Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

THE CRUISE OF THE " CASTOR." 75
the part of the crew to teach it that accomplishment.
The Sultan entertained
the Commodore and
officers
at a dinner, but sat aloof from the table
himself, it being against the religion of a
Mohammedan to eat with Christians.
Having received some twenty or thirty bullocks,
besides sheep, pigs, &c., which made ommain
deck appear more like a farm-yard than a
battery, we sailed from Zanzibar for the
southward
; in fact, our main deck usually had this
appearance, for we were seldom, if ever, without
quantities of live-stock in the ship, otherwise we
could not have remained on the coast so lono- as
we did. I remember, after sailing from Johanna,
once having as many as fifty bullocks
between the guns on the main deck, besides
sheep, &c.
On one occasion, after receiving a
number of them on board, the Commodore, who
was always astonishing us vidth something
original and inexplicable, came on deck and
found one of the men stowing the hay intended
for these animals, as he had been directed, under
the spanker-boom.
Starting back at seeing him,