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[ The people of Sennaar catch, cook and eat, without scruple, cats, rats and mice; and those who are rich enough to buy a wild hog, fatten it up and make a feast of it. I had heard in the lower country that the people of Sennaar made no scruple to eat swine's flesh, but I absolutely refused to believe that a people calling themselves Mussulmans could do this from choice. But after my arrival in Sennaar I was obliged to own that I had been mistaken. The species of hog found in the kingdom of Sennaar is small and black; it is not found in that part of the kingdom called "El Gezira," i.e. the island, but is caught in the woody mountains of the country near Abyssinia. In the house of one Malek in Sennaar was found about a dozen of these animals fattening for his table.]
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[ The mountains of Bokki border upon the kingdom of Fezoueli, which lies south of Sennaar twenty days march. The mountains of Fezoueli are supposed to contain gold mines; pieces of gold are frequently found in the torrents that flow from those mountains in the rainy season. A native of that country told the Pasha Ismael, that he had seen a piece of gold, found in those mountains, as big as the bottom part of the silver narguil of his Excellence, i.e. about six inches in diameter. That there is gold in that country, is certain, as the female prisoners, taken at Bokki, had many gold rings and bracelets, of which they were quickly disencumbered by our soldiers. The Pasha intends to visit Fezoueli after the rainy season is over, to find the veins from whence this gold is washed down by the torrents, and, in case of success, to work the mines.]
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[ We passed Attar Baal the same night. The reader is aware that a boat carrying a courier, could not be detained to give a passenger an opportunity to see ruins.]
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[ The "Adit," or Nile of Bruce, enters the Bahar el Abiud nearly at right angles, but such is the mass of the latter river, that the Nile cannot mingle its waters with those of the Bahar el Abiud for many miles below their junction. The waters of the Adit are almost black during the season of its augmentation; those of the Bahar el Abiud, on the contrary, are white: so that for several miles below their junction, the eastern part of the river is black, and the western is white. This white color of the Bahar el Abiud is occasioned by a very fine white clay with which its waters are impregnated. At the point of junction between the Bahar el Abiud and the Adit, the Bahar el Abiud is almost barred across by an island and a reef of rocks; this barrier checks its current, otherwise it would probably almost arrest the current of the Adit. It is, nevertheless, sufficiently strong to prevent the Adit from mingling with it immediately, although the current of the Adit is very strong, and enters the Bahar el Abiud nearly at right angles.]
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[ Since my return to Egypt, we have learned that this army, after some bloody battles, had succeeded in taking possession of Darfour and Kordofan.]