THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 623 



three years, he knows what is owing to his own chara(T:er 

 better than to fufFer a Have Hke you to lay his lilthy 

 hands on a ftranger hke me."—" No ! No ! Mallem, fays the . 

 man that fpoke Italian, we will do you no harm. Ifmael,. 

 that you brought from Habefli, has been with the Bey, and 

 he wants to fee you ; and that is all." — Then Hay without, 

 faid I, till I am ready, and I will come to you prefently." 



Out they went: I heard them crying to the Caloyeros for 

 drink, but they never in their lives were in a place where 

 they could addrefs themfelves worfe for either meat or li- 

 quors; on the other hand, I did not keep them long in drefT- 

 ing. I had no flairt on, nor had I been mailer of one for 

 fourteen months pafl. I had a waiftcoat of coarfc, brown, 

 woollen blanket, trowfers of the fame, and an upper blan- 

 ket of the fame wrapt about me, and in thefe I was lying. 

 I had cut off my long beard at Furfliout, but ftill wore pro- 

 digious muflachocs, I had a thin, white, muflin cloth round 

 a red Turkifli cap, which ferved me for a night-cap, a girdle 

 of coarfe woollen cloth that wrapt I'ound my waift eight 

 or ten times, and fwaddled me up from the middle to the 

 pit of my ftomach, but without cither Ihoes or flockings,. 

 In the left of my girdle Ihad two Englifli pillbls mounted 

 with filver, and on the right hand a common crooked Abyf- 

 fmian knife, with a handle of a rhinoceros horn. ThuS' 

 e^uipt, I was ufhered by the banditti, in a dark and very 

 windy night, to the door of the convent. 



. The Sarach, or commander of the party, rode upon a mule, 

 and, as a mark of extreme confideration, he had brought an 

 afs for me, with fods, or a carfaddlc upon his back, the only 

 animal that, to the fliame o£ our Chriftian rulers, any of our 

 ^ faith; 



