richness--everything floating in grease
and butter; so these skins, which absorbed all the butter we had, were
really a godsend to me--as far as the _cuisine_ of the future was
concerned.

There was something in the climate of Lawah that made one feverish and
irritable. In the afternoon some of the camel men had a fight with a
number of Lawah people, and later the camel men in a body attacked Sadek.
He was very plucky and quick--they were heavy but clumsy--so that Sadek
succeeded with a heavy mallet in giving them several cracks on the head,
but as they were eight to one and closed in upon him and were about to
give him a good hammering, I had to rush to his assistance and with the
butt of my rifle scattered the lot about. For a moment they seemed as if
they were going to turn on me; they were very excited and seized whatever
they could lay their hands upon in the shape of sticks and stones, but I
casually put a few cartridges in the magazine of my rifle and sat down
again on my carpets to continue writing my diary. They came to beg pardon
for the trouble they had given, and embraced my feet, professing great
humility.

Four camels of the combined caravans had been taken ill with fever and
had to be left behind. Their cries from pain were pitiful. Owing to the
abundant dinner we got here, with lavish supplies of meat, fruit--most
delicious figs, pomegranates and water melons--of which we partook more
copiously than wisely, all the men got attacks of indigestion, and so did
my poor little kittens, who had stuffed themselves to their hearts'
content with milk and the insides of chickens; so that when night came,
everybody being ill, we were unable to make a start.

At sunset, with the sudden change in the temperature, and the revulsion
from intense dryness to the sudden moisture of the dew, a peculiar
feeling took possession of me, and I could feel that I was fast inhaling
the miasma of fever. The natives shut themselves up inside their
houses--for sunset, they say, and sunrise are the times when fever is
contracted,--but we were out in the open and had no protection against
it. It seems to seize one violently from the very beginning and sends up
one's temperature extremely high, which produces a fearful exhaustion,
with pains in the ribs, arms and spinal column.

[Illustration: Wolves in Camp.]

The altitude of Lawah is 4,420 ft. and therefore the nights are terribly
cold in contrast to the stifling heat of the day.