THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 



Stij.l it is not the profpccT: that pleafcs, for the whole 

 ground that is fown to the fandy afcent of the mountains, 

 is but a narrow flripe of three quarters of a mile broad, and 

 the mountains them felvcs, which here begin to have a mo- 

 derate degree of elevation, and which bound this narrow 

 valley, are white, gritty, fandy, and uneven, and perfectly 

 dcliitute of all manner of verdure. 



At the fmall village of Racca Seguier there was tins 

 remarkable, that it was thick, furrounded with trees of a 

 different nature and figure from palms ; what they were 

 I know not, I believe they were pomegranate-trees ; I thought, 

 that with my glafs I difcerned fomc " rcddiih fruit upon 

 them ; and we had paffed a village called Rhoda, a name 

 they give in Egypt to pomegranates ; Saleah is on the op- 

 polite, or eaft-fule of the river. The Nile divides above the 

 village ; it fell very calm, and here we paffed the night of 

 the fifteenth. 



Our Rais Abou Ouffi begged leave to go to Comadreedy, 

 a fmall village on the weft of the Nile, with a few palm- 

 trees about it ; he laid that his wife was there. As I never 

 heard any thing of this till now, I fancied he was going 

 to divert himlelf in the manner he had done the night be- 

 fore he left Cairo ; for he had put on his black furtout, or 

 great coat, his icarlct turban, and a new fearlet ihaul, both 

 of which he laid he had brought, to do me honour in my 



vovagc. 



I thanked him much for his conlidcration, but alked 

 him why, as he was a Sherriffe, he did not wear xhegreen 

 turban of Mahomet ? He anfwered, Poh ! that was a trick 



K 2 put 



