422 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



of any robberies or mutinous diforders, declaring always 

 for the mafter, that is, the great one fet over them. There 

 is no running water in all that immenle plain they inha- 

 bit, it is all procured from draw-wells. We faw them 

 cleaning one, which I meafured, and was nearly eight fa- 

 thoms deep. In a climate fo violently hot as this, there is 

 very little need of fuel, neither have they any, there 

 being no turf, or any thing refembling it, in the coun- 

 try, no wood, not even a tree, fmce we had palled the ri- 

 ver Dender. However, they never eat their meat raw 

 as in Abyflinia ; but with the ilalk of the dora, or millet, 

 and the dung of camels, they make ovens under ground, 

 in which thcy^'oaft their hogs whole, in a very cleanly, 

 and not difagreeable manner, keeping the fkins on till 

 they are perfed;ly baked. They had neither flint nor ileel 

 wherewith to light their fire at firft, but do it in a manner 

 flill more expeditious, by taking afmall piece of flick, and 

 making a fliarp point to it, which they hold perpendicular, 

 and then make a fmall hole of nearly the fame fize in an- 

 other piece of flick, which they lay horizontal ; they 

 put the one within the other, and, between their two 

 hands, they tvun the perpendicular flick, (in the fame man- 

 ner that we do a chocolate mill) when both thefe flicks 

 take fire, and flame in a moment upon the fridion ; fo 

 perfectly dry and prepared is everything here upon the 

 furface to take fire, notwirhflanding they are every year 

 fubjc<5t to fix months r^in. 



On the 25th, at four o'clock in the afternoon we fet out 



from the villages of the Nuba, intending to arrive at Baf- 



boch, where is the ferry over the Nile ; but we had fcarcely 



advanced two miles into the plain, when we were inclofed 



i by 



