hesitated, and for several days declined granting my request;
but on its being represented to him that the reasons I had stated were
really just and sufficient causes for my return, his Excellence finally
told me, that on the return of Cogia Achmet he should dispatch a courier
to Cairo, and that I should accompany him.

On the third day of the Feast of Bairam I saw the Sultan of Sennaar
parade the town in great ceremony. He was mounted on a superb horse, and
clothed in green and yellow silks, but his head was bare of every thing
but its natural wool. Over his head an officer carried a large umbrella
of green and yellow silks in alternate stripes. He was accompanied by
the officers of his palace, and his guard, beautifully mounted, and
followed by the native population of Sennaar, both men and women, who
uttered shrill cries, which were now and then interrupted by the sound
of a most lugubrious trumpet which preceded the Sultan, and which was
blown by a musician who, judging from the tones he produced, seemed to
be afflicted with a bad cough.

On the 7th of the moon Shawal, the Divan Effendi returned to Sennaar,
having crushed all attempts to oppose the establishment of the Pasha's
authority in the eastern part of the kingdom of Sennaar, and bringing
with him three of the chiefs of the refractory, and three hundred and
fifty prisoners, as slaves. The events of this expedition were related
to me as follows: "We marched without resistance for eight days, in
the direction of the rising sun, through a country fine, fertile, and
crowded with villages, till we came to some larger villages near a
mountain called 'Catta,' where we found four or five hundred men posted
in front of them to resist our march They were armed with lances,
and presented themselves to the combat with great resolution. But on
experiencing the effects of our fire-arms, they took to flight toward
the mountain; two hundred of them were hemmed in, and cut to pieces,
and three of their chiefs were taken prisoners, as well as all the
inhabitants we could find in their villages; after which we returned."

On my demanding if water was plentiful at a distance from the river,
my informant replied, that "there were wells in abundance in all the
numerous villages, with which the country abounds; and also numerous
rivulets and streams, which at this season descend from the mountains.
The troops, he said, had forded two small rivers (probably the Ratt and
the Dandar