6id TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



known difpofition of thofe people, that what they defire 

 muft be granted inftantly, I aflced him whether he was at 

 leiiure or not to lee them? He faid, " By all means; it was 

 a good time." I then fent Michael my fervant for a book 

 of trees, and one of fiflies. 



In the interijn arrived one of their priefts, or an Imam, 

 who are efteemed the moft learned of their clergy. Ill-hu- 

 mour and ill-breeding is the chara6teriftic of violent people 

 of all religions ; a Chriftian fanatic is not one bit more cha- 

 ritable towards thofe that differ from him than a Turkifli 

 faint ; the greateft difference between them is the turban. 

 Though I was the only reafon of his coming there at that 

 time, he palTed me with the moll contemptible indifference, 

 his eyes half Ihut and lifted up to heaven, full of that ex- 

 alted pride by which his great mailer fell from happinefs.. 

 " I wifh to know, (fays he to the Aga, regardlefs of me) if 

 that Kafr faw any thing of Mahomet Towafh in the defert." 

 The Aga afked me, I faw, with fome degree of Hiame, and 

 I anfwered him : — " I faw ?vIahomet Towafli alive at Chendi, 

 richly cloathed as if he had been at Mecca. He had twelve 

 or fourteen men armed with firelocks, and about fourfcore 

 Tucorory, each with a lance in his hand, to whom he was 

 to give food and water in crofling the dcfert. There were 

 three Hybcers, all Bifhareen, who had come from Suakem 

 with the caravan, and were carrying back fenna to the 

 neighbourhood of Syene. I offered to join company with 

 them ; and though one Hybeer was enough for him, yet, 

 to diilrefs me as being a Chriflian, he took the whole tliree 

 along with him. In vain Sitrina, Wed Ageeb's filler, and 

 Wed el Faal's mother, defircd him to leave one of the Bifha- 

 reen 



