Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/292

184 all sworn we will not fire a shot, till we see you heartily engaged; and then we will do our best to hinder the Arabs from stealing the Sherriffe of Mecca's corn, for his sake only." They all cried out El Fedtah! El Fedtah! so I said the prayer of peace as a proxy; for none of the Turks would come near him.

Opposite to where we were encamped is Terfowey, a large mountain, partly green-marble, partly granite, with a red blush upon a grey ground, with square oblong spots. About forty yards within the narrow valley, which separates this mountain from its neighbour, we saw a part of the fust or shaft of a monstrous obelisk of marble, very nearly square, broken at the end, and towards the top. It was nearly thirty feet long, and nineteen feet in the face; about two feet of the bottom were perfectly insulated, and one whole side separated from the mountain. The gully had been widened and levelled, and the road made quite up to underneath the block.

saw likewise, throughout the plain, small pieces of jasper, having green, white, and red spots, called in Italy, " Diaspo Sanguineo." All the mountains on both sides of the plain seemed to be of the same sort, whether they really were so or not, I will not say, having had no time to examine them.

The 22d, at half past one in the morning, we set out full of terror about the Atouni. We continued in a direction nearly east, till at three we came to the defiles; but it was so dark, that it was impossible to discern of what the country on each side consisted. At day-break, we found our-