THE FEROCITY OF CROCODILES. 269 



rated. This opinion appears to agree badly with the 

 sentiments he expresses in the interesting story we 

 are ahout to quote. 



It was in the desert of Wady Haifa (Lower 

 Nubia). Our traveller was proceeding to Dongolah. 

 It was near the end of the month Kamadan. In 

 the caravan was a Turkish merchant, who wished 

 to procure a sheep, or at least a goat, at any 

 price, which he would have carried on one of his 

 camels, in order to offer it up as a sacrifice at the 

 moment when the crescent should shine forth in the 

 skies. "But," says Mr. Combes, " we were then on 

 the desert side of the Nile, and it would have been 

 necessary to cross over to the opposite shore to find 

 any living animals. 



" The Turk went up and down the river, in the 

 hope of discovering some rafts ; he shouted to the 

 inhabitants on the opposite shore, but his searching 

 and his cries were vain. He then resorted to the 

 camel- drivers, and promised them a recompense if 

 they would consent to swim across the Nile, and 

 endeavour to bring back a sheep with them. Sobriety 

 is a necessary virtue in the desert, but it was a 

 question of celebrating a feast, and our conductors, 

 like zealous Mussulmans, could not have been better 

 pleased than to be able to comply with the wishes 

 of the pious traveller. Unhappily, crocodiles were 



