About five o’clock
Reaching its foot at length we were obliged to make a detour by certain winding paths to avoid ground that was too rough for the camels , so that in the end we did not come to our own house in the Town of the Child till about midday . Glad enough were we to reach it , since all three of us were tired out with our terrible night journey and the anxious emotions that we had undergone . Indeed , after we had eaten we lay down and I rejoiced to see that , notwithstanding the state of mental excitement into which the discovery of his wife had plunged him , Ragnall was the first of us to fall asleep . About five o'clock we were awakened by a messenger from Harût , who requested our attendance on important business at a kind of meeting-house which stood at a little distance on an open place where the White Kendah bartered produce . Here we found Harût and about twenty of the headmen seated in the shade of a thatched roof , while behind them , at a respectful distance , stood quite a hundred of the White Kendah . Most of these , however , were women and children , for as I have said the greater part of the male population was absent from the town because of the commencement of the harvest . We were conducted to chairs , or rather stools of honour , and when we two had seated ourselves , Hans taking his stand behind us , Harût rose and informed us that an embassy had arrived from the Black Kendah which was about to be admitted .