Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/515

 But there is another wakea used by the merchants called the Atareys.
 * 1 Rotol 12 Wakeas,
 * 1 Wakea 12 Drams.

But this is only used for coarse goods. There is but one long measure in Sennaar, called the Draa, which is the peek, or cubit, and is measured from the center of the elbow-joint to the point of the middle finger. This is probably the ancient cubit of Egypt, and of the holy scripture.

I have said, that the 5th and 6th of August it rained, and the river brought down great quantities of fragments of houses which it had swept away from the country to the southward. It was a very unusual sight to observe a multitude of men swimming in this violent current, and then coming ashore riding upon sticks and pieces of timber. Many people make a trade of this, as fuel is exceedingly scarce at Sennaar. But there were other signs in this inundation, that occupied the imagination of this superstitious people. Part of the town had fallen, and a hyaena, as already observed had come alive across the river, from which the wise ones drew melancholy presages.

I had not been out of the house for two days on account of the rain. On the 7th I intended to have gone to Aira; but on the morning was told by Hagi Belal, that Mahomet Abou Kalec had advanced to the river El-aice, to cross it into Atbara, and that Shekh Adelan had decamped from Aira, and was gone to meet him; to this it was added, that Wed