5i6 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



north and a large one to the weft. The Nile here runs ^. 

 E. of us. This whole day was fpent in woods of a very plea- 

 fan t kind ; there were large numbers of birds of various co- 

 lours, but none of them, fo far as I could hear fmce we 

 left Sennaar, endowed with the gift of fong. Sakies* in the 

 plain, all between the Nile and the road, lift the water 

 from the ftream, and pour it on the land, in hopes that it 

 may produce fome miferable crops of dora ; for the river 

 overflows none of this country, and it is very precarioufly 

 and fcantily watered with rain. 



In a little time, continuing our journey, we came to 

 Shekh Atman's, the tomb of a Fakir on the road. There 

 js a high ridge of mountains on our left, weft of the Nile 

 about five miles, and a low ridge on our right, about eight 

 miles diftant ; our diredion was ftraight north. At half paft 

 eight, about five miles further, we came to the village Wed 

 Hojila. The river Abiad, which is larger than the Nile, 

 joins it there. Still the Nile preferves the name of Bahar 

 el Azergue, or the Blue River, which it got at Sennaar. The 

 village was once intended to be built at the jundlion of the 

 two rivers, but the Fakir's tomb being on ' t]\e fide of ilie 

 Nile, the village likewife was placed there. The Abiad is 

 a very deep river; it runs dead and with little inclination, 

 and preferves its ftream always undiminifhed, becaufe ri- 

 fing in latitudes where there arc continual rains, it there- 

 fore fuffers' not the decreafe the Nile does by the fix months 

 dry weather. Our whole journey this day was through 

 woods, with large intervals of fandy plains producing no- 

 tliing ..except fome few fpots of corn fown in time of the 



fhowers, 



* A machine for raiCng waljct from ite Nile, otherwifc called the Perfr.n wheel. 



