96 AFBICAN WANDERINGS.

sent most of the blood into their heads, as was shown by their deeply flushed though swarthy faces. The nephew of the Sheik. Mussa, whom our old camp-neighbour Mohammed Defalla had made our friend, had, on our entering, explained to the company, that we were not Turks, but Inglebs, English, a word which here seems to answer to the Frank of the East ; all therefore were friendly and kind, and more so, when they found we drank stoutly. They were particularly pleased, when we taught them the a tempo drinking, in which, from our old student-habits, we came off victorious. In their now confidential intimacy, they told us, they would soon settle matters with the Turks, if Mohammed Din so willed it. The chaaba near here shows a thick strong bush, intermixed with high old trees, the ground below strewed with uprooted trees and bearing tall grasses. Many fine trees were not to be seen as the violent and sudden hurricanes that occur in the rainy season break over or uproot the high trees, for the soil becomes so saturated with the heavy floods that the roots retain but a poor hold. The chaaba or forest extends from the Atbara to the Red Sea and upwards to Habesch. It is the abode of unnumbered elephants, many of whose immense spinal joint bones we found lying among the grass, of rhinoceroses, lions generally without manes, tigers, hyenas, giraffes, gazelles, large antelopes, wild asses, wolves, cats, &c., and immense numbers of most venomous snakes. From fear of these no Arab will at night move outside his seriba. To form a clear and broad path, such as the Romans cut through the German forests, through this overgrown and dense wilderness, would require many thousand European axes, but such as the Pascha has already given out to the soldiery, many times during our march to clear the way, would be perfectly useless for such a gigantic task. On our return to the well a little before sunset, we found all the Schaigies on the move to take possession of a seriba outside the village, partly for security against the lions, who at night come out from the forest to the water, and partly as a precaution against the hostile-minded Arabs. We could not decline going with them, and encamped with Melek Mammud, in the centre of liis troop and of the seriba, thus forming the staff. In the evening some bread was brought us (thin cakes piled on each other like pancakes), but neither flesh, milk, nor butter. Fortunately we had got our rice and