At the head of the irregular troops is a general, or seraskeer, as the Turks call him, who is, indeed, chosen by the sultan, but obliged to distinguish himself, in accordance with the custom of the country, by some feat of bravery, to prove himself worthy of the dignity of that office. This feat is generally an incursion into one or the other of the neighbouring states, or some other proof of personal valour and intrepidity. The ordeal, however, does not always turn out to the advantage of the aspirant, for, in the year 1838, the commander-in-chief of the troops of Takele, who was already elected, fell a victim to his feat of heroism. He crossed the borders with about a hundred men armed with spears, and attacked the nearest Bakkara tribe, and was to put his heroism to the test on a Mogghrebeen who happened to be present. The general, armed with a broadsword, charged the Mogghrebeen on horseback, waved his sabre in the air, and thought, with one single blow, to put an end to the poor native of the desert; but the latter, although on foot and armed merely with a pistol, cleverly avoided the impending blow, and laid the valorous general prostrate with a pistol-ball. The invading party, seeing their leader slain, immediately took to flight, and the Bedouins became the possessors of the horse and arms of the defunct general. A slight idea may thus be formed of the state of the army of Takele. Slaves are also exported from Takele, which these negroes capture in the wars with their neighbours, but they themselves are, in their turn, not spared, and suffer greatly, partly by the predatory Bakkara, partly by their own countrymen, who devise all manner of means to kidnap their children by force or stratagem, and to sell them to the slave merchants. I myself met with a girl, in the house of an European at Cairo, who had been stolen, together with her younger sister, from the paternal roof, in a manner which must cause the utmost astonishment at the subtlety and cunning of these uncivilized children of nature. This story may also serve as a proof of the manner in which these poor blacks are everywhere treated.