A Fortunate Ambush.

subject to Suleiman, and were treated as if they were negroes, and made to work like slaves. Tliey paid a large tribute, in ivory and ostricli feathers, themselves hunting elephants and ostriches in the territory of Yangeh.

The river Delgauna is rich in fish, Avhich are dried and smoked and forwarded to various places in excliange for other ol:)jects needed by the natives and Arabs.

After the presentation of the principal chiefs of his court, the sheikh gave me a pumpkin containing honey mixed with water to quench our thirst. He then gave me two kids, two fowls, and a pot of pure honey. " I am ashamed," said he, " that I am so poorly provided. I should like to do more for you, but Abdulgassim has destroyed, devoured, or carried everything away. I did not expect you ; you came so suddenly that it is impossible for me to provide as I should have wished for your needs." I was inclined to refuse his gifts, but I Avas afraid he Avould be offended. I accepted Avith, thanks, and told him that I should need a little doora for my men.

" We have none," he replied, "but I AA'ill do all T can to procure some. This is a real famine year. The cultivators of the ground are more anxious to saAe their families from the rapacity of Suleiman's people than to till the fields. It is a cursed year. And then, even in the most prosperous times and most abundant harvests, Ave are ahvays short of grain, because Suleiman carries aAvay such an enormous quantity. Only imagine that these villages must feed more than three or four thousand Besingers and three or four hundred Arabs."