AN ILLUMINATED PICTURE. 373 he, with the other chiefs of Khartoum, were ready to set out on horseback for the White Nile. We rode at once to the house of Moussa Bey, who had quite recovered from his illness.

The company was already mounted in the square before the house, and only awaited our arrival. We dashed through the lanes of the slave quarter, raising such a cloud of dust that little except red caps and horses' tails was visible, until we came out upon the open plain, where our cavalcade made a showy and picturesque appearance.

The company consisted of Abd-el Kader Bey, Moussa Bey, Musakar Bey, Ali Bey Khasib, Abou-Sin and Owd-el Kerim, the Shukoree chiefs, Ali Effendi, Mohammed Kheyr, Br. Reitz, Dr. Peney and myself, besides a number of inferior officers and at least fifty attendants : in short, everybody of consequence in Khartoum except the Pasha, who was represented by one of his Secretaries. The Beys were mounted on fine Arabian stallions, Br. Peney on a tall dromedary, and the Arab chiefs on mules and donkeys, while the grooms and pipebearers ran behind on foot. I shall long remember the brilliant picture of that morning. The sky was clear and hot, and the palms rustled their shining leaves in a light wind. The fields of beans lay spread out between us and the river, their purple blossoms rolling in long drifts and flakes of color, and warm, voluptuous perfume. The red caps, the green and scarlet housings of the horses, the rich blue, brown, purple and violet dresses of the Beys, and the snowy robes of the Arabs, with their crimson borders thrown over the shoulder, projected against the tawny hue of the distant plains, and the warm blue of the sky, formed a feast of color which, in its entire richness and harmony, so charmed my eye that the sight of it became a