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After he had taken two whiffs of his pipe, and the slave had left the room, "Are you prepared?" says he; "have you brought the needful along with you?" I wished to have occasion to join Soliman, and answered, My servants are at the outer door, and have the vomit you wanted.” 66 D----n and the vomit too," says he with great passion, "I want you money, and not poison. Where are your piastres ?" "I am a bad person," said I, "Fidele, to furnish you with either. I have neither money nor poison; but I advise you to drink a little warm water to clear your stomach, cool your head, and then lie down and compose yourself; I will see you to-morrow morning." I was going out. "Hakim," says he, "infidel, or devil, or whatever is your name, hearken to what I say. Consider where you are; this is the room where Mek Baady, a king, was slain by the hand of my father: look at his blood, where it has stained the floor, which never could be washed out. I am informed you have 20,000 piastres in gold with you; either give me 2,000 before you go out of this chamber, or you shall die; I will put you to death with my own hand." Upon this he took up his sword that was lying at the head of his sofa, and drawing it with a bravado, threw the scabbard into the middle of the room; and, tucking the sleeve of his shirt above his elbow, like a butcher, said, "I wait your answer."

I now stept one pace backwards, and dropt the burnoose behind me, holding the little blunderbuss in my hand, without taking it off the belt. I said, in a firm tone of voice, “This is my answer: I am not a man, as I have told you before, to die like a beast by the hand of a drunkard; on your life, I charge you, stir not from your sofa." I had no need to give this injunction; he heard the noise which the closing the joint in the stock of the blunderbuss made, and thought I had cocked it, and was instantly to fire. He let his sword drop, and threw himself on his back on the sofa, crying, "For God's sake, Hakim, I was but jesting." At the same time, with all his might, he cried, " Brahim! Mahomet! El coom! el coom!" (el coom, that is, all his servants). If one of your

servants approach me,” said I, " that instant I blow you to pieces; not one of them shall enter this room till they bring in my servants with them; I have a number of them armed at your gate, who will break in the instant they hear me fire."

The women had come to the door. My servants were admitted, each having a blunderbuss in his hand and pistols at his girdle. We were now greatly an overmatch for the shekh, who sat far back on the sofa, and pretended that all he had done was in joke, in which his servants joined, and a very confused, desultory discourse followed, till the Turk, sheriffe Ismael, happened to observe the shekh's scabbard of his sword thrown upon the floor, on which he fell into a violent fit of laughter. He spoke very bad Arabic, mixed with Turkish. And he endeavoured to make the shekh understand, that drunkards and cowards had more need of the scabbard than the sword.

'As no good could be expected from this expostulation, I stopt it, and took my leave, desiring the shekh to go to bed and compose himself, and not try any more of these experiments, which would certainly end in his shame, if not in his punishment. He made no answer, only wished us good-night."

The shekh of Beyla having heard that Mr. Bruce was detained at Teawa, sent a moullah, or sheriffe, for his protection. He was reputed to have attained such a degree of holiness as to work miracles, and, more than once in his life, to have been honoured with the conversation of angels and spirits, and, at times, to have called the devil into his presence, and reproved him. This man discharged his mission with great address, and, with the assistance of Mr. Bruce, succeeded in intimidating Fidele, and rendering him extremely anxious to justify himself. But his fears were much increased when he heard that a caravan of his country had been seized, by one of Ayto Confu's officers, and that this act of hostility was intended as a hint of his displeasure for detaining his friend. Nor were his alarms lessened when Mr. Bruce declared, that on the Friday following, a sign would appear in the heavens indicative of something extraordinary. This was a total eclipse

of the moon, which he knew would take place at the time he predicted.

The shekh, however, still employed many machinations against our traveller; but the messengers that arrived, with threatening letters from the neighbouring princes, prevented him from proceeding to extremities; and, at last, preparations were made for the departure of Mr. Bruce, who made a present of his horse to the shekh, and promised not to complain against him at Sennaar. After this,' says our author, I was going home, when the younger sheriffe called after me, and said, "I suppose, now you are all at peace, we shall not see the sign that you foretold us was to appear in the heavens to-day." "I should be thought a liar if it did not appear," said I; "do you wish to see it?" "I wish to see it," says "if it will do no harm."" Then,” replied I, "you shall see it; and it shall do no harm now. I hope it will bring health and happiness, and a good crop to Teawa, and all the kingdom of Sennaar. Go home, while I order my affairs. Something more than two hours after this I will come to you, and it will then appear." They all went away, and, as I thought by their looks, they would have been better satisfied that affair had been forgot, the shekh saying peevishly to the sheriffe," Let him mind his affairs and his journey; what is the use of these things now ?"

he,

"I had rectified my watch by observation. I knew I could not be far wrong, having seen in the ephemerides the hour the eclipse was to begin. I passed a corner of the shekh's bouse, and went in at the back-door. He was there with his usual friends, the moullah, the sheriffe, the kaiya, and one or two more. The sheriffe asked me where the sign would appear; and the moullah, if there would be any thunder and lightning? I told them there would be nothing disagreeable at all. I went to the door, and saw it was begun. There was to be a total eclipse of the moon. I did not tell them at first, till the moon having arisen, the shade appeared some way advanced upon the disk. "Now look at that," said I; " in some time after this the moon shall be so totally swallowed up in dark

H

ness, that a small light shall only be seen in the edges." They were frightened at the denunciation, rather than at any thing they observed, till a little before the eclipse became total. A violent apprehension then fell upon them; and the woinen from their apartments began to howl, as they do upon all melancholy occasions of misfortune, or death. They were in the inner square. "Now," continued I, "I have kept my word; it will soon be clear again, and will do no harm to man or beast."

'It was agreed among them that I should not go home till it was totally at an end. I consented to this; and only said to the shekh, that I wished he would let me see my patients before I went away, for that one of them was really ill, and needed advice. He seemed to take it very kindly, and desired me to go in. I was met in the antichamber by Aiscach, and two or three black slaves, who cried out in great terror, "O Hakim! what is this? what are you going to do?" "I am going to do, madam," said I, "one of the most disagreeable things I ever did in my life; I am going to take leave of you." I was immediately surrounded with a number of women, some of them crying, some of them with children in their arms. I went into the room where the two ladies were, whom I quieted and satisfied to the utmost of my power. We parted with reciprocal professions of friendship and regret at separation. I then begged that I might see their slave, who used to bring us meat, with a clean cloth, to wrap up something I had for them. They told me, Sennaar was but a bad place for white people; but promised to send recommendations in my favour, both to Adelan and the king's women, by Adelan's servant, who was to conduct us.

• When I returned to the shekh, the emersion was far advanced, and they all seemed to be regaining their composure, though strong marks of surprize remained in their countenances. After a little conversation, I took my leave, and went home, renewing my assurances that all was forgotten.

At night, the slave came and brought a clean cotton cloth. I sent a piece of thin India yellow satin, and six handsome crimson and green handkerchiefs, to the beautiful Aiscach;

and, to the best of my power, discharged all our obligations to those that were our friends, and had been kind to us.'

Next morning, Mr. Bruce left this dangerous place, and was advised by the moullah to make no stop on the road, to watch his companions, to drive off all strangers, and to be very active and vigilant. After travelling two days, he reached Beyla, greatly fatigued, with strong symptoms of an aguish disorder. He was most kindly received, by the shekh; his disorder abated; and all his companions gave themselves up to repose and joy. Leaving his kind host, highly delighted with the relief which our traveller's medicines had given him, from the pain he suffered from the stone, he pushed on towards Sennaar. Near the villages of the Nuba, while advancing along the plain, we were,' says Mr. Bruce, inclosed by a violent whirlwind, or what is called at sea the waterspout. The plain was red earth, which had been plentifully moistened by a shower in the night-time. One of the camels seemed to be nearly in the centre of its vortex. It was lifted and thrown down at a considerable distance, and several of its ribs broken. Although, as far as I could guess, I was not near the centre, it whirled me off my feet, and threw me down upon my face, so as to make my nose gush out with blood. Two of the servants likewise had the same fate. It plaistered us all over with mud, almost as smoothly as could have been done with a trowel. It took away my sense and breathing for an instant, and my mouth and nose were full of mud when I recovered. I guess the sphere of its action to be about 200 feet. It demolished one half of a small hut, as if it had been cut through with a knife, and dispersed the materials all over the plain, leaving the other half standing.

As soon as we recovered ourselves, we took refuge in a village, for fear only, for we saw no vestige of any other whirlwind. It involved a great quantity of rain, which the Nuba of the villages told us was very fortunate, and portended good luck to us, and a prosperous journey; for they said, that had dust and sand arisen with the whirlwind, in the same proportion it would have done had not the earth been moistened, we should all infallibly have been suffocated."