90 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

these people, and he was in the right, for as Mohammed Din was not at hand, \Yho alone could answer for our lives, it were better we hastened to him ; though it was highly improbable he would neglect to provide for our security, as his only son Mussa was a hostage in our camp. "We kept up this gohr some half hour, having all the time many wells and springs on our right and left, and meeting many Arabs. Our way lay north-east, and all through bush that often compelled us to lie flat along our dromedary's back, not to be left suspended on some tree, although no old or high trees were to be seen among it, from the constant devastations of the burnings. Ere long the wood became thinner, the trunks of numbers of trees, withered and uprooted by the heavy mass of the flood, lay scattered on the ground far and wide, in many places blocking up the path, and every where annoying to the rider and dangerous to the legs of his animal. In many places the water had dug out large hollows in the soil, and here the ground had fallen in, as if the under soil had been carried away by the waters.

These continued for an hour of our way, and the grey soil uncovered by a single green stem, with its holes thus excavated, and small gohrs, devastations, leafless dead trees standing erect or thrown to the earth, and covered with slime and mud, with no bird or beast visible on or near it, showed out most mournfully and disheartening. But these holes, sinkings, lifeless and uprooted trees, bore strong testimony to the great gatherings and deep floods of waters, the more so as the ground is level, and so no great stream can be looked for. From all appearance, the mountains of Abyssinia must shed down much water on to these lands.

One hour before we reached Mitkenab, the country altered. The trees again showed green leaves, and were enlivened by some long tailed birds, which we did not venture to pursue, but remained sitting quietly on our beasts, as the glowing sun shone directly down on our skulls, and no refreshing breeze made its way in among the trees. We caught sight also of some antelopes, vanishing like lightning in the distance. The whole way now sliowed one uninterrupted stream of people and beasts, and great numbers of persons on camels, horses, and asses. Some few women and girls we got a peep at might he called pretty ; they much resembled those of the island, and had, as all women in Bellad- Sudan, large