® 
* 
YS 
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 563 
lars faced to the eaftward, and feemed to be coming dire¢t- 
ly upon us; but, though they were little nearer us than 
two miles, a confiderable quantity of fand fell round us. 
I began now to be fomewhat reconciled to this phenome- 
non, feeing it had hitherto done us no harm. The great 
magnificence it exhibited in its appearance, feemed, in fome 
‘meafure, to indemnify us for the panic it had firft occafion- 
ed: But it was otherwife with the fimoom; we all of us 
were firmly perfuaded that another paflage of the purple 
-meteor over us would be attended with our deaths. 
Ar half paft four we alighted in a vaft plain, bounded on 
all fides by low fandy hills, which feemed to have been tranf- 
ported hither lately. Thefe hillocks were from feven to 
thirteen feet high, drawn into perfect cones, with very fharp 
points and well-proportioned bafes. The fand was of an 
inconceivable finenefs, having been the fport of hot winds 
for thoufands of years.: There could be no doubt that the 
day before, when -it was calm, and we fuffered fo much 
‘by the fimoom between E] Mout and Chigegre, the wind 
bad been raifing pillars of fand in this place, called Umdoom; 
marks of the whirling motion of the pillars were diftinétly 
feen in every heap, fo that here again, while we were re- 
pining at the fimoom, Providence was bufied keeping us out 
of the way of another {cene, where, if we had advanced a 
‘day, we had all of us been involved in inevitable deftruc- 
tion, 
‘On the 18th we left Umdoom at feven in the morning, 
our direction N, a little inclined to W.; at nine o’clock 
we pafied through a fandy plain, without trees or ver- 
dure. About joo yards out of our way, to the left, among 
4Be2 fome 
