200 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

into rapids. The opposite shore was green and lovely, crowned with groups of palms, between whose stems I had glimpses of blue mountains far to the south and west. The temperature was mild, and the air full of the aroma of mimosa blossoms. When night came on I enjoyed the splendid moon and starlight of the tropics, and watched the Southern Cross rise above the horizon. The inhabitants of the village beat their wooden drums lustily all night, to. scare the hippopotami away from their bean-fields. My dream before waking was of an immense lion, which I had tamed, and which walked beside me — a propitious omen, said the Arabs.

The morning was so cold that the Bisharees were very languid in their movements, and even I was obliged to don my capote. Eesa helped the men in all the freedom of his naked limbs, and showed no signs of numbness. The village of Abou-Hashym extends for three or four miles along the river, and looked charming in the morning sunshine, with its bright fields of wheat, cotton and dourra spread out in front of the tidy clay houses. The men were at work among the grain, directing the course of the water, and shy children tended the herds of black goats that browsed on the thorns skirting the Desert. The people greeted me very cordially, and when I stopped to wait' for the camels an old man came running up to inquire if I had lost the way. The western bank of the river is still richer and more thickly populated, and the large town of Bedjem, capital of the Beyooda country, lies just opposite Abou-Hashym. After leaving the latter place our road swerved still more from the Nile, and took a straight course over a rolling desert tract of stones and thorns, to avoid a very long curve of the stream. The air was still strong from the north,