KOEOSKO. 
11 
enable him to do so. His boat, he said, when at anchor opposite 
Khartoum, sprang a leak and went down, spoiling his goods, pro- 
visions, &c., &c. He was thus compelled to abandon, for the time 
at least, his expedition. Miani, a fine old man of prepossessing 
appearance, was dressed in the Turkish costume, with a voluminous 
turban ; his snowy beard descended low. 
In two days we set sail for Korosko, and arrived at that place on 
the morning of August 1st. I had imagined it a town of some im- 
portance, and, while preparations were made for landing, looked out 
for a minaret or two ; but I saw only a few mud houses. Our tents 
were soon pitched near some date-palms, and within two hundred 
yards of the river. Korosko is situated on the east bank of the Nile, 
on the confines of the Nubian or Abu Hamad Desert. On the oppo- 
site shore is the Libyan Desert, a s^dy, ungenial, monotonous and 
hot-looking plain. Shortly after our arrival, the sheikh of the 
camel-men, appointed by the Government, paid us a visit : he was 
attended by three or four wild-looking Arabs. These men wore no 
covering on the head; their own luxuriant hair, plaited into a 
hundred little tails such as Topsy delighted in, formed a natural 
shade that defied the sun^s rays. Their clothing consisted of 
a long piece of dingy calico, worn round the loins. The Sheikh 
Achmed, a remarkably handsome man, wore an enormous white 
turban, a silk handkerchief of many colours lightly cast over it, a 
loose robe of blue calico, and capacious white Turkish trousers, 
and the red slippers of the country, turned up at the toes : he rode 
a knowing-looking donkey, almost covered by a bright long-haired 
goat-skin. 
The salutations between Petherick and the sheikh were so pro- 
longed, the Arabs also participating, that I evinced a true womanly 
