MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 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 Brace'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 be 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 

 his 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 

 water. 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 !" 

 The Nubian desert he represents as in general of a 

 much less dreary appearance than the great Syrian 

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

 Ostriches were numerous in some of the plains ; and 

 \ery 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 stories of whole caravans perister- 



