mistress, of Chendi, or Chandi. However this may be, Chendi was once a town of great resort. The caravans of Sennaar, Egypt, Suakem, and Kordofan, all were in use to rendezvous here, especially since the Arabs have cut off the road by Dongola, and the desert of Bahiouda; and though it be not now a place of great plenty, yet every thing here is at a cheaper rate, and better than at Sennaar; we must except the article fuel, for wood is much dearer here than in any part of Atbara; the people all burn camels dung. Indeed, were it not for dressing victuals, fire in a place so hot as this would be a nuisance. It was so sultry in the end of August and beginning of September, that many people dropt down dead with heat, both in the town and villages round it; but it is now said to be much cooler, though the thermometer at noon was once so high as 119°.
Chendi has in it about 250 houses, which are not all built contiguous, some of the best of them being separate, and that of Sittina's is half a mile from the town. There are two or three tolerable houses, but the rest of them are miserable hovels, built of clay and reeds. Sittina gave us one of these houses, which I used for keeping my instruments and baggage from being pilfered or broken; I slept abroad in the tent, and it was even there hot enough. The women of Chendi are esteemed the most beautiful in Atbara, and the men the greatest cowards. This is the character they bear among their countrymen, but we had little opportunity of verifying either.
On our arrival at Chendi we found the people very much alarmed at a phænomenon, which, though it often
