ARAB HORSEMANSHIP. 8i The next clay we went out for a day's shooting, but were not very successful. Achmed Ageer insisted on going out with Lort Phillips and Aylmer. Lort Phillips dismounted in a great hurry, to stalk some and in doing so let his horse go loose. A long chase followed, in which the sheik joined. This gave him an opportunity of displaying his horsemanship, of which he was very proud. There is nothing the Arabs delight in more than in galloping their horses furiously for about a hundred yards, and then reining them suddenly up on their haunches when at full speed. With the cruel Turkish bits they all use, this is very poor fun for the horses ; indeed, nearly all those we saw suffered from curbed hocks, caused, I imagine, by this trick of their riders.

The sheik carried out his intention of leaving us, and took his departure the following day ; at which we were very well pleased, for we were getting tired of his company.

Before moving any farther into the country, we indulged ourselves in a battue of the quail and partridges, which were very numerous in the patches of dry grass that grew on what, in the rains, would be islands in the Gash. It was the only place, during the whole expedition, where we found quail in any considerable numbers. It was terribly hot work ; but the most uncomfortable part of it was, that we got covered from head to foot with horrible black ticks. These creatures were in appearance exactly like those that infest the camels, and stuck so tightly to our clothes with their legs, that it was often no easy work to dislodge them.

Our next march was at some little distance from the Gash, and through an open country, in which grew clumps of mimosatrees, of a different kind from those we had hitherto seen, growing very straight to a height of about twenty feet, — trees, not bushes. The outside bark was generally wanting ; under-