186 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

blown into the air by the explosion of the powder stored there. The next day we paid a visit to Theodore Kotschy, a collector of objects of natural history from Austrian Silesia, who was encamped in the open land near Omdurman, on the left bank of the Bach'r abiat. His tent, fastened with twenty strong ropes, was totally torn away and blown high into the air, and he and his people seemed yet far from having got over the terrors of a night they described as a most fearful one.

It now turns out most fortunate for us that we have brought with us, on our camels, our light bedsteads or angarebs, else must we have lain on the earth, like the soldiers, who have much want and many sufferings besides to undergo, as money becomes daily scarcer in the camp. All kinds of things are carried round by the criers (dellal) for sale, as cooking utensils, clothing, pipes, &c. We, too, seem likely ere long to have nothing left us ; our Hussein the Gaddam taib (or good servant, as he called himself on being hired, but who, in reality, is a cunning discontented stupid fellow), a Djaln, had suddenly deserted us, and in company with our best camel, taken his road to return to his own land. He had arrived at Kassela, but was met by Ibrahim Kaschef of Kataref, who asked him for his papers, and, as he could produce none, was brought back to the camp as a deserter. He had tried to defend himself by a trumpedup story, that he had been sent by us to Beni-Amer, to see why our huntsman Abdallah remained so long there. The Arab servants are in general a real pest to every master, as among many hundreds of them you will not find ten honest or faithful.

Ibrahim Kaschef, a Circassian, foster brother of Soliman Kaschef of Carreri, made his entrance with a great following of soldiers and some considerable Sheiks of Kataref, and fortunately for us, brought with him a large quantity of Abyssinian coffee. Ibrahim is, as most Circassians, a handsome man, but, unfortunately, has had his nose somewhat damaged. He complains much of the unhealthy climate of Kataref, the water, constant fevers there, and that the smallest cut, in spite of the utmost care, soon becomes a great ulcer ; and that the ferendit (thread-worm) has twice attacked him, and showed us a very distinct scar it had left.