I abused both the vakeel and the men most thoroughly, and declared, "As for the mutineers who have joined the slave-hunters, Inshallah, the vultures shall pick their bones!" This charitable wish--which, I believe, I expressed with intense hatred--was never forgotten either by my own men or by the Turks.
Believing firmly in the evil eye, their superstitious fears were immediately excited.
I had noticed during the march from Latome that the vicinity of every town was announced by heaps of human remains.

Bones and skulls formed a Golgotha within a quarter of a mile of every village.

Some of these were in earthenware pots, generally broken; others lay strewn here and there, while a heap in the centre showed that some form had originally been observed in their disposition.

This was explained by an extraordinary custom, most rigidly observed by the Latookas.

Should a man be killed in battle the body is allowed to remain where it fell, and is devoured by the vultures and hyenas; but should he die a natural death he is buried in a shallow grave within a few feet of his own door, in the little courtyard that surrounds each dwelling.