mented by many very large tamarind and other trees, bearing a fruit resembling a medlar, green and pleasant to the taste, and many of the Mimosa tribe flourished in uncontrolled luxuriance. The Googooroo, or Jujube, abounded; and these varieties of green gave a life to the landscape that was quite new to us. The wild fruits even were palatable ; and selecting those on which the monkeys were feeding, we devoured them fearlessly and eagerly,—their freshness supplying the want of either flavour or sweetness. The monkeys, or as the Arabs say, “ men enchanted,”—“ Ben Adam meshood,” were so numerous, that I saw upwards of one hundred and fifty assembled in one place in the evening. They did not at all appear inclined to give up their ground, but, perched on the top of the bank some twenty feet high, made a terrible noise ; and rather gently than otherwise, pelted us when we approached to within a certain distance. My negro was extremely anxious to fire at them; but they were not, I thought, considering their numbers, sufficiently presuming to deserve such a punishment. May 2 5 .^ About two miles from Lada, we left the river, and halted at noon near a small still water. Here were several flocks of geese, and some of the species of bird called adjutant. These mid-day halts, with only partial shade, were dreadfully sultry and oppressive. We moved on in the afternoon, and passing another lake of the same description, by nine in the evening came to one much larger, called Engataranaram. Nothing could be more wild than the country we had passed through this day; and compared with the sterile plains I had lately been accustomed to, seemed rich and picturesque : it was one continued wood, with narrow winding paths, to avoid the overhanging branches of the prickly tulloh. The frequent foot-marks of lions, the jackal, and hyena, gave us a pretty good idea of the nature of the inhabitants ; and their roarings at night convinced us that they were at no great distance. We had this morning met a kafila from Soudan, consisting of
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