The only drawback to the journey was the rain. At about 2 P.M.
daily we were subjected to a violent storm, which generally
lasted until the evening; and although our guides invariably
hurried forward on the march to the neighbourhood of some
deserted huts, whose occupants had migrated north, our baggage
and servants upon the road were exposed to the storm, and arrived
late in the evening, wet and miserable. There could be no doubt
that the season for travelling was past. Every day's journey
south had proved by the increased vegetation that we were
invading the rainy zone, and that, although the northern deserts
possessed their horrors of sandy desolation, they at the same
time afforded that great advantage to the traveller, a dry
climate.
In a few rapid marches we arrived at Tomat, the commencement of
the Dabainas and the principal head-quarters of the sheik of that
tribe, Atalan Wat Said. This was a lovely spot, where the country
appeared like green velvet, as the delicate young grass was about
two inches above the ground. The Arab camp was situated upon a
series of knolls about a hundred and fifty feet above the Atbara,
upon the hard ground denuded by the rains, as this formed a
portion of the valley.
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