San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-10-26

sAASAoy' ASy hS@e "ho ehc III Aioh
steamer TO Jedda, and thence to Sarachin,
their last station before commencing the
long, tiresome and dangerous march
across the Nubian desert. They buy
camels, water and provisions, and hire
such of the sheikhs and other natives as
they want, the latter being cheap
enough-S5, and occasionally rs high
as 81 each for the trip across the desert
and when the caravan gets to its jour-
ney's end the poor fellows are left to get
back as best they can. In this manner
they travel to Honjahir, the Reiche
Brothers principal station in Africa,
where the distinctions of caste are strict
ly maintained. Every white man has
mansion which consists of straw
house about twenty feet wide by thirty
feet deep, and divided into two rooms.
In such houses they live, eat and sleep,
and in one of them they keep the money
that has been brought across the desert
in trunks, OH the backs of camels. No
attempt to hide it is made, nor is there
any secrecy as to where it is packed dur
ing the long journey. So honest are
the native blacks that in the past six
years not dollar has been lost by care
lessness. Frequently there has been
10000 of these silver dollars in the hut,
with only one or two white men in camp,
surrounded by negroes, Arabs and half
breeds; yet no attempt at robbery has
ever been made, and the half-civilized
natives, knowing that they are not en-
titled to dollar until they have earned
it, never try to get it in any other way.
The men sleep where and as they
please, and three times day are given
n fair supply of Indian corn, which they
grind, and, after adding little water,
cook over their own fires into sort of
biscuit. The white men have negro
women cooks, and live luxuriously.
They have eggs, coffee, and Indian corn
biscuit for breakfast, with broiled
chicken fora relish whenever they want
one, for fowls are very plenty. For din
ner, maize and beef or mutton, very
tough and very stringy. A "good-con-
ditioned OK" can be bought for "a, and
"good-eating goat" for so cents. A
little garden truck, which they grow
themselves, and onions, which they raise
in great quantities, are also eaten. No
dinner would be complete without
plenty of onions, and they are as much
in order at either of the other meals, OF,
indeed, at any time in the day when one
feels hungry. Supper is similar to
breakfast, and after that the German
hunters inseperable evening friend, his
long-stemmed, china-bowled, fragrant
pipe. The interior of their hut would
interest New York artist. Elephant
tusks, lion skins, leopard skins, hunting
hats and coats, and long-topped boots,
rifles, pistols, bright-colored flannel
shirts, and bits of harness lie scattered
about in dire confusion; but in safe
place. where it cannot possibly be dis
figured, the only tenderly-used thing
within the four strong walls,a tirst-class,
full-sized, silver-keyed German accor-
dion. They tell that in the long winter
evenings, after the perils and labors Of
the hunt, Lohse plays on it divinely,
while others puff out great clouds of
smoke and dreamily think of the Father
land.
The clearing is on the bank of a little
river called the Settet, branch of the
Nile, and is inclosed by high and thick
hedge made of native thorn. At night,
after the animals have been fed, watered
and housed or tethered, great fires are
built at irregular intervals around the
grounds to scare off wild animals, and
watch is set. By 10 o'clock all Others
are in bed, with the dismal howl of the
hyena, the roar of the lion and the shrill
shrek of the wildcat to disturb their
dreams of wives and sweethearts. The
mvriads of gnats, flies and mosquitoes
are for time great annoyance to the
hunters, and q sort of amusement for the
natives, who, with their black hides
covered thick with grease, do not mind
them, but enjoy the contortions of their
white companions. By IL O'Clock all