THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 527 
to Sittina his fifter, to whom this country belongs, was then 
with them, fo we did not fear them, otherwife there is not 
a worte fet of fanatical wretches, or greater enemies to the 
name of Chriftian, than thefe are. 
As we are here fpeaking of Arabs and their names, I 
fhall once for all obferve, that Wed, a word which I have’ 
frequently made ufe of in the courfe of this hiftory, and 
which in this fenfe is peculiar to the kingdom of Sennaar, 
does not mean river, though that is its import in Arabic. 
- Here it is an abbreviation of Welled, peculiar to the inhabi- 
tants of this part of Atbara, who feem to have an averfion to 
the letter 1; Wed el Faal, the fon of Faal; Wed Hydar, the 
fon of Hydar, or ¢he lion; Wed Haflan, the fon of Haflan, 
and fo of the reft. For the fame reafon, Melek Sennaar, 
the king of Sennaar, called Me, by throwing out the 1; 
Abd el Mek, the flave of the king, inftead of Abd el Melek. 
‘Here alfo I had the pleafure to find the language of the- 
Koran that of the whole people in common converfation ;. 
and as this was the book in which I firft ftudied the Ken | 
bic, | found now a propriety and facility of-expreffion I had 
not been fenfible of before; for that of the Koran, in Ara- 
bia, is a kind of dead Hn euseS rarely. underftood but by. 
men of ‘learning.. 
Ar Wed Baal a Nagga: there is a: ferry for thofe- who. 
go to Dongola by the defert of Bahiouda. Derreira is the: 
landing-place on the other fide; I fuppofe it isto avoid: - 
thefe Jaheleen that caravans ferry over at Gerri rather 
than come fo low as Wed Baala Nagga, We left Maia at: 
half paft three. in. the. afternoon, and,.afttr going three: 
miles,. 
