Note 49 — JOURNEY ALONG THE BANKS OF THE NILE. (continued 2)

The reports of my guide, and of many other persons, had made me very anxious to see the second Cataract, the water of which, I was told, “fell down, as if from heaven!” When, after seeing it, I reprimanded my guide for his extravagant description, he replied, “Why, have you seen a finer cataract, from Cairo to Mahass?” But the reports of these people are still less to be depended upon than even those of the Syrian Arabs. I was told by many Nubians that the distance from Derr to Mahass was sixteen days and nights journeys; but I found it to be only ten; they in like manner endeavoured to deceive me, in numberless other instances, whenever I asked questions which appeared to them out of the common course of conversation, the continual topic of which is, the price of dates and Dhourra, the taxes on the water-wheels, and complaints on the injustice of the governors.