APPENDIX. i 9 $ 



pofition of letters, and fyllables of words, in which the wri- 

 ters of thofe languages have indulged themfelves, from no- 

 tions of elegance, feem to require, not only a very fkilful 

 and attentive, but alfo a judicious and fober-minded reader, 

 that does not run away with whimfical, or firfl conceptions, 

 but weighs the character of his, author, the common idi- 

 oms of language which he ufes, and opportunities of in- 

 formation that he had concerning the fubjects upon which 

 he wrote, in preference to others that may have treated the 

 fame, but who differ from them in facts. 



The fmall lizard here defcribed is a native of Atbara 

 beyond the rains, in that lituation where we have faid the 

 ifland and city of Meroe formerly were. It feemed alfo to 

 be well known by the different black inhabitants that came 

 from the weflward by the great caravan which crofTed the 

 defert north of the Niger, and is called the Caravan of Sudan, 

 of which I have often fpoken, as being the only barbarians 

 who feem to pay the leaft attention to any articles of natu- 

 ral hiftory. Thefe bring to Cairo, and to Mecca, multitudes 

 of green paroquets, monkeys, weafels, mice, lizards, and fer- 

 pents, for the diverfion and curiofity of the men of note iri 

 Arabia, or of the Beys and the women of the great at Cairo. 

 This lizard is called El Adda, it burrows in the fand, 

 and performs this operation fo quickly, that it is out of 

 fight in an inllant, and appears rather to have found a hole, 

 than to have made one, yet it comes out often in the heat 

 of the day, and-bafks itfelf in the fun ; and if not very much 

 frightened, will take refuge behind ftones, or in the wither- 

 ed, ragged roots of the abfinthium, dried in the fun to near- 

 ly its own colour. 



Vol. V. D d Almost 



