Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/156

 and--nothing in this country can be done without that terrible "palaver!"--the speechifying presently commenced. Raghe, in a lengthy harangue hoped that the tribe would afford us all the necessary supplies and assist us in the arduous undertaking. His words elicited no hear! hear!--there was an evident unwillingness on the part of the wild men to let us, or rather our cloth and tobacco, depart. One remarked, with surly emphasis, that he had "seen no good and eaten no Bori [34] from that caravan, why should he aid it?" When we asked the applauding hearers what they had done for us, they rejoined by inquiring whose the land was? Another, smitten by the fair Shehrazade's bulky charms, had proposed matrimony, and offered as dowry a milch camel: she "temporised," not daring to return a positive refusal, and the suitor betrayed a certain Hibernian velleite to consider consent an unimportant part of the ceremony. The mules had been sent to the well, with orders to return before noon: at 4 P.M. they were not visible. I then left the hut, and, sitting on a cow's-hide in the sun, ordered my men to begin loading, despite the remonstrances of the Abban and the interference of about fifty Bedouins. As we persisted, they waxed surlier, and declared that all which was ours became theirs, to whom the land belonged: we did not deny the claim, but simply threatened sorcery-death, by wild beasts and foraging parties, to their "camels, children, and women." This brought them to their senses, the usual effect of such threats; and presently arose the senior who had spat upon us for luck's sake. With his toothless jaws he mumbled a vehement speech, and warned the tribe that it was not good to detain such strangers: they lent ready ears to the words of Nestor,