ours, coming from all points of
the compass, bringing and heaping together black clouds charged with
electric matter; for twelve or fifteen hours an almost continual roar of
thunder, and, at intervals, torrents of rain; after which, the sky would
be clear for two, three, or four days at a time.]

[Footnote 62: It is nevertheless possible that this fly may be found in
that part of the kingdom of Sennaar which lies on the other side of the
Adit.]

[Footnote 63: It was in the house where I quartered, at Sennaar, that
I saw this singular animal. I jogged Khalil Aga, my countryman and
companion, to look at it. He burst cut into an exclamation, "by God,
that snake has got legs." He jumped up and seized a stick in order to
kill and keep it as a curiosity, but it dodged his blow, and darted away
among the baggage, which was overhauled without finding it, as it had
undoubtedly escaped into some hole in the clay wall of the house. Mr.
Constant, the gentleman, who accompanies Mr. Caillaud, was present
at the time, so that I am convinced that what I saw was not an ocular
delusion. I have been informed, since my return to Egypt, that the
figure of this animal is to be seen sculptured upon the ancient
monuments of Egypt.]

[Footnote 64: The people of Sennaar catch, cook and eat, without
scruple, cats, rats and mice; and those who are rich enough to buy a
wild hog, fatten it up and make a feast of it. I had heard in the lower
country that the people of Sennaar made no scruple to eat swine's flesh,
but I absolutely refused to believe that a people calling themselves
Mussulmans could do this from choice. But after my arrival in Sennaar I
was obliged to own that I had been mistaken. The species of hog found in
the kingdom of Sennaar is small and black; it is not found in that part
of the kingdom called "El Gezira," i.e. the island, but is caught in the
woody mountains of the country near Abyssinia. In the house of one Malek
in Sennaar was found about a dozen of these animals fattening for his
table.]

[Footnote 65: The mountains of Bokki border upon the kingdom of
Fezoueli, which lies south of Sennaar twenty days march. The mountains
of Fezoueli are supposed to contain gold mines; pieces of gold are
frequently found in the torrents that flow from those mountains in the
rainy season. A native of that country told the Pasha Ismael, that he
had seen a piece of gold, found in those mountains, as big as the bottom
part of the silver narg