BATHING SHEEP IN THE NILE. 
393 
challenged the intruder. This struck us, because in 
our journey through Africa we had rarely heard the 
voice of a dog. We now found that we could no 
longer purchase produce with beads or cloth. Money 
was the mode of exchange. We were amused with 
Bombay going amongst these Arabs to buy fish with 
an iron hoe : the honest fellow thought, from their 
simple mode of life and appearance, that we were still 
amongst a wild set of people ; and so they were to a 
certain extent, for beyond the produce of the soil, 
and their cattle, sheep, and goats, they seemed to have 
no other desire. Great care was consequently taken 
of their flocks. The large lop-eared breed of sheep 
are bathed in the Nile by their owners. They are 
carried into three feet of water and dropped on their 
backs or sides, then scrubbed to the tail, and allowed 
to run back to join the flock. The goats are tall, 
generally black, with immense udders and long hair ; 
they are clipped with a knife, and their hair, with that 
of sheep, is made into a coarse blanket or bernoose by 
the women. Powerful smooth greyhounds, indigenous 
to the country or to the western parts of Abyssinia, 
are used as we use sheep-dogs, and seem to guard care- 
fully the habitations as well as the flocks. 
Our captain, Diab, was known to many of the 
people along the river's bank. The Arabs would call out 
eagerly to him, asking after their brothers or husbands 
far in the interior ivory-hunting. I watched several of 
these interviews. Once an elderly woman called him by 
name from the shore while our boat moved down the 
stream. Without asking for our permission, he landed, 
and they saluted by each placing the right hand on 
the other's shoulder, then a solemn shake of the hand 
