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The days of rest we proposed for ourselves here were spent in fighting with our old camel-men who left us here, in fighting with the new ones who were to take us on to the main valley, and in indignantly refusing to pay the sultan the sum of money which our presence in his town led him to think it his right to demand.
Abou Do now explained the cause of the accident. While the party of camel-men and others were engaged in cutting up the dead elephants, the three aggageers had found the track of a bull that had escaped wounded.
They left us, and we were sitting on our floor in the deepest depths of dark despair, when news came that these camel-men, having made a fresh plan for more extortions, i.e. that there was to be no limit to the number of camels, save their will in loading them, the sultan, being indignant, was thinking of sending for other men.
And the said owners of the camels to bee bound to answere them such goods as they shal receiue at their hands, and the camel-men to stand to the losses of their camels or horses. 14 Item more, that the sayd Cariers do demaund no more of them, then their agreement was to pay them.
On one occasion the convoy passed an old man driving a flock of sheep, of which one mysteriously disappeared. I happened to be riding immediately behind the flock and saw nothing unusual, yet some time after the old man caught us up at the midday halt and complained that one of the camel-men had stolen a sheep.
Soon after our arrival my husband was asked for eight dollars to send fifteen men up the hills to look for murderers; he refused, then the camel-men said they would not start without six men to go ahead, but that was refused too. Next morning we started for Al Madi. We wound up and down, over bare ground, and could see no danger for miles.
Half-a-dozen mounted camel-men had appeared suddenly over the lip of the bowl-shaped hollow, standing out hard and clear against the evening sky where the copper basin met its great blue lid. They were travelling fast, and waved their rifles as they came. An instant later the bugle sounded an alarm, and the camp was up with a buzz like an overturned bee-hive.
Had I seen him then, I would have put out his eyes with my thumbs. Nay I would have used the burning liquid upon him as he had designed it should be used by my brother. Camel-men. Halting-enclosure, rest-house. Order. "Hearing Mir Jan's voice, I hurried forth, and found that his white pacing-camel was already saddled and that he sat in the front seat, prepared to drive.
My Arab camel-men were supposed to be provided with their own private supply; but, as they had calculated upon stealing from my stock, in which they were disappointed, they were on exceedingly short allowance, and were suffering much from thirst.
We lost 1,100 rupees on this one journey between our departure from Aden and our return to Aden. We next settled to go to Mosaina along the coast, and still to start on the appointed day. No one could do anything, as the sultan had no power beyond his own dominions, and the camel-men were all foreigners.
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