134 THE KUBBABEESH.

last compelled me to eat them. The hard pills, or belilleh, were too dry for me, and would not pass down my throat ; I therefore made the best of a bad case, and resorted to locusts. At first, as I before mentioned, I felt a slight degree of disgust, and I could not relish them, but I subsequently consoled myself with John the Baptist and Allah Kerim. When the Kubbabeesh meet with a sick camel, which the caravans are frequently obliged to leave behind them, they immediately cut its throat, and make a hearty meal ; the rest of the meat is laden on their own camels, and eaten even when covered with maggots. They use no doga in making their bread, but bake it after the fashion of many of the negro tribes ; that is to say, they lay several stones close together in form of a circle, selecting pebbles, if they can find them, as the small stones become more quickly heated, and light a large fire upon them. As soon as the wood is consumed, they remove the charcoal from the stones, and spread a paste of dockn flour, of the thickness of three fingers, on them, covering it carefully over with the coal. The bread is baked in a very short time, or, to speak more accurately, the uj)per and lower ci*ust is burnt whilst the paste remains unbaked in the interior. They are not paid any wages, but, at the feast of the great Baeram, a present is made them of a piece of cotton and a dollar.

On journeys it is as well to behave with kindness towards these children of the desert, for although life