I did not like this wild and noisy negotiation. I knew that I must make great allowance for the extravagant language of the Arabs; but there seemed to be an eagerness to get me among them which, in my eyes, was rather ominous of bad intentions.
-John Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petræa, and the Holy Land, 1837
Stephens was right, the Egyptian merchants made a lot of noise when our herd arrived in Binban. They saw us Khawajas as easy pickings, riding camels into town as we did on Kordofani donkey pads that they coveted. Sudanese traders back in El Obeid were quite taciturn, and by comparison our Kababish drovers were downright silent, except when scolding with a few choice expletives a misbehaving animal.