84 
TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
cultivate botli banks after the fall of the high Nile : sezam_, dourra_, 
and cotton are the produce. On our right in the distance the fine 
mountain called Mendera was seen. During the summer the 
Kababish tribe form a settlement on the plains at its foot. On the 
left were some five hundred brood of camels with their young ; the 
tribe owning them are called the Batacheen. Living some distance 
ofF^ they bring their cattle to the water at intervals of three or four 
days. An hour^s sail brought us to high sand-mounds on the easL 
— the Goz Aboo Kelab Hill of the Father of Dogs^^). To the 
west was a dangerous reef of rocks_, the Aboo Haggar Father of 
Bocks ^’). Opposite this rock_, on the west bank^ a market is held 
every Saturday; the Kababish_, who are established to the north of 
Kordofan^ bring with them ostrich feathers and cattle^ which 
they barter for grain. The banks here were covered with grass_, and 
trees grew to the riveFs brink. At five p.m. passed the village of 
Gataena. Here several sakeyehs were at work. The water is con- 
veyed some distance inland^ where the people cultivate grain^ and 
weekly hold a market for its sale. Women were coming down with 
their jars for water_, and the young girls were bathing. The sun 
was down^ and I was in the cabin lighting thedamps^, when a crash, 
a bang, and cries startled me. I ran to the deck, and there, where 
I had left Petherick and the secretary seated, they were not to be 
found ; but from the opposite side Petherick was slowly rising. A 
boat had come full tilt against ours, carrying bolts and ropes away, 
where Petherick had been, and hurling him and the secretary across 
the deck. Our look-out had been sleeping, and doubtless the one 
in the other boat also. The Lady of the Nile had taken 
in water, and the men were engaged for some hours baling her. 
The damage repaired, we went on with a favourable breeze. At 
midnight, passing swiftly a village called Wallad Shellai, our reis 
