Chap. LXIX. RETURN TO THE TOWN. 
505 
It was near sunset when we mounted in order to 
return into the town ; and on the way I kept up a 
conversation with A'wab, till the time of the mughreb 
prayer arrived, when the whole of my friends went to 
pray on the desert ground, while I myself, remaining 
on horseback, went a little on one side of the track. 
My companions afterwards contended that it w r as from 
motives of pride and arrogance that I did not humble 
myself in the dust before the Almighty. I should 
certainly have liked to kneel down and thank Provi- 
dence for the remarkable manner in which my life had 
hitherto been preserved ; but I did not deem it politic 
to give way to their mode of thinking and worship in 
any respect ; for I should have soon been taken for a 
Mohammedan, and once in such a false position, there 
would have been no getting out of it. 
We then entered the town amidst the shouts of 
the people, who, by the appearance of the moon, had 
just discovered, as is very often the case in these 
regions, that they had been a day out in their reck- 
oning, and that the following day was the festival 
of the Mulud, or the birthday of Mohammed ; and I 
w T as allowed to take quiet possession of my quarters. 
The same evening I had an interesting conversation 
with the chief A'wab, who paid me a long visit, in 
company with his mallem, and gave me the first ac- 
count of the proceedings of that Christian tra- 
veller Mungo Park (to use his own words), who, 
about fifty years ago, came down the river in a 
large boat; describing the manner in which he had 
