Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/408

298 on very excellent provision, dressed according to their custom. He said the country near the shore was desert, but a little within land, or where the roots and gravel had fixed the sand, the soil produced every thing, especially if they had any showers of rain. It was so long since I had heard mention of a shower of rain, that I could not help laughing, and he seemed to think that he had said something wrong, and begged so politely to know what I laughed at, that I was obliged to confess. "The reason, said I, Sir, is an absfurd one. What passed in my mind at that time was, that I had travelled about two thousand miles, and above twelve months, and had neither seen nor heard of a shower of rain, till now, and though you will perceive by my conversation that I understand your language well, for a stranger, yet I declare to you, the moment you spoke it, had you asked, what was the Arabic for a shower of rain, I could not have told you. I declare to you, upon my word, it was that which I laughed at, and upon no other account whatever." "You are going, says he, to countries where you will have rain and wind, sufficiently cold, and where the water in the mountains is harder than the dry land, and people stand upon it * . We have only the remnant of their showers, and it is to that we owe our greatest happiness."

very much pleased with his conversation. He seemed to be near fifty years of age, was exceedingly well dressed, had neither gun nor pistol about him, not even a


 * Yemen, or the high land of Arabia Felix, where water freezes.