THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 2a 
have brought a moullah along with you. Do you think I, 
fhall read.all thete letters? Why, it would take mea month.” 
And he glared upon me, with his mouth open, fo like. an: 
idiot, that it was with the utmoft difficulty I kept my gra- 
vty, only anfwering, “Juft as you pleafe ; you know bett.” 
He affected at firft not to underftand Arabic; {poke by an’ 
interpreter in the language of Mafuah, which is a. dialect, 
ef Tigré; but feeing I underftood him in this, he {poke Ara-. 
bic, and fpoke it well. 
A sitence followed this fhort'converfation, and I took the 
opportunity to give him his prefent, with which he did not. 
feem difpleafed, but rather that it was below him to tell me. 
fo; for, without faying a:word about it, he afked me, where. 
the Abuna of.Habefh was? and why he tarried fo.long? L 
faid, The wars in Upper Egypt had made the roads dangerous; 
and, it was eafy to fee, Omar longed much to fettle accounts. 
with. him.. | 
I roox my leave of the Naybe, very: little pleafed with 
my reception, and the fmall account he feemed to make. 
of my letters, or of myfelf;. but heartily fatisfied. with 
having ient my difpatches to Janni, now far out of. his- 
power. . : 
Tue iohabitants of Mafuah were dying of the fmall-pox;, 
fo that there was fear the living would not be fufficient to. 
bury. the dead. The whole ifland was filled with fhricks 
and lamentations both night and day. They at laft began 
to throw the bodies into the fea,. which deprived us cf our: 
great fupport, ith, of which we had ate fome kinds. that: 
were. 
