POISON WATER. 163 



immense bell-shaped blossoms, from the upper 

 boughs of the mimosa trees, and the evident care of 

 the passing Bedouins to prevent their shouldered 

 spears from injuring them, told of some innocent 

 superstition, still keeping alive gentle feelings, 

 amidst all the rudeness of their savage untutored 

 nurture. 



Ohmed Medina, on one occasion, when I was 

 desirous of looking at the contents of one of these 

 nests, cautiously pulled down by its farthest 

 extremity a branch to which one w T as attached, 

 without disturbing the position of a single blade of 

 its building materials. I then looked through its 

 little aperture on one side, but found, however, 

 neither eggs nor young, which was to be accounted 

 for by its recent construction. 



As was generally the case, the watering-place 

 was some little distance from the spot where we 

 had encamped. Water, certainly, abounded in our 

 immediate neighbourhood, but it was so impreg- 

 nated with copper, that it was known to the Dan- 

 kalli to be " poison water, " and two or three 

 instances of its deleterious effects were related to 

 me, and drinking it was one of the causes to which 

 I heard attributed the death of the Feringee (Kiel- 

 meyer) at Killaloo. 



In the black coarse sand of the dry bed of the 

 stream, I found several specimens of the spiral shell, 

 which I had observed, as characterizing the stratum 

 of chalk, in the neighbourhood of the Bahr Assal. 



m 2 



