He brought me about a gallon of brandy, and a jar of lemons and oranges, preserved in honey; both very agreeable. He brought likewise a lamb, and some garden-stuffs. Among the sweetmeats was some horse-raddish preserved like ginger, which certainly, though it might be wholesome, was the very worst stuff ever I tasted. I gave a good square piece of it, well wrapt in honey, to the Rais, who coughed and spit half an hour after, crying he was poisoned.
I saw he did not wish me to stay at Melawé, as he was afraid of the Bey’s troops, that they might engage him in their service to carry them down, so went away with great good will, happy in the acquisition of the brandy, declaring he would carry sail as long as the wind held.
We passed Mollé, a small village with a great number of acacia trees intermixed with the plantations of palms. These occasion a pleasing variety, not only from the difference of the shape of the tree, but also from the colour and diversity of the green.
As the sycamore in Lower Egypt, so this tree seems to be the only indigenous one in the Thebaid. It is the Acacia Vera, or the Spina Egyptiaca, with a round yellow flower. The male is called the Saiel; from it proceeds the gum arabic, upon incision with an ax. This gum chiefly comes from Arabia Petrea, where these trees are most numerous. But it is the tree of all deserts, from the northmost part of Arabia, to the extremity of Ethiopia, and its leaves the only food for camels travelling in those desert parts. This gum is called Sumach in the west of Africa, and is a principal article of trade on the Senega among the Ialofes.
A large plantation of Dates reaches all along the west side, and ends in a village called Masara. Here the river, though broad, happened to be very shallow; and by the violence with which we went, we stuck upon a sand bank so fast, that it was after sun-set before we could get off; we came to an anchor opposite to Masara the night of the 19th of December.
On the 20th, early in the morning, we again set sail and passed two villages, the first called Welled Behi, the next Salem, about a mile and a half distant from each other on the west side of the Nile. The mountains on the west side of the valley are about sixteen miles off, in a high even ridge, running in a direction south-east; while the mountains on the east run in a parallel direction with the river, and are not three miles distant.
We passed Deirout on the east side, and another called Zohor, in the same quarter, surrounded with palms; then Siradé on the east side also, where is a wood of the Acacia, which seems very luxuriant; and, though it was now December, and the mornings especially very cold, the trees were in full flower. We passed Monfalout, a large town on the western shore. It was once an old Egyptian town, and place of great trade; it was ruined by the Romans, but re-established by the Arabs.
An Arabian [110]author says, that, digging under the foundation of an old Egyptian temple here, they found a crocodile made of lead, with hieroglyphics upon it, which they imagine to be a talisman, to prevent crocodiles from passing further. Indeed, as yet, we had not seen any; that animal delights in heat, and, as the mornings were very cold, he keeps himself to the southward. The valley of Egypt here is about eight miles from mountain to mountain.
We passed Siout, another large town built with the remains of the ancient city [111]Isiu. It is some miles inland, upon the side of a large calish, over which there is an ancient bridge. This was formerly the station of the caravan for Sennaar. They assembled at Monfalout and Siout, under the protection of a Bey residing there. They then passed nearly south-west, into the sandy desert of Libya, to El Wah, the Oasis Magna of antiquity, and so into the great Desert of Selima.
Three miles beyond Siout, the wind turned directly south, so we were obliged to stay at Tima the rest of the 20th. I was wearied with continuing in the boat, and went on shore at Tima. It is a small town, surrounded like the rest with groves of palm-trees. Below Tima is Bandini, three miles on the east side. The Nile is here full of sandy islands. Those that the inundation has first left are all sown, these are chiefly on the east. The others on the west were barren and uncultivated; all of them mostly composed of sand.