Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/217

 Rh to be the safest course as it was very improbable that Smain would return with his human wares by way of the same circuitous route instead of making his way directly for the Nile. Stas understood also that Abyssinia could be reached only from the southern side where that country borders on a great wilderness and not from the eastern boundary which was carefully guarded by dervishes.

As a result of these thoughts he determined to venture as far as possible towards the south. They might encounter negroes, either refugees from the banks of the White Nile or natives. But of the two evils Stas preferred to have dealings with the blacks rather than with Mahdists. He reckoned too that in the event of meeting refugees or natives Kali and Mea might prove useful. It was enough to glance at the young negress to surmise that she belonged to the Dinka or Shilluk tribe, for she had uncommonly long and thin limbs, so characteristic of both of those tribes, dwelling on the banks of the Nile and wading like cranes and storks, during its inundation. Kali, on the other hand, though under Gebhr's hand he became like a skeleton, had an entirely different stature. He was short and thick and strongly built; he had powerful shoulders and his feet in comparison with Mea's feet were relatively small.

As he did not speak Arabian at all and spoke poorly the Kiswahili language with which one can converse almost anywhere in Africa and which Stas had learned fairly well from the natives of Zanzibar, working on the Canal, it was evident that he came from some distant region.

Stas determined to sound him upon this point.

"Kali, what is the name of your people?" he asked.

"Wahima," answered the young negro.