168 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

with fear ; and, finally, wliat may contribute not a little to their satisfaction, they always find themselves associating with their own countrymen.

CHAP. X.

Breaking up of the Camp.— March into the Interior Nature of the Country, — Sheiks' Swords.

The tribe of the Haddenda, in spite of Mohammed Din's imprisonment, will not bring in their tribute. The Pascha has discovered that he gains nothing here by violence, and has now ordered them to collect 6,000 ai-deps of durra at Kassela, a spot some fourteen miles from here, where the Pascha will pass the all-dreaded chariff, and will found a new city to protect his army, as up to the present time the health of both men and animals has been wonderfully good. The Hallenga must also deliver durra (here called Esch). All Arabs, as well as the blacks, chew the fresh durra-straw all day, as in the sap there is a glightly perceptible sweetness, and one never meets any of these people without a piece of the stem in hand or mouth, at which .they are ever gnawing, as at a favourite morsel. In like manner one sees in Egypt, and also in part of Chartum, during the time of the ripening of the sugar-cane, considerable quantities of it exposed in every market ; and of this the people buy much, to suck the juice of it. Turks, Arabs, blacks, all are very fond of sweets, although from stinginess they never use sugar in their coifee, or drink much in their sherbets ; but from a Frank, to whom they never offer any sugar with the coffee they produce for him, they always expect to have such, and they are honest enough to confess that the coffee tastes much better with it. However, we do not live here very luxuriously or splendidly. Rice and flesh are our only food. Vegetables, that from the continuous great heat would be of much service, are not to be got ; but, on the other hand, there is no want of the stick, and especially with Rustan Bey, who in Upper Egypt served out plentiful doses of it to the fellahs there. If any of these came to him to comiplain, he heard them patiently, and on their ending recommended them, with serious face, to go to his chasnadar (treasurer), and to