She Accordingly Changed The Animal, And Rode
A Splendid Ox That Ibrahim Very Civilly Offered.
I had to walk to the
Atabbi, about eighteen miles, which, although a pleasant stroll when in
good health, I found rather fatiguing.
We bivouacked on the south bank
of the Atabbi.
The next morning, after a walk of about eight miles, I purchased of one
of the Turks the best ox that I have ever ridden, at the price of a
double-barrelled gun - -it was a great relief to be well mounted, as I
was quite unfit for a journey on foot.
At 4.30 P.m. we arrived at one of the villages of Farajoke. The
character of the country had entirely changed; instead of the rank and
superabundant vegetation of Obbo, we were in a beautiful open country,
naturally drained by its undulating character, and abounding in most
beautiful low pasturage. Vast herds of cattle belonged to the different
villages, but these had all been driven to concealment, as the report
had been received that the Turks were approaching. The country was
thickly populated, but the natives appeared very mistrustful; the Turks
immediately entered the villages, and ransacked the granaries for corn,
digging up the yams, and helping themselves to everything as though
quite at home. I was on a beautiful grass sward on the gentle slope of a
hill: here I arranged to bivouac for the night.
In three days' march from this point through beautiful park-like
country, we arrived at the Asua river. The entire route from Farajoke
had been a gentle descent, and I found this point of the Asua in lat N.
3 degrees 12 minutes to be 2,875 feet above the sea level, 1,091 feet
lower than Farajoke. The river was a hundred and twenty paces broad, and
from the bed to the top of the perpendicular banks was about fifteen
feet. At this season it was almost dry, and a narrow channel of about
six inches deep flowed through the centre of the otherwise exhausted
river. The bed was much obstructed by rocks, and the inclination was so
rapid that I could readily conceive the impossibility of crossing it
during the rains. It formed the great drain of the country, all its
waters flowing to the Nile, but during the dry months it was most
insignificant. The country between Farajoke and the Asua, although
lovely, was very thinly populated, and the only villages that I saw were
built upon low hills of bare granite, which lay in huge piles of
disjointed fragments.
On arrival at the river, while the men were washing in the clear stream,
I took a rifle and strolled along the margin; I shortly observed a herd
of the beautiful Mehedehet antelopes feeding upon the rich but low grass
of a sandbank in the very centre of the river. Stalking them to within a
hundred and twenty paces they obtained my wind, and, ceasing to graze,
they gazed intently at me.
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