210 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

these the blacks reposed, chattering, cleaning their arms, and swearing at their wives, who sat patiently outside cooking dinner. Every available space was occupied with arms, wooden bowls, grinding-stones, carcases of kids, cooking-pots, spears, corn, and ammu-INSIDE THE ZERIBA.

nition-boxes. At the entrance a six-foot negro did sentry-go in a casual sort of way, whilst two piles of arms, with fixed bayonets, testified to the presence of a picquet somewhere ; every ten minutes, too, a trumpeter blew calls of sorts on a huge key-bugle, but nobody seemed to pay any attention to them. Most of the blacks had arrayed themselves in blue jerseys