<'SEE MECCA, AND DIEr 31

some land on a nun:iber of years' lease, where they cultivate

dJmrra.

The day before, the Takroori band had been joined by two

more men of their tribe, whom we had overtaken on the road. We had not noticed them, and knew nothing of their presence,

until Suleiman came to tell us about them, as one was ill. The

doctor went to see what he could do for him, and found him

lying on the ground, smothered in sand, and evidently hi ex-

tremis. We administered brandy, and did what we could ; but

he only lasted an hour. The man who was with him, and who

said he was his brother, borrowed a spade from us, and buried

him there and then. He had died, literally, of starvation and

fatigue.

It appeared that these people had walked all the way from

Gallabat to the coast, a distance of some hundreds of miles. On their return from Mecca, owing to cholera at Jeddah, and

in order to escape quarantine at Souakim, they had landed on

the African coast, about a hundred miles south of that port.

They were entirely without funds, and had lived on what they

could beg from the Arabs, who are often kind to passing stran-

gers. Such deaths in the desert are doubtless of frequent

occurrence, and are bound to be so while these long pilgrim-

ages are undertaken, as they often are, by old men and women

almost totally unprovided with means, and frequently possessing

nothing but the strong wish to see Mecca, and die, which seems

to bear them up, and help them through apparently insurmount-

able difficulties. The dead man's brother we looked after until

our arrival in Cassala, where he left us, and continued his jour-

ney south to his home. This event brought to light a still

more shocking occurrence that had taken place a few days

previously.

Among the Takrooris who had joined us soon after leaving