-dual in. my nation, and am alfo fervant to the greateft
k in g now reigning upon earth, o f whole dominions., it is
.likewife truly faid, thefe Indies are but a fmall part.”—
“ The greateft k in g ! fays he that fpobe about the afies, you
ihould not fay th a t: You forgot the grand fign io r ;
there are four, Otman, Ferfee, Bornow, and Habelh."— “ I
neither forgot the grand fignior, nor do him wrong, replied
I. What I have faid, I have faid.”-— “ -Kafrs and
Haves ! all o f them, fays Ifmael ,; there is the Turk, the
k in g o f England, and the k in g o f F rance; what kin gs are
Bornow and the reft ?—-Kafrs.”—■“ How comes it, fays the
k in g , you that are fo noble and learned, that you know all
things, all languages, and fo brave that you fear no dam*
ger, but pafs, with two or three old men, into fuch countries
as this and Habelh, where Baady m y father perjfhed
with an army.1 how comes it that you do not Hay at
home and enjoy yourfelf, eat, drink, take pleafure and reft,
and not wander like a poor man, a prey to every danger ?”—
M You, Sir, I replied, may know fome o f this fort o f m en ;
certainly you do know them ; for there are in your religion,
as well as mine, men o f learning, and thofe too o f great
ra n k and nobility, who, on account o f fins they have committed,
or vows they have made, renounce the world, its
riches and pleafures: They la y down their nobility, and
become humble and poor, fo as often to be infulted by
wicked and low men, not having the fear o f God before
their eyes.”— “ True, thcfe are Dervilh,” faid the other three
men. “ I am then one o f thefe Dervilh, faid I, content
with the bread that is given me, and bound for fome years
to travel in hardfhips and danger, doing all the good I can
to poor and rich, ferving every man, and hurting none,”
“ Tybe 1 that is well,” fays the king. “ And how long
4 have
have you been travelling about ?” adds one o f the others.
“ Near-twenty years,” faid I.— “ You muft be very young,
fay* the king, to have committed fo many fins, and fo
early ; they muft all have been with women ?”— “ Part o f
them, I fuppofe, were, replied I ; but I did not fay that I
was one o f thofe who travelled on account o f their fins,
but that there were fome Dervifhes that did fo on account
o f their vows, and fome to learn wifdom.” He now made a
fign, and a Have b rou gh t a culhion, which I would have
refufed, but he forced me to fit down upon it.
I f o u n d afterwards who the three men were who had
joined in our converfation ; the firft was Ali Mogrebi, a native
o f Morocco, who was Cadi, or Chief judge at Sennaar,
and was then fallen into difgrace with the two brothers,
Mahomet Abou K alec, governor o f Rordofan.and Shekh Ade-
lan, prime minifter at Sennaar, then encamped at Aira at the
head o f the horfe and Nuba, levying the tax upon the Arabs
as they went down, out o f the limits o f the rains, into the
fandy countries below Atbara to proteft their cattle from
the fly. Another o f thefe three was Cadi o f Kordofan, in the
i n t e r e f t o f Mahomet Abou Kalec, and fpy upon the king.
The third was a faint in the neighbourhood, confervator
o f a large extent Of ground, where great crops o f dora not
only grow, but when threfhed out are likewife kept in large
excavations called Matamores; the place they call Shaddly.
This man was efteemed another Jofeph among the Funge,
who accumulated grain in years o f plenty, that he might
diftribute it at'fmall prices .among the poor when fcarcity
came. He was held in very great reverence in the neighbourhood
o f Sennaar.
V o l. IV. 3 1 The