were overshadowed by isolated dúm-palms. As for deléb-palms, I did not observe a single specimen in the whole of this district; but beyond the river to the south-east, as I have mentioned above, I had seen several in the distance.