294 Seven Years in the Soudan.

CHAPTER XXXITT.

ziher's coxspiracy.

Siileiinan'.s harem — Thonsaiidf; of women — Tlie baobab — The Bahrel-Arab — Juicy melons — Zi])er".s treasures — Copper bullets — Suleiman's father — Ziber's conspiracy — Connivance with Darfour rebels — March to Kalaka, Dara and Tuesha — fleeting with Cordon Pasha, Suleiman's harem consisted of seven hundred women, eitlier Avives or slaves ; that of Rabi of four hundred, and so on doAvn to the smallest chiefs, who possessed only about forty. Every Arab has from fifty to a hundred slaves, and everv Besinger, although himself a slave, from five to ten other slaves. But what consumes the greatest quantity of doora is the manufacture of merissa and spirits.

Although Mohammedans, the Arabs' chief occupation is getting drunk, besides practising every kind of debauchery, theft, murder, and the hunting of negroes. The whole country was deprived of its cattle, and raids were made into Yansfeh to supply the wants of Suleiman and his principal chiefs, while the Besingers procured meat for themselves by hunting the wild buffalo, which is found in great quantities throughout Bahr-el-Gliazal. Sheikh Yango succeeded in procuring for me about three hundredweight of grain, and as he needed seed for sowing, I authorized him to get some from Lifi, where I had four hundredweight of doora in a depot.

At Delgauna I was informed that an Arab called