Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/195

 after careful investigation by competent English inquirers at from three hundred to four hundred pounds. Its magnitude is, of course, mainly due, not to the value of the cattle, sheep and other live stock lifted from the village, but to the aggregation of the modest hoards of money found in many of the hovels, and to the silver ornaments of the women.

Nevertheless, to do these ruthless ruffians justice, they doubtless prized the victory higher than its spoils. The joy which swelled their savage hearts as they passed southward home across the desert was not mainly inspired, one may well believe, by thoughts of the booty with which their camels were laden, or of the half-dozen hapless women whom they carried with them, and one of whom was found dead a few days afterwards on the track of their retreat. What, no doubt, fired them with a far fiercer exultation was the consciousness of having for once evaded the vigilance of the English patrols, of having swooped down upon the territory M