452 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

hass) had given her two piastres, and she hoped I would also give her something, that she might buy a new dress. I gave her the same as King Dyaab, which she at once asked me to take back again, as she expected at least nine piastres. Seeing I was about to take her at her word, she made haste to secure the money. Her youngest daughter, a bold, masculine thing, with hair cut close to her head, now came to me for backsheesh. " Oh !" said I, " you are going to do as the old woman did, are you?" " No," she exclaimed; "if you will give me two piastres, I will ask for no more. The old woman is a miserable wretch ! " and she spat upon the ground to show her disgust. " Glo ! " I said ; " I shall give nothing to a girl who insults her mother."

From Handak to El Ordee is two days' journey. The country presents the same aspect of desertion and ruin as that in the neighborhood of Old Dongola. Untenanted villages line the road during nearly the whole distance. The face of the country is level, and there is no mountain to be seen on either bank of the Nile. It is a melancholy, deserted region, showing only palms growing wildly and rankly along the river, fields covered with halfeh, water-courses broken down, sakias dismantled, and everywhere dwellings in ruin. Here and there a few inhabitants still lingered, tending their fields of stunted cotton, or watering some patches of green wheat.

The general aspect of desolation was heightened by the strong north-wind, which filled the air with clouds of sand, making the sunshine so cold and white, that all the color faded out of the landscape. The palms were dull and dark, and the sandhills beyond the Nile a dead, lifeless yellow. All this district swarms with black gnats, which seemed to have been sent as a