258 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

CHAPTER XX.

PROM SHENDY TO KHARTOUM.

Arrival at Shendy — Appearance of the Town— Shendy in Former Days — "We Touch at El Metemma — The Nile beyond Shendy— Flesh Diet vs. Vegetables — We Escape Shipwreck — A Walk on Shore— The Rapids of Derreira— Djebel Gerri— The Twelfth Cataract — Night in the Mountain Gorge — Crocodiles — A Drink of Mareesa — My Birth-Day — Fair Wind — Approach to Khartoum — The Junction of the Two Niles — Appearance of the City — We Drop Anchor.

The morning after visiting the ruins of Meroe I reached the old Ethiopian town of Shendy. It lies about half a mile from the river, but the massive fort and palace of the Governor are built on the water's edge. Several spreading sycamore trees gave a grace to the shore, which would otherwise have been dull and tame. Naked Ethiopians were fishing or washing their clothes in the water, and some of .them, as they held their long, scarlet-edged mantles above their heads, to dry in the wind and sun, showed fine, muscular figures. The women had hideous faces, but symmetrical and well developed forms. A group of Egyptian soldiers watched us from the bank before the palace, and several personages on horseback, one of whom appeared to be the Governor himself, were hailing the ferry