406 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

CHAPTEE XXXII.

THE BEYOODA DESERT.

Entering the Desert — Character of the Scenery — Wells— Fear of the Arabs— The L*-loom Tree— Effect of the Hot Wind — Mohammed overtakes us— Arab Endurance— An unpleasant Bedfellow — Comedy of the Crows — Gazelles — We encounter a Sandstorm— The Mountain of Thirst— The Wells of Djeekdud — A Mountain Pass-Desert Intoxication — Scenery of the Table-land— Bir Khannik — The Kababis* Arabs— Gazelles again — Euins of an Ancient Coptic Monastery— Distant View of th> Nile Valley — Djebel Berkel — We come into Port.

" He sees the red sirocco wheeling Its sandy columns o'er the waste, And streams through palmy valleys stealing, Where the plumed ostrich speeds in haste." — Fkeiligkath.

We left El Metemma at noon, on the tenth" of February. Crossing the low ridge of red sand, at the foot of which the town is built, the wind came fresh to meet us, across the long, level savanna of yellow grass and shrubs which stretched away to the west and north, without a bound. The prospect was exhilarating, after the continual hem of thorns, which had lined our road from Khartoum. It was a great relief to turn the eye from the bare, scorching mud walls of the town, to the freshness and freedom of the Desert. I took a last look at the wheat-fields of the Nile, and then turned my face northward,