ARAB SHEIKS. 37 habitation of the tribe of the Haddenda, hostile to us ; to its west are the Schukurie, who live in perpetual feud with them. Two hours after sunset a halt was made, and the many fires of the camp, glittering among the trees, offered a pretty scene. Many scorpions showed themselves here, as if attracted by the heat of the fires ; some we saw were a finger and a half in length, of a bright colour, one half of the tail a brown black, and covered with hair. Around us were huge flats, overgrown with long, thick, rank grasses, and in these the rain-water must stand long, probably dammed back there by the raised banks of the Atbara. The wind is warm, and by no means refreshing. For the last two evenings there have been continuous flashes of lightning in the south.

2Sth March. — "We encamped for this night on the river, here in some places dried up. Its high banks were evidently never hereabouts ovei*flowed, and so no Dom-palms were visible. Mohammed Defalla, a great Sheik of the neighbourhood of WoUet-Medina, arrived with many followers. He wore a suit of doublechain armour, under this a quilted shirt, arm-braces, and handsome worked steel gauntlets. His helmet fitted to his head like a shell, having in front, instead of a visor, an iron bar coming down over the nose, and behind, to cover the neck, a small guard or curtain formed of steel rings. His sword, the most common here, was one of the horsemen's straight swords, made in Sennaar, with plain bent hand-guard, golden hilt, with a thick crown-like knob cut out on its end. This equipment came from India, and he has forty or fifty such suits ; his relations of the old royal family have whole heaps of such. Two Sheiks of the land of Taka have also arrived : handsome, tall men. ]Many people from the neighbourhood of Gos-Rajeb have also come to meet the Pascha, and have just dismounted from their dromedaries in the camp ; they have their hair anointed and whitened with camel's fat, which the sun's heat has melted, and set trickling down their backs. For three hours during to-day's march we passed over a plain extending farther than eye could reach, Avith long withered grass, few trees, many gazelles, and some hares. In the morning we had remarked near, and on the river, thousands of partridges, various kinds of snipes, and numerous water-fowl. Our camping-place is two D 3