the unlucky Malek, pursued his advantage without mercy. "Come," said
he to the chief, "I do not believe that you know any thing about your
religion, and I will soon make you sensible of it" He then asked the
chief how many prophets had preceded Mohammed? If he knew any thing
about the history of Dhulkamein and Gog and Magog? and many others of a
similar tenor: how to answer which the unfortunate Malek was obliged to
own his ignorance. The soldier then told him that "the Commander of the
Faithful,"[38] the chief of the Mussulmans, had authorized his Vizier, the
Pasha Mehemmed Ali, to set the people on the upper parts of the Nile
to rights, and that now the Osmanlis were come among them they would
probably learn how to behave themselves. The Malek might, however, have
had his revenge upon the edifying soldier, had he known as well as I
did that he had gone over to the town of Nousreddin expressly to amuse
himself with the women of the country, and had doubtless paid as much
attention to the bouza as the most sturdy toper in Berber.

The country of the Berbers, after the best in formation I have been
able to obtain, is small, not extending, from the upper end of the third
cataract, more than eight days march in length on both sides of the
Nile. The Bahar el Uswood, or Black river, bounds it (i.e. on the
eastern bank) on the south, and separates it from the territory of
Shendi. The cultivable land reaches generally to the distance of one or
two miles from the river. It is overflowed generally at the inundation,
and its produce is very abundant, consisting in durra, wheat, barley,
beans, cotton, a small grain called "duchan," tobacco, and some garden
vegetables similar to those of Egypt. Berber also raises great numbers
of horned cattle, sheep, goats, camels, asses, and very fine horses.
It is very populous, the succession of villages being almost continued
along the road on both sides of the river. The houses are built of clay,
covered with a flat roof of beams overlaid generally with straw; but the