Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/406

 378^ TRAVELS TO DISCOVER

all, drawing his fword, that we Ihould inllantly provide him with a new fcabbard, his own being but a piece of common leather, which he threw with a kind of indigna- tion down upon the floor. Till that time I had been wri- ting thefe very memoirs, at leaft the journal of the day. I was not any way afraid of one drunkard, but laid down, my pen, wondering where this infolence was to end. Before I had time to fpeak a word, I heard my old Turk, the flier- rifTe, Hagi Ifmael, fay, " You are of the Jehaina, are you ? then I am of the Daveina ;" and with that he caught the ftranger by the throat, taking his fword from him, which he threw out of the houfe, after calling the owner violently upon the floor. The fellow crept out upon all-four, and, as foon as he had picked up his fword, attempted again to en- ter the houfe, which Soliman perceiving, fnatched his own Ihort, crooked fword, from a pin where it hung, and ran readily to meet him, and would very fpeedily have made an end of him, had I not cried out, " For God's fake. Soli- man, don't hurt him ; remember where you are." Indeed, there was little reafon for the caution ; for when the Arab obferved a drawn fword in the Turk's hand, he prefent- ly ran away towards the town, crying, Ullah ! Ullah I Ullah ! which was, God ! God ! God ! an exclamation of ter- ror, and we faw no more of him ; whilft, inftead of a new fcabbard, he left his old one in the houfe. Seeing at once the cowardice and malice of our enemies, we were now apprehenfive of fire, things were come to fuch an extre- mity ; and as our houfe was compofcd of nothing but dry canes, it feemed the only obvious way of defti'oying us.

On the 9th, in the morning I fent Soliman with the fcabbard to Fidele, and a grievous complaint againft the

fuppofed