THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. zr 



have brought a moullah along with you. Do you think I 

 fhall read all thele letters ? Why, it would take me a month." 

 And he glared upon me, with his mouth open, fo like an: 

 idiot, that it was with the utmoft difficulty I kept my gra- 

 vity, only anfwering, " Juft as you pleafe ; you know beft." 



He affected at firft not to underftand Arabic; fpoke by an 

 interpreter in the language of Mafuah, which is a dialect 

 of Tigre; but feeing I underftood him in this, he fpoke Ara- 

 bic, and fpoke it well. 



A silence followed this fliort converfation, and I took the 

 opportunity to give him his prefent, with which he did not 

 feem difpleafed, but rather that it was below him to tell me 

 fo; for, without faying a word about it, he afked me, where 

 the Abuna of Habefli was ? and why he tarried fo long ? I 

 faid, The wars in Upper Egypt had made the roads dangerous ; 

 and, it was eafy to fee, Omar longed much to fettle accounts 

 with him. 



I took my leave of the Naybe, very little pleafcd with 

 my reception, and the fmall account he feemed to make 

 of my letters, or of myfelf; but heartily fatisfied with 

 having fent my difpatches to J.anni, now far out of his 

 power. 



The inhabitants of Mafuah were dying of the fmall-pox, ; 

 fo that there was fear the living would not be fufficient to 

 bury the dead. The whole ifland was filled with fhrieks 

 and lamentations both night and day. They at laft began 

 to throw the bodies into the fca, which deprived us of our 

 great fupport, fifli, of which we had ate fome kinds that 



were 



