480 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

few stunted thorns. The air was so bracing that I felt no more fatigue, but only regret, that the journey was so near its close. Old Mohammed walked ahead, singing his accustomed song : " KooIIgo nasee fee djennatee, iefoddhel, ya er-rakhman ! " (0 Most Merciful, grant that all my people may enter thy Heavens !) Thus we travelled all day, and towards evening came down to the Nile again at the little village of Meersheh.

This place is a beautiful little oasis in the midst of the savage Belly of Stone. The Nile has a more gentle current, and his banks have room enough for some groves of luxuriant date-trees, and fields of wheat and cotton. My tent was pitched beside the rustling palms, and I sat down with a glad heart and a full pipe, on the last night of my long am toilsome journey by land. During the evening one of the natives took a fancy to my Abou-Sin, and made numerous small offers for the purchase of him. I refused, preferring to send him on to Assouan, but in the morning the man came again, and at last, with many struggles, raised his price to one hundred and ninety piastres, whereupon I thought it best to sell and so avoid all further trouble. I stipulated, however, that Abou-Sin was to be delivered to him at WadUHalfa, and that he should accompany us thither on the morrow. The night was intensely cold, although the air was probably not "below 60°. I could hardly bear the coldness of the water in the morning.

It stung my burnt face like fire, and increased the pains of my unfortunate cracked nose. The Barabras brought me some milk for my coffee in a basket of closely-plaited grass, smeared with grease on the inside. It precisely resembled those baskets made by the Indians of California, which will carry water.