MEMOIR OF BtTRCKHARDT. 85 



Berber they regained the Nile, along which they 

 advanced to Shendey, one of the principal markets 

 for the slave traders from Egypt, Darfour, Kordofan, 

 and Sennaar. " It would have been easy for me," 

 says Burckhardt, " to have proceeded to Sennaar, 

 nine days distant from Shendey, and from thence 

 into Abyssinia, following Bruce's track ; but I 

 wished to visit unknown districts, and I was con- 

 vinced, from what I had already experienced, that 

 a tour through those countries would bo attended 

 with expenses which I was little able to bear." As 

 lie travelled in the guise of a poor merchant, with- 

 out a servant, and with only a single ass to carry 

 Iiis provisions and a few articles of traffic, he was 

 occasionally exposed to some rude treatment on the 

 part of his companions ; but he enjoyed excellent 

 health, his severest sufferings arising from want of 

 w^ater. In approaching the Nile, near Berber, they 

 were quite sensible of it at two hours' distance, by 

 the greater moisture in the air. " God be praised," 

 exclaimed the Arabs," we smell the Nile again !" 

 'i'lie Nubian desert he represents as in general of a 

 n)uch less dreary appearance than the great Syrian 

 dosert, and still less so than those of Suez and Tyh. 

 Ostriches were numerous in some of the plains ; and 

 very large lizards were observed, at least a foot in 

 length from head to tail. 



The dreaded Simoom, or poisonous wind, he 

 thinks, has been much exaggerated by travellers ; 

 and alleges that the stones of whole caravans perish- 



