*» 
316 - TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
north anda tatipe one to the weft. The Nile here runs N. 
FE. of us. This whole day was {pent in woods of a very plea- 
fant kind; there were large numbers of birds of various co- 
Tours, but none of them, fo far as I could hear fince we 
left Sennaar, endowed with the gift of fong.- Sakies* in the 
‘plain, all between the Nile and the road, lift the water 
from the ftream, and pour it on the land, in hopes that it 
may produce fome miferable crops of dora; for the river 
overflows none of this country, and it is very precarioufly 
and fcantily watered with rain. 
In a little time, continuing our journey, we came to 
Shekh Atman’s, the tomb of a Fakir on the road. There 
is a high ridge’ of mountains on our left, weft of the Nile 
about five miles, and a low ridge on our right, about eight 
‘miles diftant ; our direction was ftraight north. At half patt 
eight, about five miles further, we came to the village Wed 
Hojila. The river Abiad, which is larger than the Nile, 
joins it there. Still the Nile preferves the name of Bahar 
el Azergue, or the Blue River, which it got at Sennaar. The 
village was once intended to be built at the junction of the 
two rivers, but the Fakir’s tomb being on the fide of the - 
Nile, the village likewife was placed there. The Abiad is 
a very deep river; it runs dead and with little inclination, 
and preferves its ftream always undiminifhed, becaufe ri- 
fing in latitudes where there are continual rains, it there- 
fore fuffers not the decreafe the Nile does by the fix months 
dry weather. Our whole journey this day was through 
woods, with large intervals of fandy plains producing no- 
thing except fome few {pots of corn fown in time of the 
fhowers, 
* A machine for raifing water from the Nile, otherwife called the Perfian wheel. 
