lecTion when the objedl is out o f my fight. This horfe’s;
name was El Fudda, the meaning o f which I w ill not pretend
to explain. In Egypt this is the name o f a fmall piece'
o f m oney clipped into points, otherwife called a parat; b u t,.
very probably, the name o f horfes in Nubia may have as
little allufion to the quality o f the animal as the name1
which our race-horfes have in England; they are, however,
very jealous in keeping up their pedigree. All noble-'
horfes in Nubia are: faid to be defeended o f one o f the'
five upon which Mahomet .and his four immediate fu c -
ceflbrs, Abou Beer, Gmar, Atman, and Ali, fledfrom Mecca'
to Medina, the night Of the Hegira. From which o f thefe.
El Fudda was defeended I did- not in q u ire ; Shekh Adelan,'
armed, as he fought, with his coat o f mail and war faddle-
iron-chained bridle, brafs cheek-plates, front-plate, breail--
plate, large broad-fword, and battle-ax, did not weigh lefs:
upon the horfe than 26 flone, horfeman’s weight. This<
horfe kneeled to receive his mailer, armed as he was, when
he mounted, and he kneeled to let him difmount armed
hkewife, fo that no advantage could be taken o f him in
thofe helplefs times when a man is obliged to arm and
difarm himfelfi piece by piece on horfeback. Adelan, in
war, was a fair-player, and gave every body his chance;
He was the firil man always that entered among the enemy,
and the lail to leave them, and never changed this horfe..
The horfes o f H alfaia and Gerri do not arrive at the fize o f
thofe in Dongola, where few are lower than r 6 hands. They
are black or white, but-a vail proportion o f the former to the
latter. I n everfaw the colour we call grey, thatis, dappled, but
there are fome bright hays, or inclining to forel. They are
all kept monfiroully fat upon, dora, eat nothing green but
the
the lhort roots o f grafs that are to be found by the fide o f
the Nile, after the fun has withered it. This they dig out
Where it is covered w ith earth, and appears blanched, which
they lay in fmall heaps once a-day on the ground before
them. They are tethered by the fetlock joint o f the foreleg
with a very foft cotton rope made with a^ loop-a-nd large
button. They eat and drink withithe bridle in their mouth,
not the bridle they actually ufe when armed, but a light
one made on purpofe to accuftom them to eat and drink
with i t : If you alk the reafon, they tell you o f many battles
that have been loll by the troops having been attacked by
their enemy when taking off the bridles to give their horfes
drink. No Arab ever mounts a itallion;. on the contrary,
in Nubia they never ride mares; the reafon is plain : The
Arabs are conllantly at war with their neighbours, (for fo
robbery in that country is called) and always endeavour to
take their enemies by furprife in the grey o f the evening,
or the dawn o f day. A itallion no fooner fmells the Hale
o f the mare in the enemy’s quarters, than he begins to
neigh, and that would-give the alarm: to the party intended
to be furprifed. No fuch thing ever can happen when
they ride mares only ; bn the contrary, the Funge trull only
to fuperior force. They are in an open, plain country,,
mull be difcovered at many miles dillance, and all fuch
furprifes and.ftratagems are ufelefs to them.
T h e place where we alighted is called'Hajar el Dill, and
is a'mile eall from where we halted in the wood to feed our
camels. We continued along the Nile at about a mile’s di;
fiance from it, and, after advancing near three miles, came
in fight o f a large village called Derreira ; on the oppofite
fide o f the Nile, and beyond that, about four miles on the
4, fame