are very valuable, and afford a ready price everywhere. The inhabitants being little acquainted with the use of fire-arms, the smaller game, of the deer kind, are not much molested, unless by the wild Shangalla, who make use of bows and arrows, so that these animals are increased beyond imagination.
Ras el Feel consisted once of thirty-nine villages. All the Arabs of Atbara resorted to them with butter, honey, horses, gold, and many other commodities; and the Shekh of Atbara, living upon the frontier of Sennaar, entertained a constant good correspondence with the Shekh of Ras el Feel, to whom he sent yearly a Dongola horse, two razors, and two dogs. The Shekh of Ras el Feel, in return, gave him a mule and a female slave; and the effect of this intercourse was to keep all the intermediate Arabs in their duty.
Since the expedition of Yasous II. against Sennaar, no peace has ever subsisted between the two states; on the contrary, all the Arabs that assisted the king, and were defeated with him, pay tribute no longer to Sennaar, but live on the frontiers of Abyssinia, and are protected there. The two chiefs of Atbara, and Ras el Feel, understand one another perfectly, and give the Arabs no trouble; and, if they pay their rent to either, it is divided between both. It was through the means of these Arabs the king of Abyssinia's army was furnished, as we have seen, with heavy horses; and it was in consequence of my depending on this friendship with the Shekh of Teawa, that I attempted going thro' that province to Sennaar.
