Our Rais Abou Cuffi begged leave to go to Comadreedy, a small village on the west of the Nile, with a few palm-trees about it; he said that his wife was there. As I never heard any thing of this till now, I fancied he was going to divert himself in the manner he had done the night before he left Cairo; for he had put on his black surtout, or great coat, his scarlet turban, and a new scarlet shaul, both of which he said he had brought, to do me honour in my voyage. I thanked him much for his consideration, but asked him why, as he was a Sherriffe, he did not wear the _green turban_ of Mahomet? He answered, Poh! that was a trick put upon strangers; there were many men who wore green turbans, he said, that were very great rascals; but he was a _Saint_, which was better than a Sherriffe, and was known as such all over the world, whatever colour of a turban he wore, or whether a turban at all, and he only dressed for my honour; would be back early in the morning, and bring me a fair wind. “Hassan, said I, I fancy it is much more likely that you bring me some aquavitæ, if you do not drink it all.” He promised that he would see and procure some, for mine was now at an end. He said, the Prophet never forbade aquavitæ, only the drinking of wine; and the prohibition could not be intended for Egypt, for there was no wine in it. But Bouza, says he, Bouza I will drink, as long as I can walk from stem to stern of a vessel, and away he went. I had indeed no doubt he would keep his resolution of drinking whether he returned or not. We kept, as usual, a very good watch all night, which passed without disturbance. Next day, the 17th, was exceedingly hazy in the morning, though it cleared about ten o’clock. It was, however, sufficient to shew the falsity of the observation of the author, who says that the Nile[104] emits no fogs, and in course of the voyage we often saw other examples, of the fallacy of this assertion. In the afternoon, the people went ashore to shoot pigeons; they were very bad, and black, as it was not the season of grain. I remained arranging my journal, when, with some surprize, I saw the Howadat Arab come in, and sit down close to me; however, I was not afraid of any evil intention, having a crooked knife at my girdle, and two pistols lying by me. What’s this? How now, friend? said I; Who sent for you? He would have kissed my hand, saying _Fiarduc_, I am under your protection: he then pulled out a rag from within his girdle, and said he was going to Mecca, and had taken that with him; that he was afraid my boatmen would rob him, and throw him into the Nile, or get somebody to rob and murder him by the way; and that one of the Moors, Hassan’s servant, had been feeling for his money the night before, when he thought him asleep.