Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/417

Rh earth, and seems to have been formed by the retiring of the sea. At Loheia we had a very uneasy sensation, a kind of prickling came into our legs, which were bare, occasioned by the salt effluvia, or steams, from the earth, which all about the town, and further to the south, is strongly impregnated with that mineral.

, and butcher meat, and indeed all sorts of provision, are plentiful and reasonable at Loheia, but the water is bad. It is found in the sand at the foot of the mountains, down the sides of which it has fallen in the time of the rain, and is brought to the town in skins upon camels. There is also plenty of fruit brought from the mountains by the Bedowé, who live in the skirts of the town, and supply it with milk, firewood, and fruit, chiefly grapes and bananas.

government of the Imam is much more gentle than any Moorish government in Arabia or Africa; the people too are of gentler manners, the men, from early ages, being accustomed to trade. The women at Loheia are as solicitous to please as those of the most polished nations in Europe; and, though very retired, whether married or unmarried, they are not less careful of their dress and persons. At home they wear nothing but a long shift of fine cotton-cloth, suitable to their quality. They dye their feet and hands with * henna, not only for ornament, but as an astringent, to keep them dry from sweat: they wear their own hair, which is plaited, and falls in long tails behind.

Rh


 * Ligustrum Ægyptiacum Latifolium.