AND LOWER EGYPT. I49 



watch to two of my companions, but they too had 

 sunk into slumber. The hanja, badly fastened 

 against the shore, broke loose, and the current car- 

 ried it away with the utmost rapidity. We were 

 all asleep ; not one of us, not even the boatmen, 

 stretched upon the sand, perceived our manner of 

 sailing down at the mercy of the current. After 

 having floated with the stream for the space of a 

 good league, the boat, hurried along with violence, 

 struck with a terrible crash against the shore, pre- 

 cisely a little below the place from whence the 

 greatest part of the loosened earth fell down. 



Awakened by this furious shock, we were not 

 slow in perceiving the critical situation into which 

 we were thrown. The kafija, repelled by the land, 

 which was cut perpendicularly, and driven to- 

 wards it again by the violence of the current, 

 turned round in every direction, and dashed 

 against the shore in such a manner as excited an 

 apprehension that it would be broken to pieces. 

 The darkness of the night, the frightful noise 

 which the masses separated from the shore spread 

 far and wide as they fell into a deep water; the 

 bubbling which they excited, the agitation of 

 which communicated itself to the boat, rendered 

 our awakening a very melancholy one. 



L 3 There 



