of the country to be
attacked was reached. The army marched through the country of the
Shooas, a people who live entirely in tents of leather and huts of
rushes, changing but from necessity, on the approach of an enemy or want
of pasturage for their numerous flocks. They seldom fight, except in
their own defence. Their principal food is the milk of camels, in which
they are rich, and also that of cows and sheep; often they take no other
nourishment for months together. They have the greatest contempt for
and hatred of the negro nations, and yet are always tributary either to
one black sultan or another. There is no example of their ever having
peopled a town or established themselves in a permanent home.

The sheikh having halted the main body of his army, Barca Gana advanced
with a thousand men, being joined also by four hundred Dugganahs. They
found the chief, Amanook, posted, with all his cattle and people, on a
narrow pass between two lakes, having in front of him a lake which was
neither deep nor wide, but full of holes, with a deceitful, muddy
bottom.

The sheikh's troops had long been without food, and the sight of the
bleating flocks and lowing herds was too much for them. Barca Gana,
however, seeing the strength of the enemy's position, wished to halt,
and to send over spearmen on foot, with shields, who would lead the
attack. The younger chiefs however exclaimed: "What! be so near them as
this, and not eat them? No, let us on: this night their flocks and
women will be ours!" In this cry the Shooas also joined. The general
yielded, and the attack commenced. The Arabs led the way with the
Dugganahs. On arriving in the middle of the lake the horses sunk up to
their saddle-bows; most of them were out of their depth, and others
floundering in the mud; the ammunition of the riders became wet, their
guns useless. As they neared the shore, Amanook's men hurled at them
with unerring aim a volley of their light spears, charging with their
strongest and best horses, trained and accustomed to the water, while at
the same time another body, having crossed the lake higher up, came by
the narrow pass and cut off the retreat of all those who had advanced
into the lake. The sheikh's people now fell thickly. Barca Gana,
although attacking against his own judgment, was among the foremost, and
received a severe spear-wound in his back, which pierced through four
_tobes_ and his iron chain armour, while attacked