EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 189 
fallen, we were obliged to purchafe water of the Mahrea 
Arabs* whom we met, or to take up what had lodged In cavities 
on the earth, in confequence of the rains which were then be- 
ginning to falL 
On the 23d we came to the firft fprlngs within the limits of 
Fur, which are in this place called Wadi Mafruk. The white 
ant, Termis^ was here exceedingly vexatious, building his co- 
vered way to every thing within the tent, and deftroying all 
within his reach. This together with the rains, which were 
now increafing, and began to pour in a torrent through the 
valley, obliged us to abandon the tents, and take fhelter in the 
next village, (Sweini,) where I obtained an apartment in the 
houfe of Ali-el-Chatib, one of the principal merchants eftablifhed 
in the country. In it I palfed eight or ten days, not having 
arrived at Cobbe, one of the towns whither the jelabs chiefly re- 
fort, till the feventh of Auguft. 
At Sweini refides generally a Melek or governor on the part 
of the Sultan of Dar-Fur; and there all ftrangers, as well as 
merchants of the country, coming with the caravan, are obliged 
to wait, till the pleafure of the monarch in difpofmg of them 
be known. 
Coming as I did under confiderable exceptions from the ge- 
neral rule of merchants trading to that country, and, in the 
* The Mahrea Arabs have the art of making wicker bafkets, of fo clofe a tex- 
ture, that they carry in them milk, water, bouza. Much of the earthen ware 
made by the people of Dar-Fur is glazed, I know not with what compofition. 
Arabic 
