Note note 82 — APPENDIX. No. III.

(82.) The Moggrebyn traveller, Batouta, crossed this desert repeatedly. The relation he gives of it, when he passed it the first time, in 725 A. H. is the following: “he embarked on the Nile at Cairo and ascended the river as far as Edfou. From thence he went to the village of Adjerna el Fil (اجرنا الفيل), and to the village El Atoany (عطواني).[208] From the latter village he set out on his journey through the desert. He travelled with Arabs of the tribe of Dogheim (دغيم), for 15 days over barren mountains and plains. In one of their stations they alighted at Hemeytry (حميتري), where the tomb of the Saint Aby el Hassan el Shadely (ابي الحسن الشادلي) is shown.[209] He then came to Aizab. The people of Aizab are Bedjas, of a black colour. They never let their daughters partake in the inheritance. Two-thirds of the revenue of Aizab belongs to the King of the Bedjas, called el Hadraby, and one-third goes to the Sultan of Egypt. The voyage to Djidda could not take place on account of disturbances that had broken out between the Bedjas and people of Bornou,[210] and he was obliged to re-cross the desert to Egypt.” This is all that I find of this road, in an abridgement which I possess of the great work; and of which, as I believe it is not known in Europe, I shall give some farther notices here.