Half past ten o’clock. We row round a corner N.E. by N., and are obliged, owing to the north wind, which is against us in this short passage, to make use of the sandal as a leader, in order to drag after us the Kaiàss. We wind then S.S.W.: the wind has freshened, and we make four miles. At noon a short track to the S.E., but only for a short time, and we halt on the reeds, opposite to the right shore. Thibaut visited and invited me to a Burma of merissa, which he had prepared from _Abrè_. This Abrè is a very fine kind of bread; it is baked on the usual pan (Docka), by pouring liquid dough of durra meal on it, and immediately scraping it down with a knife; to free it from the clay or iron-pan, some butter is put over it now and then. If a handful of these broken wafers are thrown into a gara, with water, they give a wonderful coolness to what they float in, and a pleasant acid taste. On this account it is the usual drink in the land of Sudàn, and a welcome draught to the thirsty traveller. Thibaut had made a large Burma of water in a state of fermentation with this fine bread, and let it work for three days, till the bread part had sunk to the bottom. This merissa must, however, be quickly drank, or else it becomes sour. Naturally enough, it was far better than that prepared in the usual way from warm bread, and withal uncommonly strong and intoxicating. Even the finer kind of merissa, called in Sennaar Billbill, is inferior to it. Abrè Nareïn, as the corpulent Sheikh Defalla prepared it for us during the campaign in Taka, and as it is drank by the kings of Sennaar, is only superior to it. This liquor is like beer, and twice put on the fire (Nar), whereby it acquires its name Abrè Nareïn. Thibaut’s Reïs (steersman) exhibited the first proofs of the intoxicating effects of this merissa, and was persuaded to delegate the task of steering the ship to the former; but Thibaut, who had begun even earlier to test its strength, was still less capable of commanding his vessel. The wind had thrown us, in a trice, towards the other side of the little lake, which forms part of the river. I had previously remarked the dazzling contrast which the water of the basin made, through its dark-blue colour, to our course. We think that we discern in the three segments of that water, three mouths of a river, separated by the reeds. Beyond this, we also see a real water track, coming from S.S.E., which may be a river of less importance, but we could not approach close enough to discover this. It was only with a great deal of difficulty that we got loose again from the reeds, and came into the stream.