Note 57 — DESCRIPTION OF A JOURNEY FROM UPPER EGYPT THROUGH THE DESERTS OF NUBIA TO BERBER AND SUAKIN, AND FROM THENCE TO DJIDDA IN ARABIA. (continued 5)

I omitted to mention in a preceding part of this journal, that in all the countries on the Nile which I visited, as well as in the Nubian desert, I observed the people make use of small wooden supports, about five inches in height, with a top about the same length, and three or four inches broad, much resembling, on the whole, the head of a crutch; they are formed out of single pieces of very hard wood, and the best are brought from Sennaar; they are placed under the head when persons go to sleep, or serve during the day-time to rest one arm upon while in a reclining position. Whenever a great man walks out, one of these supports is carried after him, and in the house or tent of every person one of them is always found, which is offered to the stranger who pays a visit; but it requires to have been accustomed to it from infancy to find any kind of ease in the use of it. I am led to notice this, from observing in Mr. Salt’s book that a similar machine is used in Abyssinia, the manners of which country appear, from the descriptions of Mr. Salt and Mr. Bruce, to bear a great resemblance to those of the people on the borders of the Nile.