The reader will observe this in comparing Mr Norden’s voyage and mine, where he will seldom see the same village pass by the same name. My Rais, Abou Cuffi, when he did not know a village, sometimes tried this with me. But when he saw me going to write, he used then to tell me the truth, that he did not know the village; but that such was the custom of him, and his brethren, to people that did not understand the language, especially if they were priests, meaning Catholic Monks.
We passed with great velocity Nizelet Embarak, Cubabac, Nizelet Omar, Racca Kibeer, then Racca Seguier, and came in sight of Atsia, a large village at some distance from the Nile; all the valley here is green, the palm-groves beautiful, and the Nile deep.
Still it is not the prospect that pleases, for the whole ground that is sown to the sandy ascent of the mountains, is but a narrow stripe of three quarters of a mile broad, and the mountains themselves, which here begin to have a moderate degree of elevation, and which bound this narrow valley, are white, gritty, sandy, and uneven, and perfectly destitute of all manner of verdure.
At the small village of Racca Seguier there was this remarkable, that it was thick, surrounded with trees of a different nature and figure from palms; what they were I know not, I believe they were pomegranate-trees; I thought, that with my glass I discerned some reddish fruit upon them; and we had passed a village called Rhoda, a name they give in Egypt to pomegranates; Salcah is on the opposite, or east-side of the river. The Nile divides above the village; it fell very calm, and here we passed the night of the fifteenth.
Our Rais Abou Cuffi begged leave to go to Comadreedy, a small village on the west of the Nile, with a few palm-trees about it; he said that his wife was there. As I never heard any thing of this till now, I fancied he was going to divert himself in the manner he had done the night before he left Cairo; for he had put on his black surtout, or great coat, his scarlet turban, and a new scarlet shaul, both of which he said he had brought, to do me honour in my voyage.
I thanked him much for his consideration, but asked him why, as he was a Sherriffe, he did not wear the _green turban_ of Mahomet? He answered, Poh! that was a trick put upon strangers; there were many men who wore green turbans, he said, that were very great rascals; but he was a _Saint_, which was better than a Sherriffe, and was known as such all over the world, whatever colour of a turban he wore, or whether a turban at all, and he only dressed for my honour; would be back early in the morning, and bring me a fair wind.