THE SOURCE OF THE N ILE. jg^i 



ho fooner got into the plain than we felt great fymptoms of 

 the fiiiioom, and about a quarter before twelve, our prifoner 

 firft, and then Idris, cried out, The Simoom i the Simoom ! 

 My curiofity would not fufFer mc to fall down without 

 looking behind me. About due fouth, a little to the eaft, 

 I faw the coloured haze as before. It fecmcd now to be ra-- 

 ther lefs comprelled, and to have with it a fliade of blue. 

 The edges of it weie not defined as thofe of the former, 

 but like a very thin fmoke, with about a yard in the mid- 

 dle tinged with thofe colours. We all fell upon our faces, 

 and the fimoom pafled with a gentle rullling wind. It con- 

 .tinucd to blow in this manner till near three o'clock, fo we 

 were all taken ill that night, and fcarcely flrength was left 

 us to load the camels and arrange the baggage. This day- 

 one of our camels died, partly famifhed, partly overcome 

 with extreme fatigue, fo that, incapable as we were of la- 

 bour, we were obliged, for felf-preferv at ion's fiike, to cut 

 offihin flices of the flefliy part of the camel, and hang it 

 in fo many thongs upon the trees all night, and after upoa 

 the baggage, the fun drying it immediately, fo as to prc- 

 Ycnt pturefaiftion, ; 



At half pad eight in the evening wc alighted at a well 

 called Naibey, in a bare, fandy plain, where there were a few 

 draggling acacia-trees. We had all this day fcen large 

 blocks of folhle fait upon the furface of the earth wliere 

 we trod. This was the caufe, I fuppofe, that both the fpring 

 at Terfowey, and now this of Naibey, were brackiin to the 

 tafte, and efpecially that of Naibey. We found near the 

 well the corpfe of a man and two camels upon the ground. 

 It v/as apparently long ago that this accident happened, for 

 the moiilure of the camel was fo exhaled that it fcemed to 



weigh 



