THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 505 



lions were to be procured, and that Ifmael the Turk, an old 

 man, and Georgis the Greek, ahnoft blind, required an ad- 

 ditional confideration, fo long as it pollibly could be done 

 with fafety to us all ; bur, when we fliould advance to the 

 borders of the defert, we mull all refolve to pals that jour- 

 ney on foot, as upon the quantity of water, and the quan- 

 tity of provilions alone, to be carried by us, could depend 

 our hopes of ever feeing home. 



On the 8th of September we left the village of Soliman, 

 and about three o'clock in the afternoon came to Wed el 

 Tumbel, which is not a river, as the name would feem to 

 lignify, but three villages fuuated upon a pool of water, 

 nearly in a line from north to fouth. The intermediate 

 country between this and Herbagi is covered with great 

 crops of dora. The plain extends as far as the fight reach- 

 es. Though there is not much wood, the country is not 

 entirely deftitute of it, and the farther you go from Sen- 

 naar the finer the trees. At Wed el Tumbel there is preat 

 plenty of ebony-bullies, and a particular fort of thorn which 

 fecms to be a fpecies of dwarf acacia, with very fm-iU 

 leaves, and long pods of a llrong faccharine tafte. This is 

 here in great abundance, and is called Lauts, or Loto, which 

 I fufpecl to be the tree on whofe fruit, we are told, the an- 

 cient Libyans fed. At a quarter pall three we left Wed el 

 Tumbel, and entered into a thick wood, in which we tra- 

 velled all late, when we came to the Nile. We continued 

 along the river for about 500 yards, and alighted at Sit el 

 Bet, a fraail village about a mile's dill^ince from the llream. 

 Here we faw the tomb of a Shekh, or faint, built of brick 

 in a conical form, much after the fame figure as fome we 

 hadfeen in Barbary, which were of Hone. 



Qn 



