THE ARABS STRIKE.

for this : first, the reason they had given us the clay before, that the road was bad ; and, secondly, that we should be obliged, if we took that road, to pass close by the village which Sheik Achmed and his men had lately attacked in revenge for their having killed some Haikota people. We were, of course, very angry and disappointed on hearing this ; and then the cameldrivers all struck, and said nothing would induce them to go, the other Arabs followed suit, so that there was nothing to be done but to submit, I am quite sure that from the first none of them had the least intention of going to the Settite, other than by Haikota, only they did not like to say so a moment sooner than they were obliged to ; and, from what we could afterwards make out, I do not believe that any single one of them had ever been that way before. Of course we had expected to find only the barest path, if even that ; but it was necessary for some one to know the way, on account of obtaining water, which is not very scarce between the Gash and the Settite, but some one in the party must know where it is to be found. In following the road between Cassala and the Settite, in the Hamran country, there is no water to be found till one reaches the river. I made the journey in the spring of 1878, and a more disagreeable one I never experienced. It took nearly four days ; water had to be carried for the entire journey ; there was not a particle of shade the whole way, and I was suffering from fever at the time.

If we had been told, before leaving Haikota, that we should have to return there again before setting out for the Settite, we could have started with fewer camels, and, in that way, have saved ourselves both trouble and expense.

Not far from Abiam there was a piece of ground overgrown by fine grass (which was, of course, dried up like hay) and short scrubby bushes, where, in starting up and returning from the