PHARAOH'S LEAN KINE. 39 howling at the grave of a man lately dead, who had murdered a number of his fellow-creatures.

After an eight and a half hours' march, we spent the night near a kJior, where there were more birds than we had yet met with, and we saw green paroquets for the first time. They flew about from one dhoiim-'2\vs\ to another, uttering the most discordant cry. They are the same species so common in India.

The following day we contented ourselves with a six and a half hours' march, halting near Khor Rassay, a more than usually wide river-bed, with a perfect forest of dhotmi-'2Xms>, and wells forty feet deep, dry in the sand. Here were some huts, a few soldiers, and the Arabs about had plenty of goats ; so we revelled in fresh milk, a great boon for Jules. We observed a few cattle much resembling Pharaoh's lean kine, and, thinking to give our men a treat, sent Suleiman to bargain with their owners with a view to the purchase of one of them. He very soon returned, saying that " the black people no sell hen bulls, only men bulls, this time of year." Although of a decidedly dusky hue himself, he invariably evinced a supreme contempt for what he was fond of designating as "black people."

A camel with dJmrra met us here ; the driver bringing a note from my brother, to say he had paid five dollars for the camel's hire, and two and a half for the dJmrra, — very good pay ; but the Arabs are sharp enough in finding out when you must have things, and one sometimes has to pay accordingly. The camel had come from Fillik, the only village on the road, and about forty miles from Cassala. The day's work had been more than usually uninteresting. We crossed several khors, the country between being as desolate as it is possible to imagine. The mountains we had left, and saw no more till we came in sight of the great mountain at the foot of which lies Cassala, and found ourselves in a wide