SERGEAXT BILLAL. 285 formed our ordinary food. The Greek had also a bottle of Crosse and Blackwell's pickled walnuts, which he generously shared with us.

We met numbers of gallabahs returning to their happy slave-hunting grounds : most of them rode on donkeys, and carried a small store of cloth or other merchandise with them. Their presence made the road between Tuaisha and Omchanga rather unsafe, and our escort had to keep a vigilant lookout. The sergeant in command was named Billal, and at night while the camp was being formed it was amusing to hear him lecture his men. He would say, " Now, oh boys, mind and keep strict watch to-night ; sleep not, oh boys, and if you see a thief, oh boys, shoot him, and hit him, oh boys. Now load. Present arms. Bas. Good-night." This exhortation would be interspersed with peculiar language, very familiar to Arabs, but which I need not translate. We saw the clothes of one poor fellow who had been murdered on the road. The morning before starting, Mr. Wilson went out of camp to gather flowers, and was met by a leopard, which, strange to say, did not spring on him, but ran away.

Omchanga is a considerable town ; the houses and stores are well built of sun-dried and burnt bricks, and some are really fine buildings. The wells are situated about half a mile from the town, and are a hundred and twenty feet deep, the water being ex-