the chains by drawing his hand round his neck; whilst his pantomimic unrobing was intended to convey to us the information that we should be stripped of our clothes. We had, however, been spared this last indignity. We were in sufficiently bad case without that, and we passed a most wretched night, which did not augur well for our future treatment.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BEGINNING OF THE RAID.

Breaking camp-A Moorish war-song-The raid commencesThe search for grain-Camel-riding-Arrival at Tlata-We try to see the Kaid-And are punished accordingly-We are put on show-A pleasant visitor-A captive's welcomeMuley Abdallah is brought in-Moorish philosophy-How Muley Abdallah and El F'kir Embarak were captured.

By sunrise the camp was all astir, and, peeping through one of the numerous holes in our tent, we were surprised to see that many of the tents were being taken down. While we were speculating as to the meaning of this, we heard one of the guards unlocking our chain, and immediately afterwards he came and took the iron collars off our necks, and ordered us to go outside. All was activity and bustle in the camp. Most of the tents had been already struck, and our poor rag shelter was rolled up in a trice by busy soldiers under the orders of a short fat man, who stumped about with a thick stick in his hand, belabouring the lazy, and directing all, and who, in spite of the lame leg that he owed to a Susi bullet, seemed to be all over the place at once. Uld Suka was decidedly an acquisition to such an army as Giluli's. The camels -those most dissatisfied of all beasts, that complain when their load is laid upon them, and eke when it is

taken off were on their knees or on their feet, but all growling and groaning; the men were shouting, screaming and cursing in a perfect Babel of voices, and the whole thing forcibly suggested the decamping of a magnified Sanger's circus.

A slave came running up to us, as we stood shivering in the early morning air watching this strange scene, and brought us each a pancake of bread freshly baked, and made of wheat instead of the black barley which we so disliked. As soon as we had devoured our simple breakfast we were ordered to mount the camels that were brought round for us, the beasts grumbling as they knelt to the burden, and their owners swearing that they were already fully loaded.

By this time only the Kaid's tent remained standing, and a few minutes later that too was struck. This did not look like waiting for the Tourmaline, or being sent by special escort, but we had no chance of speaking to the Kaid. The foot-soldiers and the mules and baggage-camels were already moving, and could be seen defiling through the passes in the hills, and the weird strains of the Moorish war-song rose on the air from a thousand throats, Allahum salli alaik a Rasul Allah; essla Ala nebi.'* The horsemen were drawn up in one great hollow square in front of where the Kaid's tent had but lately stood, the red and yellow standards in the centre fluttering in the breeze, and a wilder or more magnificent living picture of barbaric splendour I had never before beheld. All the colours of the rainbow were there: the red and yellow of the standards, saddles and tarbushes, the blue sulhams of the officers, and the saddle-cloths of every hue and

* O Prophet of God, may God bless you! (lit., pray for you). Blessings on the Prophet!

shade. And the sun shone down upon their flashing weapons, and bleached to a perfect whiteness their turbans and jelabas. In the centre was the Kaid himself, apparently haranguing the troops. He finished, and shouts long and loud rent the air. Then they broke square, and set out upon the march. The path through the defile was so narrow in places that not more than two or three could march abreast, and travelling was both difficult and slow. At last our turn came, the Kaid and his bodyguard being just behind us, with a small detachment of horsemen bringing up the rear.

Some of the men riding alongside of us told us that we were only going to travel a few miles that day, to Tlata, where a market was held every Tuesday. On the way we passed two of the large boxes that we had had in our camp, containing canned provisions. The tins lay strewn about the path, or in the dried-up bed of the Wad Gueder, which in the rainy season runs into the sea about half a mile to the north of the cove of Arksis. The tins were unopened, as the Moors would touch the meat of no animal that had been killed by infidel hands, and there they lay thrown to waste, whilst we were starving for want of decent and sufficient food.

To every house sighted on the way a small party of soldiers would gallop up, and rifle the place of everything they could find. In general, the women and young children seemed to have been left behind, while the men had betaken themselves to the hills for safety. Whether any of these were molested in any way I couldn't say, but certainly none was taken prisoner. Barley was what was chiefly wanted, as, with the exception of a few of the officers, these Moorish raiders

brought no supplies for the army or animals with them, depending upon what they might find in the enemy's country. The houses were soon ransacked, but the grain had to be searched for in the most systematic manner. The Susi, like the Moors, store their grain in matamoros-large holes dug in the ground, the sides of which are lined with a kind of cement to keep the damp out. These underground granaries, which are generally in the courtyards of their houses, are so constructed that the aperture can be closed by placing a flat stone over the mouth, about 2 feet below the surface of the ground, and the hole above is then filled up with earth. When skilfully closed the mouth of the cave cannot be detected, and the soldiers had to probe all over the ground with their ramrods before they could discover the location of these storehouses. In many cases the search resulted in the discovery of nothing more than a few pots of honey, but nothing came amiss to these hungry freebooters.

It was very nearly two o'clock before Tlata was reached, and we were all extremely tired with our camel ride. The baggage-camel is the most uncomfortable beast to ride that can possibly be imagined. The sensation has been likened by someone to that which would be felt by mounting a stool placed on a springless cart driven over a ploughed field. I found it all that, and more. Next to walking barefoot in chains, riding on camel-back is, in the eyes of the Moors, the worst degradation they can put upon their prisoners, the reason being, I suppose, that this lofty perch renders the rider a more conspicuous target for the jeers and missiles of the crowd.

The country through which we had passed was of an exceedingly fine description, but destitute of any