Our Men Had Been Regaled With A Fat Sheep, Presented By
The Sheik, And All Slept Contentedly.
At sunrise we were visited by Abou Sinn.
It appeared that, after
our conversation of the preceding evening, he had inquired of
Mahomet concerning my future plans and intentions; he now came
specially to implore us not to proceed south at this season of
the year, as it would be perfectly impossible to travel; he
described the country as a mass of mud, rendered so deep by the
rains that no animal could move; that the fly called the "seroot"
had appeared, and that no domestic animal except a goat could
survive its attack; he declared that to continue our route would
be mere insanity: and he concluded by giving us a most hospitable
invitation to join his people on their road to the healthy
country at Gozerajup, and to become his guests for three or four
months, until travelling would be feasible in the south, at which
time he promised to assist me in my explorations by an escort of
his own people, who were celebrated elephant hunters, and knew
the entire country before us. This was an alluring programme; but
after thanking him for his kindness, I explained how much I
disliked to retrace my steps, which I should do by returning to
Gozerajup; and that as I had heard of a German who was living at
the village of Sofi, on the Atbara, I should prefer to pass the
season of the rains at that place, where I could gather
information, and be ready on the spot to start for the
neighbouring Base country when the change of season should
permit. After some hesitation he consented to this plan, and
promised not only to mount us on our journey, but to send with us
an escort commanded by one of his grandsons. Sofi was about
seventy-eight miles distant.
Abou Sinn had arranged to move northwards on the following day;
we therefore agreed to pass one day in his camp, and to leave for
Sofi the next morning. The ground upon which the Arab encampment
was situated was a tolerably flat surface, like a shelf, upon the
slope of the Atbara valley, about thirty or forty feet below the
rich table lands; the surface of this was perfectly firm, as by
the constant rains it had been entirely denuded of the loam that
had formed the upper stratum. This formed a charming place for
the encampment of a large party, as the ground was perfectly
clean, a mixture of quartz pebbles upon a hard white sandstone.
Numerous mimosas afforded a shade, beneath which the Arabs sat in
groups, and at the bottom of the valley flowed the Atbara.
This tribe, which was peculiarly that of Abou Sinn, and from
which he had sprung, was the Shookeriyah, one of the most
powerful among the numerous tribes of Upper Egypt.
From Korosko to this point we had already passed the Bedouins,
Bishareens, Hadendowas, Hallongas, until we had entered the
Shookeriyahs.
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