It Was Evening, And We Sat Upon An Angarep Among The Lovely
Hills That Surrounded Us, And Looked Down Upon The Atbara For The
Last Time, As The Sun Sank Behind The Rugged Mountain Of Ras El
Feel (The Elephant's Head).
Once more I thought of that wonderful
river Nile, that could flow for ever through the exhausting
deserts of sand,
While the Atbara, during the summer months,
shrank to a dry skeleton, although the powerful affluents, the
Salaam and the Settite, never ceased to flow, every drop of their
waters was evaporated by the air and absorbed by the desert sand
in the bed of the Atbara, two hundred miles above its junction
with the Nile!
The Atbara exploration was completed; and I looked forward to the
fresh enterprise of new rivers and lower latitudes, that should
unravel the mystery of the Nile!
CHAPTER XX.
ARRIVAL AT METEMMA, OR GALLABAT.
WE left the village of Toganai at 5 A.M. and, after a rapid march
of sixteen miles, we came in view of Metemma, or Gallabat, in the
bottom of a valley surrounded by hills, and backed on the east by
the range of mountains of which Nahoot Guddabi formed the
extremity of a spur. As we descended the valley, we perceived
great crowds of people in and about the town, which, in
appearance, was merely a repetition of Katariff. It was
market-day, and as we descended the hill and arrived in the scene
below, with our nine camels heavily laden with the heads and
horns of a multitude of different beasts, from the gaping jaws of
hippopotami to the vicious-looking heads of rhinoceros and
buffalo, while the skins of lions and various antelopes were
piled above masses of the much-prized hide of the rhinoceros, we
were beset by crowds of people who were curious to know whence so
strange a party had appeared.
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