MEMOIR OP BRUCE. 
77 
and liad the appearance of wings ; the hole which 
pierced them was distended by the weight, so as 
easily to admit of three fingers. On her ankles she 
wore shackles of gold, larger than the fetters of a 
criminal. The rest of the princesses were orna- 
mented much in the same way, except that some 
had rings through the gristle of the nose, and 
chains fastening the outside of each nostril to the 
ears. Bruce gratified their curiosity hy cupping 
some of them, until the apartment overflowed with 
the effusion of royal blood. The colour of his skin, 
which they insisted upon examining, excited their 
dislike, as they ascribed it to sickness or disease. 
After a detention of four months at Sennaar, 
during which his funds were so completely ex- 
hausted that he was obliged to part with his gold 
chain until only six of the one hundred and eighty- 
four links were left, Bruce again set forward (Sep- 
tember 8th), crossed the great sandy desert of 
Nubia, and arrived on the 29th of November in a 
state of great exhaustion at Syene. He had been 
obliged to leave his baggage and papers behind at 
Soffiena ; but having obtained fresh dromedaries 
from the Aga of Syene, he retraced his steps forty 
miles into the wilderness, and had the indescribable 
satisfaction to recover the w r hole of his drawings 
and portmanteaus. 
From the point he had now reached, all his dangers 
may he considered at an end. The journey to 
Cairo (where he arrived January 10th, 1773) down 
the Nile, was comparatively safe and easy. His 
