THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. pn 
Tue two.Barbarins entered one of them, and found a - 
naked woman there. Ifmael and I ran brifkly into the lar- 
geft, where we faw a man and a woman both perfectly na- 
ked, frightful, emaciated figures, not like the inhabitants 
of this world. The man was partly fitting on his hams; a 
child, feemingly of the age to fuck, was on a rag at the cor- 
ner, and the woman looked as if fhe wifhed to hide her- 
felf. I {prung forward upon the man, and, taking him by 
the hair of the head, pulled him upon his back on the 
floor, fetting my foot upon his breaft, and pointing my 
knife to his throat; I faid to him fternly, “ If you mean to 
pray, pray quickly, for you have but this moment to live.” 
The fellow was fo frightened, he fcarce could beg us to 
{pare his life; but the woman, as it afterwards appeared, 
the mother of the fucking child, did not feem to copy the 
paffive difpofition of her hufband; fhe ran to the corner of 
the tent, where was an old lance, with which, I doubt 
not, fhe would have fufficiently diftinguifhed herfelf, but 
it happened to be entangled with the cloth of the tent, and 
Ifmael felled her to the ground with the butt-end of his 
blunderbufs, and wrefted the lance from her.- A violent 
howl was fet up by the remaining woman like the cries of 
thofe in torment. “ Tie them, faid I, Ifmael; keep them 
feparate, and carry them to the baggage till I fettle accounts 
with this camel-ftealer, and then you fhall ftrike their 
three heads off, where they intended to leave us miferably 
to perifh with hunger; but keep them feparate.” While 
the Barbarins were tying the woman, the one that was the 
nurfe of the child turned to her hufband, and faid, in a 
moft mournful, defpairing tone of voice, “ DidI not tell 
you, you would never thrive if you hurt that good man? 
3G2 did 
