" 43 — him, but, in very truth, the affairs of men are in the hands of God—Whose name be exalted—and not in those of man, for when I called for my horse I found that, although he seemed to one regarding him to be both strong and well, there had befallen him some strange thing by reason of which he was unable to walk. Then certain of my friends suggested to me that I should set out upon an ass, but I paid no heed to them, and thereby preserved my life. For I found afterwards that Billali had privily set an ambush of forty men upon the way, telling them to join him later at the village of Mugumungi.

Had I gone out to greet him there would have been no escape for me from death, the terminator of delights ; but thanks be to God, the High the Mighty, who hath predestined all things for man.

The first zeriba that Billali attacked was that of Aghad, which was known by the name of Abu Mangura : this he easily sacked, and carried off everything that he found there : he next stormed the other camp of Aghad, which he despoiled so thoroughly as not to leave anything to the agentsexcept the clothes they wore. From here he went to the zeriba of the Turk Bekir Agha, whose son he put in a sheiba, as though he had been a slave, and then to the stockade of the Jaali, Zubeir wad el Fadl : next he attacked that of Wad Ibter, a Dongolawi merchant, whom he wished to hang, but his