: 
* 
4, “TRAVELS TO DISCOVERE 
of any robberies or mutinous diforders, declaring always 
for the’ mafter, that is, the great one fet over them. There 
is no running water in all that immenfe plain they inha- 
bit, ic is all procured from draw-wells. We faw them 
cleaning one, which I meafured, and was nearly eight fa- — 
thoms deep. In a climate fo violently hot as this, there is. - 
very little need of fuel, neither have they any, there. 
being no turf, or any thing refembling it, in the coun- 
try, no wood, not even a tree, fince we had pafled the ri- 
rer Dender. However, they never eat their meat raw | ’ 
as in Abyflinia; but with the ftalk of the dora, or millet, ‘a 
and the dung of.camels, they make ovens under ground, 
in which they roaft their hogs whole, in a very’cleanly, 
and not difagreeable manner, keeping the fkins on till ‘ 
they are perfectly baked. They had neither flint nor fteel cae 
wherewith to light their fire at firft, but do it in a manner 
ftill more expeditious, by taking a {mall piece of ftick, and Py 
making a fharp point to it, which they hold perpendicular, 
and then make a fma!l hole of nearly the fame fize in an-_ 
other piece of flick, which they lay horizontal; they 
put the one within the other, and, berween their two ? 
hands, they turn the perpendicular ftick, (in the fame man- | 
ner that we do a chocolate mill) when both thefe fticks 
take fire, and flame in a moment upon the fri¢tion; fo 
perfectly dry and prepared is everything here upon the 
furface to take fire, notwithftanding they are every year - 
fubjeé to fix months rain. | ; 
a 
ae ee 
On the 25th, at four o’clock in the afternoon we fet out 
from the villages of the Nuba, intending to arrive at Baf- 
bech, where is the ferry over the Nile ; but we had fcarcely 
advanced two miles into the plain, when we were inclofed 
. 2 | | ‘oh by 
