The Arabs are fond of giving nicknames, derived either from the figure, or some other distinction and manner of acting, to which they prefix the word Abù. The Kurd, Hüsseïn Aga, has distinguished himself for a short time, by drinking merissa, which he prepared on board his vessel; for he found the time hang heavy on his hands, as he told me, and was vexed that his vessel was always behind. He was therefore called _Abù Sofaia_,—the latter word being the name of the sieve for merissa. If a pair of them wanted to teaze each other, they began to ask, reciprocally: “Your father, what is his name?” “You, what is your name?” then followed jeering, abusing, and scoffing. They do not fail, in addition, to use the coarsest words, if the Turkish listeners are pleased at it. On the sun setting, the new moon turned both her horns in equal height to the heavens, and Venus shone immediately over it, exactly similar to the Turkish escutcheon. This symbol appeared to me more suitable than all our heraldic compositions. For the last two nights the gnats have been very troublesome, notwithstanding that a small cat, which I have not yet seen by daylight, seems to find particular pleasure in licking my face all the night through, pulling my beard, and purring continually, thus scaring away the gnats. The cats, however, in Belled-Sudàn are generally of a more savage nature, apparently arising from the unkind treatment of the people: they go even into the hen-roosts, and the strongest fowls are lacerated by them; but they meddle very little with rats and mice. The Baràbras, especially those of Dòngola, like them for eating; not so, however, the Arabs, who do not persecute them, because the cat is one of the favourite animals of their Prophet, but yet hold them unclean. The sky was cloudy to-day, as it was yesterday and the day before.