straight across the bay, but somewhat more by land. The passage from the main is on the north side of the island, which is not above a quarter of a mile broad; there is a large cistern for rain-water on the land-side, where you embark across. He was poorly attended by three or four servants, miserably mounted, and about forty naked savages on foot, armed with short lances and crooked knives.
The drum beat before him all the way from Arkeeko to Masuah. Upon entering the boat, the drum on the land-side ceased, and those, in what is called the Castle of Masuah, began. The castle is a small clay hut, and in it one swivel-gun, which is not mounted, but lies upon the ground, and is fired always with great trepidation and some danger. The drums are earthen jars, such as they send butter in to Arabia; the mouths of which are covered with a skin, so that a stranger, on seeing two or three of these together, would run a great risk of believing them to be jars of butter, or pickles, carefully covered with oiled parchment.
All the procession was in the same stile. The Naybe was dressed in an old shabby Turkish habit, much too short for him, and seemed to have been made about the time of Sultan Selim. He wore also upon his head a Turkish cowke, or high-cap, which scarcely admitted any part of his head. In this dress, which on him had a truly ridiculous appearance, he received the caftan, or investiture, of the island of Masuah; and, being thereby representative of the grand signior, consented that day to be called Omar Aga, in honour of the commission.
Two
