94 RAW-FLESH EATERS.

sequently no mending of old garments or making of new to effect. Her remark was almost literally true, as her sole covering was a piece of goat-skin worn round the loins as an apron.

We ascended to the top of the hill above the village, and were rewarded by a most extensive view, and saw one or two other small villages on distant hills ; on the top of this one were great boulders of granite, and on the very summit a hut. We found mats, cooking-pots, and other valuables, stowed away in holes in the rock ; as the natives, when they first descried us, had dragged them up there, fearing we might prove to be enemies.

In the afternoon those of us who had visited Koolookoo went out shooting, and those that had not went to see it. We killed two ncllut and a tctel, to the great delight of some of the Base who were with us. They ate the liver raw, first squeezing the contents of the gall-bladder over it to give it a flavour ; this was also what we had seen the Arabs do with whom we had formerly travelled. Great quantities of the flesh they cooked on the spot, and bolted in enormous mouthfuls. The inhabitants of these countries at their meals are not a pretty sight.

I have seen our camel-drivers devour a whole bullock raw at a sitting, so that there was absolutely only the skin remaining.

They waste nothing, and those parts that with us are thrown away are by many of them considered the choicest morsels.

We were anxious to give an entertainment with the magiclantern after dinner ; but the bidden guests did not at first feel sufificient confidence in us to trust themselves in our camp at night. The women, too, who were usually the water-carriers, did not dare for a day or two to come down from the A'illage to the Gash to get water ; and this duty at first devolved on the men. Very soon, however, curiosity overcame this fear, and they came to our camp in crowds.