150 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

darker and show the blood of the desert tribes in their feature?.

They are, however, exceedingly friendly. The day before reaching Assouan, we walked ahead of our boat and were obliged to wait two or three hours. We had a retinue of boys, who pummelled one another as to which should pick up the pigeons we shot. The successful one came bounding back with a face sparkling with delight, and kissed the bird and touched it to his forehead as he gave it to us. As we were resting under the palm-trees, my friend regretted that we had not brought our shebooks along with us. One of the Arabs, guessing his wish from the word "shebook," instantly ran off and scoured the dourra-fields until he found a laborer who owned a pipe. He brought the man baek, with the sickle in his hand and a corn-stalk pipe of very indifferent tobacco, which he gravely presented to my friend. Before returning onboard we saw a wonderful mirage. Two small lakes of blue water, glittering in the sun, lay spread in the yellow sands, apparently not more than a mile distant. There Was not the least sign of vapor in the air, and as we were quite unacquainted with the appearance of the mirage, we decided that the lakes were Nilewater, left from the inundation. I pointed to them and asked the Arabs : " Is that water ? " " No, no ! " they all exclaimed : "that is no water — that is a hahr SJiaytan I '" (a river of the Devil).

The white tomb of a Moslem saint, sparkling in the noon day sun, on the summit of a hill overlooking the Nile, finally announced our arrival at the Nubian frontier. "We now beheld the palms of Assouan and the granite cliffs beyond — which we had been so impatient to reach, a few hours before — with regret, almost with dread. This was our point of separation.