96 HABITS AND CUSTOMS.

fresh water, because none is to be met with until beyond Ketshmar, situate at a distance of two short days' journey from the former village. Persons also travelling to Dongola must furnish themselves with water, sufficient to last them to the rocky caverns in Semmeria, in this village. The sheikh, who considers himself the proprietor of all the wells, will not allow water to be drawn, except he be paid for it ; and the Djelabi are forced to give him from one to five dollars for the jermission of filling their water-bags. When I wanted water, he demanded six dollars of me, thinking a Frank ought, of course, to pay more. He was not jDrepared for any contradiction, because he saw me travelling alone with my servant ; I, however, was acquainted with these arbitraiy demands, and had been, moreover, cautioned by others not to submit to his extortions, as he has no right to sell the water for his own benefit, which is the property of the government. I, consequently, refused to pay the sum he demanded with decision; and after much talking on the one side and the other, he at last ordered water to be given me from a well, which was so putrid that the camels even would not drink it. When my servant mentioned this circumstance to me, I ordered him to pour the water immediately away, and demanded good drinkable water of the sheikh, as I knew that there were pure wells in the neighbourhood ; he, however, would not draw me any more, not even of the bad water. I was so irritated