houses. They are all made of potter-clay, in one piece, in shape of a bee-hive; the largest is not above ten feet high, and the greatest diameter six.
There are no vestiges here of any canal, mentioned to have been cut between the Nile and the Red Sea. The cultivated land here is not above half a mile in extent from the river, but the inundation of the Nile reaches much higher, nor has it left behind it any appearance of soil. After passing Bir Ambar, we pitched our tent about four o'clock at Gabba *[1], a short mile from Cuft, on the borders of the desert — here we passed the night.
On the 17th, at eight o'clock in the morning, having mounted my servants all on horseback, and taken the charge of our own camels, (for there was a confusion in our caravan not to be described, and our guards we knew were but a set of thieves) we advanced slowly into the desert. There were about two hundred men on horseback, armed with firelocks; all of them lions, if you believed their word or appearance; but we were credibly informed, that fifty of the Arabs, at first sight, would have made these heroes fly without any bloodshed.
I had not gone two miles before I was joined by the Howadat Arab, whom I had brought with me in the boat from Cairo. He offered me his service with great professions of gratitude, and told me, that he hoped I would again take charge of his money, as I had before done from Cairo.
- ↑ * It is no town, but some sand and a few bushes, so called.
