318 MEHEMED ALl'S SLAVE-HUNTS.

SO easily to be taken. In such cases force becomes necessary, but it frequently happens that populous villages or such as are favoured by the ground, are able to repel the storming party several times with considerable carnage, so that the expedition frequently will not venture on an attack for fear of heavy losses, as was the case with Mount " Deyer," * situated at a distance of two day's march from Lobeid, which was thrice attacked without success, and where the troops suffered severely. But even in such cases they know how to ensure the certain fall of their victims by demoniacal deceit. Thus, after Kurshid Pasha, governor of the Belled-Soodan, had made several fruitless attempts at storming a hill in the country of the Shilluks, in which he had been, moreover, always repulsed with considerable carnage, and at last had made up his mind that every further attack would be in vain, and his loss too frightful, he thought of the following ruse, which would never have succeeded with any other people than this good-natured tribe ; in this case, however, it proved successful. He encamped himself, namely, at the foot of the hill, without surrounding it, where he quietly remained for several days ; he then despatched one of his soldiers into the village with the request to the inhabitants to send down four hundred dishes of food to his people in camp, and assured them at the same time that they need be under no further apprehension about him, * Dire.— Tr.