THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 587 



had got the better of their other fenfations. hi iliort, there 

 was nothing more vifible, than that their apprehenfions 

 were of two forc-^, and produced very different operations. 

 The fimoom, the talking pillars of fand, and probability of 

 dying with thirft or hunger, brought on a torpor, or in- 

 difference, that made them inaftive; but the difcovery of 

 the Arab at Terfowey, the fear of meeting the Bifhareen at 

 the wells, and the dead bodies of the Aga and his unfor- 

 tunate companions, produced a degree of adtivity and irri- 

 tation that refembled very much their fpirits being elevated 

 by good news. I told them, that, of all the places in the 

 defert through which they had pafled, this was by far the 

 fafeft, becaufe fear of being met by troops from AlTouan, 

 feeking the murderers of Mahomet Towafla would keep all 

 the Bifliareen at a diftance. Our Arab faid, that the next 

 well belonged to the Ababde, and not the Bifliareen, and 

 that the Bifliareen had flain the Aga there, to make men 

 believe it had been done by the Ababde. Idris contributed 

 his morfel of comfort, by afTuring us, that the wells now, as 

 far as Egypt, were fo fcanty of water, that no party above 

 ten men would truft their provifion to them, and none of 

 us had the leaft apprehenfion from marauders of twice 

 that number. The night at Umarack was exceflively cold 

 as to fenfation ; Falirenheit's thermometer was however at 

 49° an hour before day-light. 



On the 23d we left Umarack at fix o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, our road this day being between mountains of blue 

 ftones of a very fine and perfecfl quality, through the heart 

 of which ran thick veins of jaiper, their llrata perpendicu- 

 lar to the horizon. There were other mountains of marble 

 of the colour called Ifabella. In other places the rock feem- 



4 E 2 ed 



