THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 397
?ived." — " True, fays Fidele, then it is impoffible." " Your meffengers and mine, laid I, Shekh, are not of the fame fort, nor fhall I afk your leave when I am to fend to Ras el Feel or Sennaar, nor fliall you ever cut off the head from any one of them. But why are you alarmed at thefe afles being taken ? Should you not be afraid of fome- thing fmiilar happening at Mecca ? Am not I under the prote6lion of the IherrifFe ? When Metical Aga hears this, will he not refent it ? Will Youfef Kabil, the Chriltian, the iherfiffe's vizir at Jidda, through whofe hands your people pafs, will he be gentler to them upon this account ?" — " A curfe upon him ! fays the flierriffe ; he gentle! he is a Ihark." " Meloun Ibn Sheitan, fays the Turk Ifmael, /; e. accurfed wretch, child of the devil !" — *' Well then, faid I, the diffi- culty is only to know if he is informed of this at Mecca. Friday the 1 7th is your feftival. If the afternoon of that lliall pafs like thofe of common days, I am a worthleis jnan and an impoftor ; but if on that day, before el'afTer*,, afign be feen in the heavens that fliall be thought by all of 3^ou unufual and extraordinary, then am I an innocent man, and Fi4ele's defigns againil me are known to the world, at Sennaar and at Mecca, at Cairo and at Gondar, and every- where elfe, and will not be pleafmg either to God or man." Yarif el Hakim f, fays the fherrilTe ; Hakim J ! fays the Shekh of the Jehaina ; Ullah Akbar || ! fays the Moullah-,, lifting his eyes up to heaven, and counting his beads very- devoutlv..
The-:
- El'afler is four, o'clock. f The Hakim, or wife man knows,
^ He is iadced wife. ||, God is gr^at.
