MORNING. 329 CHAPTER XXVI.

ADVENTURES AMONG THE SHILLOOK. NEGROES.

Morning — Magnificence of the Island Scenery — Birds and Hippopotami — Flight of the Natives — The Island of Aba — Signs of Population — A Band of "Warriors — The Shekh and the Sultan — A Treaty of Peace — The Robe of Honor — Suspicions— "We walk to the Village — Appearance of the Shillooks — The Village — The Sultan gives Audience — 'Women and Children — Ornaments of the Natives — My "Watch — A Jar of Honey — Suspicion and Alarm — The Shillook and the 'Sultan's Black "Wife — Character of the Shillooks — The Land of the Lotus — Population of the Shillook Kingdom — The Turning Point— A View from the Mast-Head.

"We sailed nearly all night with a steady north-wind, which towards morning became so strong that the men were obliged to take in sail and let us scud under bare poles. When I rose, in the gray of early dawn, they were about hoisting the little stern-sheet, which alone sufficed to carry us along at the rate of four miles an hour. We had passed the frontier of Egyptian Soudan soon after sunset, and were then deep in the negro kingdom of the Shillooks. The scenery had changed considerably since the evening. The forests were taller and more dense, and the river more thickly studded with islands, the soil of which was entirely concealed by the luxuriant girdle of shrubs and water-plants, in which they lay imbedded. The