240 Seven Years in the Soudan.

destroyed all our substance, and for months we lived liked wild beasts amongst the high grass. We have come to tell you that we are ready to help you with all our men, as much as we are able ; command, and we will obey." One of the sheikhs had a very gentle countenance ; he opened a leather sack and took out a small pot of honey.

" I thought of bringing you this honey," he said, " it is all I possess." And the good old man began to weep. In fact, three of his sons and three of his daughters had been led away captive. The tears came to my eyes also, on hearing the old sheikh's sad and simple words, but I was anxious to obtain information about Suleiman's movements, and I questioned my visitors. They knew nothing, but promised to get exact information and forward it to Wau.

Two of the sheikhs came with me to the camp, and the third went to tell his companions, hidden in the jungle, of our arrival, which until now they would not believe.

Decamher lOtJi. — "We have been advised that Abu Muri with his troops is coming to meet us.

December 12f//. — Yesterday" morning Abu Muri made his entrance into the camp with a thousand wellarmed men. I now possess about two thousand four hundred soldiers. The troops passed the whole night in singing and dancing. Among Abu Muri's people I noticed a white man, naked like the negroes. The contrast of the colour of this man's skin seemed to me exceedingly strange, accustomed as I was to see nothing but negroes. After a while I went to him and learnt that he was a Xiam-Xiam from the west. His whiteness is something astonishing : his face is rosy, his hair red, his eyes blue. He is very robust and about forty years old. I asked if there were any other whites in the tribe, and whether his parents were also white.