the fun is in the zenith, on his progrefs foüthward ' from
the tropic o f Cancer towards the Line, and the grafs grows
up very luxuriantly in all the fpots watered by thefe accidental
Ihowers ; but all the reft o f the country is dry and
burnt up.
N e a r Gerri, a little north, is the large rock Acaba, fu ll
o f caves, the firit habitations o f the builders o f Meroe. A
little below it is the ferry over which thofe who go by the
weft fide o f the Nile to Dongola, through the deferí o f Ba-
hiouda, muft all pafs. It is five days journey before you
come to Korti, where travellers arrive the. morning o f the
fixth, that is, going at the rate o f fifteen miles a-day. Near
Korti you again meet the Nile, which has taken a very unnatural
turn from Magiran, or where it meets the T acazzé from
Angot. The way through this defert, which was that o f Pon-
cet, is now rendered impafiable, as I have already faid, by
the Beni Faifara, Beni Gerar, and Cubba-beelh Arabs, three
powerful clans, which come from the weftward near Kor-
dofan from fear o f the black horfe there, and which have
taken poffeflion o f all the wells in that defert, fo that it is
impoflible for travellers to avoid them. The Cubba-beefh
are, fo called, from keblh*, a fheep, becaufe they wear the
lkin o f that animal for cloathing. They are very numerous,
and extend far into the great defert Selima and to the frontiers
o f Egypt. Thefe tribes have cut off the laft three caravans coming
from Dongola and Egypt. This ferry, and the Acaba
beyond it, belongs to Wed Ageeb ; and here all goods, pairin
g to and from Egypt, Dongola, and Chendi, pay a duty,
3 which
* Kebíb, a íheep j pi. Cubba-bee'íh, Ihéep.
'which is not regulated as to its extent, but is levied arbitrarily,
according to circumftances o f the times, and paid to
the Shukorea, or other Arabs, who are in the neighbourhood,
which happens from February to July. The Mek, or
prince o f the Arabs, pafles them by fair means or force.
After the rains become conftant, thefe go eaftward to Men-
dera and Gooz, and then the road from Sennaar to .Suakem
through thefe places becoming dangerous on account o f
all the other Arabs affembling there to avoid the fly, the caravan
o f Suakem is obliged to pafs through Halfaia to Bar-
bar, and from thence to Suakem, fo that this was the moft
frequented road in the kingdom. Now, indeed, the communications
on all fides are obftrufted by the anarchy that
-prevails among the Arabs, fo that he who paffes to or from
Egypt muft' depend folely upon his own-exertions and the
proteftion o f Heaven.
T h e Acaba o f Gerri, and the banks o f the Nile there, are
inhabited by tribes o f Arabs, called Beni Hamda, and Haf-
fani. They are all poor and miferable banditti, and w ould
not fuffer a man to pafs there at the ferry were it not for
the extraordinary dread they have o f fire-arms. The report
o f a gun, even at a diftaace, w ill make a hundred o f them
fly and hide themfelves. We gave them feveral vollies o f
blunderbuffes, and double-barrelled guns, fired in the air,
from the time o f our entering their territory till near Wed
Baal a N a g g a ; we faw them upon the tops o f the pointed
rocks as far diftant as we could wiih, nor did they ever appear
nearer us, or defcend into the plain.
At Halfaia and Gerri begins that noble race o f horfes
juftly celebrated all over the world. They are the breed, that
V ol. IV. 3 U was