CHAPTER XIX.

The Road to the Settite. — The Everlasting Forest. — Sheik Achmed's Deception. — Fishing in the Settite.— The Camp moves on. — The Guides and Camel-Drivers refuse to proceed. — The Return to Khor Meheteb. — Adventure with a Crocodile. — A Scare.

An hour on horseback, after leaving Sogada, we found water in a kJior, which we were obliged to cross ; and in another three-and-a-half hours, we reached a second kJior, called Bashakurrah, where there was more water, and where we remained until the caravan had overtaken us, which it did at about halfpast four. It had been greatly delayed by trees and by frequent small kJiors, which the camels had been compelled to cross. There was often not the semblance of a path ; and, if there was any, it was the merest apology for one.

In travelling through this country, one or two uilmi invariably led the way on foot, with hatchets, with which they cut down bushes, and lopped off branches of trees, to enable the camels to pass. It was often necessary, too, to make rough steps with a pick, by which they could go up and down the banks, when obliged to cross a kJior. All this, of course, took a good deal of time ; and occasionally, too, a camel would fall down, or a box get displaced ; and the delay so caused would keep the whole string of camels waiting. When the caravan arrived at Bashakurrah, the men all wanted to stop for the night ; but we were most anxious to get on, and lose no time, so we compelled them to fill up the water-skins and barrels, and proceed ,58