322 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

shore, on account of the mud, but the sailors carried us out on their shoulders. I rode with him to a small Arab hamlet, scattered among the thorny thickets. There were but two mud houses, the other dwellings being merely rude tents of grass matting ; few of the inhabitants were at home, but those few were peaceable and friendly. As the Consul had a ride of four or five hours before him, he wished me good luck and set off northward, while the sailors, who were in waiting, carried me back to the boat.

All the afternoon I sped before a strong wind up the magnificent river. Its breadth varied from two to three miles, but its current was shallow and sluggish. The shores were sandy, and covered with groves of the gum-producing mimosa, which appeared for the first time in profusion. About four o'clock 1 passed a low, isolated hill on the eastern bank, which the sailors called Djar en-nehhee, and near sunset, a long ridge on the right, two miles inland, broke the dead level of the plains of Korclofan. The sand-banks were covered with wild geese and ducks in myriads, and here and there we saw an enormous crocodile lounging on the edge of the water. The sun went down ; the short twilight faded, and I was canopied by a superb starlit heaven. Taurus, Orion, Sirius and the Southern Cross sparkled in one long, unbroken galaxy of splendor.

The breeze was mild and light, and the waves rippled with a pleasant sound against the prow. My sailors sat on the forward deck, singing doleful songs, to which the baying of dogs and the yells of hyenas made a fit accompaniment. The distant shores of the river were lighted with the fires of the Mohammediyeh Arabs, and we heard the men shouting to each other occasionally. About nine o'clock we passed their prin-