62 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
The morning we left our home in the shed at A boo Hamed^ they 
lifted me into the swinging palanquin which dear Petherick made 
for me. It was suspended between two camels. In it was placed a 
mattress with pillows ; above^ an awning with sliding curtains. 
Petherick mounted one of our dromedaries^ the Shaygi Ma- 
hommed the other ; tliese had travelled by land from Khartoum ; 
also my donkey^ and a magnificent wild donkey purchased by 
Petherick at Berber. This animal_, with two others^ had been 
caught at the mouth of the Atbara ; a herd of them having come 
there to drink_, were surprised by Arabs, who threw lassoes over 
them. The live stock consisted of two fine goats, two sheep, and 
sundry fowls; the latter were placed in a large cage on a camel. 
The start was happily effected, and Petherick’s face became radiant 
as I declared myself so comfortably ensconced that it was impos- 
sible I could experience fatigue. All went well until late in the 
afternoon, when I noticed that the cage in which the fowls were 
had been turned carelessly end upwards, and the poultry were all 
in a heap on each other. Calling attention to this circumstance, 
the fowls were one after another thrown oh to the sand : they had 
been suffocated. There they remained, as the Mahommedans will 
not eat anything which has not been slaughtered. At sunset a 
brief halt was allowed, when I was told that my palanquin impeded 
the march, as the camels carrying it travelled so slowly : Shaygi 
also said that the few water-skins had leaked considerably, and 
we might suffer from thirst. I assented to any proposition they 
made which could benefit others ; so the palanquin was stripped of 
its cover, and in its crude state as an angerih was placed on a 
camePs back. The motion was dreadful : the couch was too long, 
and swayed so much, that with my best endeavours it was difficult 
to endure. Had a small one been made, such a one as Mr. Baker 
