s 4 4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



moftly mounted on camels. Thefe were friends to Shekh 

 Hamam, governor of Upper Egypt for the time, and confe- 

 quently to the Turkilh government at Syene, as alfo to the 

 janiffaries there at Deir and Ibrim. They were the barrier, or 

 bulwark, againft the prodigious number of Arabs, the Bifha- 

 reen, and others, depending upon the kingdom of Sennaar. 



Ibrahim, the fon, who had feen me at Furfhout and Bad- 

 joura, knew me as foon as I arrived, and, after acquainting 

 his father, came with about a dozen of naked attendants, 

 with lances in their hands to efcort me. I was fcarce got 

 •into the door of the tent, before a great dinner was brought 

 after their cuftom ; and, that being difpatched, it was a thou- 

 fand times repeated, how little they expected that I would 

 .have thought or inquired about them. 



We were introduced to their Shekh, who was lick, in a 

 corner of a hut, where he lay upon a carpet, with a enfhion 

 under his head. This chief of the Ababde, called Nimmer, 

 i. e. the Tiger (though his furious qualities were at this time 

 in great meafure allayed by ficknefs) afked me much about 

 the flate of Lower Egypt. I fatisfied him as far as poflible, 

 but recommended to him to confine his thoughts nearer 

 home, and not to be over anxious about thefe diilant coun- 

 tries, as he himfelf feemed, at that time, to be in a declining 

 flate of health. 



Nimmer was a man about fixty years of age, exceedingly 

 tormented with the gravel, which was more extraordinary 

 as he dwelt near the Nile ; for it is, univerfally, the difeafe 



2 with 



*The Bifliareen are the Arabs who live in the frontier between the two nations. They are 

 .the nominal lubjeds of Sennaar, but, in fact, indifcreet banditti, at lealt as to (hangers. 



