THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 423
confiderable diftance, and Mahomet and his fervants known. All the people of the village furrounded the mules directly, paying each their compliments to the matter and the fer- vants ; the fame was immediately obferved towards us; and, as I faluted the Shum in Arabic, his own language, we fpeedily became acquainted. Having overfhot the cataract, the noife of which we had a long time diftinctly heard, I re- filled every entreaty that could be made to me to enter the houfe to refrefh myfelf. I had imbibed part of Strates's fears about the unfettlednefs of the times, and all the kind invitations were to no purpofe ; I was, as it were, forced to comply to refrefh ourhorfes..
I happened to be upon a very deep part of the hill full' of bufhes ; and one of the fervants, dreiTed in the Arabian fafhion, in a-burnoofe, and turban ftriped white and green, led my horfe, for fear of his flipping, till it got into the path leading to the Shum's door. I heard the fellow exclaiming in Arabic, as he led the horfe, "Good Lord! to fee you here! Good God! to fee you here!" — " I afked him who he was fpeaking of, and what reafon he had to wonder to fee me there." — " What ! do you not know me !" " I faidl did not." — " Why, replied he, I was feveral times with you at Jidda. I faw you often with Capt. Price and Capt. Scott, with the Moor Yafine, and Mahomet Gibberti. I was the man that brought your letters from Metical Aga at Mecca, and was to? come over with you to Mafuah, if you had gone directly there, and had not proceeded to Yemen or Arabia Felix. I was on board the Lion, with the Indian nokeda (fo they call the captain of a country fhip) when your little veflel, all co- vered with fail, parted with fuch brifknefs through the Eng- lifh mips, which all fired their cannon ; and everybody faid 3 ,
there.
