MARCH.— HEAT.— WAN-f OF' TTXTT-ii. '26T more horizontal. Hoav strong tho belief here is in an extreme old age, we heard not only from the old Hakim, but also from the Pascha himself. In this neighbourhood lives a holy man, who, by all accounts, has seen upwards of 400 years, during which period he has wholly subsisted on milk. The Pascha sent for the holy man, that we might ourselves behold him, but he has not thought fit to appear. Moreover, it is said, that in the neighbouring hills there are many persons of 150 to 200 years old. In Senaar the Pascha had himself seen and spoken with a man of 250 years of age. Of registers of birth there is as little here now as in the time of Methuselah. The people here believe such tales, and a higli age, whether real or claimed, gives to the Faki his boasted saintship.

According to the old fivourite custom, we were marched out in the noon's heat, and followed back the road by which we luul come, to the springs. Wc left the slopes of the higher Abyssinian hills on our lei't, passed through forests and steppes, where we saw only a few cattle, as Nlahommed Ehle, the Sheik of Hallenga, liad been knowing enough to have all such driven away, and to represent his people as a most well-disposed but an exceedingly poor race. The Pascha pretends he believes this, although camels are stolen daily ; out of personal revenge, one of his dromedaries has been slain, and on the same occasion one of ours was carried off. We passed soutli-westAvardly through durra-fields, then south, and at last east, directly in the direction of the hill of Kassela-el-Lus. We had to pass many gohrs full of water; (a bad road for camels, who so easily slip and fall, and sweat, from mere alarm ;) and encamped, at the advice of Mahommed Ehle, on a waterless plain, while his own fair village lay some way to the left. The soil here seemed, on the whole, unfruitful, and the durra-croj>s were far inferior to those at El Sofre.

In the evening violent thirst reigned in the camp, and all cursed the perfidious Mahommed Ehle. who had i)romised water. The want of Avater and groanings of the men, set all again on their legs before day-break, and Avith music, loud murmurs, and most horrid noises, Ave inarched on hillAvard. The Pascha, on account of tliese tumults, remained in tiie pass, casting furious looks round him ; but aa'c, acc()nip:in\ lug the advanced guard of