356 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE HASSANIYEH ARABS.

We leave the Islands of the Shillooks — Tropical Jungles — A "Whim and its Consequences—Lair of Wild Beasts — Arrival among the Hassaniyehs — A Village — The Woman and the Sultan — A Dance of Salutation — My Arab Sailor — A Swarthy Cleopatra— Salutation of the Saint — Miraculous Fishing — Night View of a Hassaniyeh Village— Wad Shellayeh — A Shekh's Residence — An Ebony Cherub-r-The Cook Attempts Suicide — Evening Landscape — The Natives and their Cattle — A Boyish Governor — We reach Khartoum at Midnight.

After we parted from the Shillooks the men rowed lustily, and, taking to the western side of the river, soon put an island - between us and the village. It was about two o'clock when we left, and the wind fell sufficiently before night to allow them to make considerable progress. We swept along, under the lee of the islands, brushing the starry showers of yellow blossoms that trailed in the water, and frightening the ibises and herons from their coverts among the reeds. The hippopotami snorted all around us, and we had always a convoy of them following in our wake. The sun sank, and a moon, four days old, lighted the solitude of the islands, but the men still rowed vigorously, until we had passed the spot where the Shillooks buried their canoes in the morning. They then deemed