THE SOURCE OF THE NILE 545 
bed between the hands into a duft or powder, for the fake 
of package; andthe goat’s {kin crammed as full as poflible, 
and tied at the mouth with a leatherthong. This bread 
has a fourifh tafte, which it imparts to the water when 
‘mingled with it, and {wells to fix times the fpace that it 
occupied when dry. A: handful, as much as you could 
grafp, put into a: bowl made of a gourd {fawed.in two, about 
twice the contents of a common tea-bafon, was the quan- 
tity allowed'to each man every day, morning and evening; 
and another fuch gourd of water divided, one half two 
hours before noon, the other about an hour after. Such 
were the regulations we all of us fubferibed to; we had not 
camels for a greater provifion. The Nile at Haffa runs 
at the foot of a mountain called Jibbel Atefhan, or the 
Mountain of Thirf ; the men, emphatically enough, confider- 
ing that thofe who part from it, entering the defert, take 
there the firft provifions againft thirft, and there thofe that 
come to.it from the defert firft. afluage theirs. 
On the rith, about eleven o’clock in the forenoon we 
left Haffa. It required a whole day to fill our fkins, and 
foak them well in the water, in order to make an experi- 
ment, which was of the greateft confequence of any one we 
ever made, whether thefe fkins were water-tight or not. I 
had. taken the greateft care while at Chendi to dawb them 
well over with greafe and-tar, to fecure their pores on the 
eutfide ; but Idris told us this was not enough; and that 
foaking the infide with water, filling them choak-full, and 
tying their mouths as hard as poflible, was the only way to 
be certain if they were water-tight without. 
WHILE 
