The paper was
closely scrutinised, and being in an unknown character, Georgi felt his
advantage, and expounded the contents so forcibly that he worked upon
the fears of the inhabitants of Gallibornu, who insisted that the Turk
should compromise the affair and return the handsome bullock, receiving
in exchange his own half-starved old animal, in addition to a present
of half a sovereign. Georgi was only too delighted to immediately clench
the bargain. I advised him in future to manage his own cattle-dealing
instead of confiding in his able friend Theodori, and I ordered the oxen
to be put in the yokes at once, and to draw the vans to our old
camping-place beneath the hawthorn-tree. Upon arrival at the spot a
great change had taken place; the hawthorns were a mass of blossom, and
scented the air for a considerable distance; the groves of fig-trees
had broken into leaf; the trefoil had grown to a height of two feet, and
numerous cattle were tethered in the rich field, to feed upon the few
square yards that each owner had purchased at a high price to save his
animals from starvation. A field of broad-beans that we had left in
early blossom twenty-four days before now produced our well-known
vegetable for dinner, and I observed that the native children, with
their usual liking for uncooked food, were eating these indigestible
beans raw!
There had been no rain since our departure, and every crop that was not
irrigated was absolutely destroyed.
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