It was about four o'clock, the sun was on the horizon, and the whole country was waiting for that moment of placid enjoyment which, in a hot climate, suddenly succeeds the painful heat of the day, when Bruce returned from Metrahenni to the canja; and on the following morning with a fair wind, and in high spirits, he continued for some days to stem the strong current of the Nile. He passed Regnagie, Zaragara, and a series of picturesque villages, which studded the highly cultivated and verdant country that, both on the right and left, lay between the river and the mountains. At Woodan the Nile was about a quarter of a mile wide; the cultivated ground being about four miles in breadth on the east side of the river, and about twice that distance to the foot of the opposite or west side. The villages which gave life and animation to this "happy valley" were mostly surrounded by palm-trees; and as Bruce, from the deck of the canja, gazed on them with feelings of curiosity and delight, he constantly inquired their names of his rais or captain; but the man at last honestly told him that he did not know what they were called; adding, that the boatmen on the Nile being in the habit of passing these villages very rapidly, and being only anxious to get to the end of their voyage, seldom troubled themselves to learn their names; and that, when tiresome questions were put to them by inquisitive European travellers, instead of confessing their ignorance, they were in the habit of answering with any word that came uppermost; which, though sometimes of a ridiculous meaning, and very often highly indecent, have nevertheless gravely made their appearance in some of our books of travels. After passing with great velocity Nizelet, Embarcak, Cubabac, Nizelet Omar, Racca Kibeer, and Racco Sequier, they came in sight of Alfia, a large village at some distance from the Nile, in the vicinity of which they passed the night. "All the valley here," says Bruce, "is green, the palm grows beautiful, and the Nile is deep: still it is not a prospect that pleases, for the whole ground that is sown to the sandy ascent of the mountains is but a narrow strip of three quarters of a mile broad; and the mountains themselves, which here begin to have a moderate degree of elevation, and which bound this narrow valley, are white, gritty, sandy, and uneven, and perfectly destitute of all manner of verdure." After having been detained a short time by foggy weather, the canja sailed by a convent of Copts. The strip of green wheat which had hitherto bounded both shores of the Nile, ceased for about half a mile each side of this convent; for the poor wretches who inhabited it, accustomed to the merciless violence of the Arabs, declined to sow, knowing that they would not be permitted to reap. At the village of Nizelet begin large plantations of sugarcanes, the first they had seen, and the people were then loading boats with them for Cairo.