The Neel El Kebeer[78], (that is, the Great Nile,) like the Neel
40 Masser or Nile of Egypt, is fullest in the month of August, when it
overflows in some places where the banks are low; the water which
overflows is seldom above midleg; the banks are covered with reeds,
with which they make mats. Camels, sheep, goats, and horses, feed
upon the banks, but during the inundation are removed to the
uplands. The walls of the huts both within and without are cased
with wood to the height of about three feet, to preserve them from
the water; the wells have the best water after the swelling of the
river. The flood continues about ten days; the abundance of rice
depends on the quantity of land flooded. He always understood that
the Nile empties itself in the sea, the salt sea or the great
ocean. There is a village at the port of Housa where he landed, the
river here is much wider than where he embarked, and still wider at
Jinnie. He saw no river enter the Nile in the course of his voyage.
It much resembles the Nile of Egypt, gardens and lands are
irrigated from it. Its breadth is various; in some places he thinks
it narrower than the Thames at London, in others much wider; at the
landing place they slept in the hut of a native, and next morning
at sunrise set off for Housa, where they arrived in twelve hours
through a fine plain without hills; the country is much more
populous than between Timbuctoo and the Nile. Ferry boats are to be
had at several villages.
[Footnote 78: Properly Enneel. El is the article; but when it
precedes a word beginning with a letter called a labial, it
takes the sound of that letter. This error is committed
throughout a book, lately published, entitled Specimens of
Arabic Poetry, by J.D. Carlyle, Professor of Arabic in the
University of Cambridge, 2d edition p. 53, Abdalsalam, instead
of Abdassalum; p. 59, Ebn Alrumi, instead of Ebn Arrumi; and p.
65, Alnarhurwany, for Annarhurwany, &c. &c.]
41
HOUSA.
They did not see the town till they came within an hour from it, or
an hour and a half; it stands in a plain. Housa is south-east[79]
of Timbuctoo, a much larger city and nearly as large as London. He
lived there two years, but never saw the whole of it. It has no
walls; the houses are like those of Timbuctoo, and form irregular
lanes or streets like those of Fas or Marocco, wide enough for
camels to pass with their loads. The palace is much larger than
that of Timbuctoo; it is seven or eight miles in circumference and
surrounded by a wall; he remembers but four gates, but there may be
more; he thinks the number of guards at each gate is about 50; it
is in that part of the town most distant from the Nile. The houses
are dark coloured and flat roofed. He thinks Cairo is about
one-third larger than Housa; the streets are much wider than those
of Timbuctoo; the houses are covered with a kind of clay of
different colours but never white. They have no chalk or lime in
the country.
[Footnote 79: Rather south-east by east.]