If we should not, however, take the nearer district of the tropical rains as an explanation of the simultaneous swelling of both arms of the Nile near Khartùm, we could not explain this phenomenon, for the mountain waters of the White Stream must, though with a far slower course, make three times as long a way as those of the Blue Nile, in just the same time. A difference is consequently seen at Khartùm at high water, which, however, soon becomes equal, from the mutual pouring into each other of the arms, or by the damming up of the tributary streams. Fadl is my faithful confidant in purchasing the curiosities of the country; he is slow and painstaking in a negotiation, when I immediately lose my patience. He first, for a long time, squats, as he used to do in the land of Sudàn, with the people here; plays with the glass beads,—holds the larger ones by themselves against the light, as if they were jewels; and the good Ethiopians become so confident and longing, that they can hold out no longer; and then he is very slow in giving any, so that the value increases in their eyes. They are not only, as I have before said, very mistrustful in this barter, but also so undecided, like children, that beads and goods are often given away and returned. I have some hopes that my Ethnographical collection will increase considerably in this manner during the return voyage, for we have already exchanged many weapons and other things. The spears of this country are distinguished by a greater elegance in the workmanship, and do not exceed the length of the gigantic bodies of these men. With the exception of a few, they are javelins, seven feet long, with a shaft of the thickness of a thumb. The shaft of bamboo is encircled entirely, or partly, with a narrow band of iron, or with the skins of snakes and land crocodiles, and the lower end surrounded with an iron knob and single rings, in order that the spear may have the proper equilibrium in the hand when it is hurled. About half a foot from the end it is generally furnished with a tuft of fur, which seems to stand in the place of a _feathered_ arrow, a weapon never seen here. The iron of the head is one and a half to two feet long, the back flat, and the knob has four little bosses. The bows are from five and a half to six and a half feet long, of bamboo, and encircled in the same manner; the strings are made from the inner bark of trees. The arrows are very neatly wrought, have barbs, and are two and a half to three feet long.