The chaouch, suspecting that he never
went at all, but concealed himself in the village, would not pay him.
This brought on a collision. Sheikh Omer supported us; and so all the
people of the other village took part against us. Two of them were
armed, and some of us thought it advisable to load our pistols. At last,
however, we pushed them away from the tent by force; and, in the first
moment of indignation, wrote a letter to the Pasha about them. Hearing
of this, they came to beg us not to send the letter, which was
accordingly torn up by the Sheikh. My chaouch was the great actor in all
this affair; and it was necessary that I should support him, even if he
were a little wrong, otherwise he would have had no confidence in
himself or us in cases of difficulty.
The Sheikh, who, as well as ourselves, has lost some little things
during these days, gives the people of Mizdah a very bad character. In
the scuffle, I noticed that they called him _Fezzanee_, which is used as
a term of insult in these parts. "All the Fezzanees are bad people, and
all their women courtezans," says my chaouch.
There is a large leopard reported to be abroad near the oasis of Mizdah.
He escaped from Abdel-Galeel, who brought him from Soudan, and creates
great terror among the camel-drivers. They say, with unspeakable horror,
"The nimr eats all the weak camels!" He has already devoured two.
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