198 SON OF A HAMRAN SHEIK.

dhurra to a Hamran village farther down the river, to be converted into flour ; with it we sent a present of a handsome burnous, a small quantity of gunpowder, and a letter to the chief sheik of the Hamran tribe of Arabs, who was at that time dwelling there. The result was, that he sent his son to visit us, a very good-looking fellow, and well mannered except for his begging propensities. He was very anxious that we should bestow some present upon him, and begged very hard for a gun, and all kinds of things, and was very difficult to satisfy. He was profuse in his apologies for Said, and the other Hamrans at Meheteb, and informed us that it was a fact that Said's father had been killed by the Base, a circumstance of which we had heard before. He declared that the Hamrans were friends with the Abyssinians, and that with their permission the Hamrans hunted elephants in their country, on the stipulation that any game shot in their territory was divided with them.

On the same evening, Mahomet Salee and one of our other old horsemen suddenly made their appearance, with two camels that we had sent from Haikota to Cassala, for some necessaries such as bread, sugar, and candles. These camels had left Achmed Ageer's headquarters for Cassala at the same time that we left for the Settite, and had been away far longer than they ought to have been. The same evening Mahomet Salee left our camp for Om Brega, to purchase dJiurra on his own account, which he intended taking back with him to the Gash ; as a peace-offering he brought us the skin of a boa-constrictor which he said he had killed on the road between Khor Meheteb and Haikota.

The same day news was brought into camp, that Colvin had killed a "hippo" three or four miles farther up the river. We despatched camels for the meat ; and at the same time my