202 
TREES OF WADY ESALAN. 
gorge through which we were about to issue. Our 
far-sighted guards, however, soon discovered that 
there was no cause for alarm. We had at length 
overtaken our Tanelkum friends ; and riding for- 
ward I greeted them, and, forgetting all idea of 
danger, anxiously asked for our baggage, and above 
all for my inestimable supply of potted soups ! 
In this part of the country the scenery is far 
more open than it was before ; the mountains are 
lower, but the wadys are not so wide. Here and 
there occurred considerable patches of herbage, 
called sahot^ and many large, fine trees. Amongst 
the smaller ones, for the first time, we came upon the 
senna plant, some of the leaves of which our people 
plucked. Higher up, in Aheer, is apparently the 
native soil of this plant. We had also again the 
adwa, several trees, and the kaiou or kremka, the 
only plant we have yet seen with a truly tropical 
aspect. 
The adwa bears a fruit something like the date, 
and is eaten by the people in Soudan. As to the 
sabot, above mentioned, it is a kind of herbage, 
which covers the beds of the valleys in this region 
of primitive rock : it forms the principal food of 
our camels. The bou rehabah, however, the best 
for them, is in small quantities, but when seen is 
devoured to the sand. The people of Aheer eat its 
seed as ghaseb. 
Yesterday, we saw, for the first time, a bird's nest 
in the desert, in the side of a rock. It cQntained no 
