194 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

the water as rapidly as the hot sand of the Desert, and I drank at least a quart without feeling satisfied. I preferred my tent to the Governor's house, and had it pitched where I could look out on the river and the palms. Ahou-Hammed is a miserable village, inhabited by a few hundred Ababdehs and Bisharees.

The Desert here extended to the water's edge, while the opposite banks were as green as emerald. There was a large mud fortress, with round bastions at the corners, to the west of the village. It formerly belonged to an Ababdeh Shekh, but was then deserted.

In the afternoon I crossed to the island of Mokrat, which lies opposite. The vessel was a sort of a canoe, made of pieces of the doum-palm, tied together with ropes and plastered with mud. My oarsmen were two boys of fifteen, half-naked fellows with long, wild hair, yet very strong and symmetrical limbs and handsome features. I landed in the shade of the palms, and walked for half an hour along the shore, through •patches of dourra and cotton, watered by the creaking mills. The whole island, which is upwards of twenty miles long, is level and might be made productive, but the natives only cultivate a narrow strip along the water. The trees were doum and date palm and acacia, and I saw in the distance others of a rich, dark green, which appeared to be sycamore. The hippopotamus is found here, and the boatmen showed me the enormous tracks of three, which had made havoc among their bean-patches the day before. As I was returning to the boat I met three natives, tall, strong, stately men. I greeted them witn "Peace be withjou!" and they answered "Peace be with you," at the same time offering their hands. We talked for some time in broken Arabic, and I have rarely seen such