396 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

numerous and the dwellings so few, that one has the impression of .travelling in a country depopulated by the pestilence; yet we met many persons on the road — partly Kababish, and partly natives of Dongola and Mahass. The men touched their lips and foreheads on passing me, and the women greeted me with that peculiar " hab-bab-ba ! " which seems to be the universal expression of salutation among the various tribes of Central Africa.

My guide, Mohammed, was a Kababish, and the vainest and silliest Arab I ever knew. He wore his hair in long braids, extending from the forehead and temples to the nape of the neck, and kept in their places by a layer of mutton-fat, half an inch thick, which filled up the intervening spaces.

His hollow cheeks, deep-sunken eyes, thin and wiry beard, and the long spear he carried in his hand made him a fair representative of Don Quixote, and the resemblance was not diminished by the gaunt and ungainly camel on which he jogged along at the head of my caravan. He was very devout, praying for quite an unreasonable length of time before and after meals, and always had a large patch of sand on his forehead, from striking it on the ground, as he knelt towards Mecca. Both his arms, above the elbows, were covered with rings of hippopotamus hide, to which were attached square leathern cases, containing sentences of the Koran, as charms to keep away sickness and evil spirits. The other man, Said, was a Shygheean, willing and good-natured enough, but slow and regardless of truth, as all Arabs are. Indeed, the best definition of an Arab which I can give, is — a philosophizing sinner. His fatalism gives him a calm and equable temperament under all circumstances, and " G-od wills it!" or " God is merciful!"