along with Mr John Newberry, and his company, and came to _Birrah_,
[Bir] in three days, being a small town on the Euphrates, where that
river first assumes the name, being here collected into one channel,
whereas before it comes down in numerous branches, and is therefore
called by the people of the country by a name which signifies a
_thousand heads_. We here found abundance of provisions, and furnished
ourselves for a long journey down the river; and, according to the
custom of those who travel on this river, we provided a small bark for
the conveyance of ourselves and our goods. These boats are
flat-bottomed, because the river is shallow in many places; and when
people travel in the months of July, August, and September, the water
being then at the lowest, they have to carry a spare boat or two along
with them, to lighten their own boats in case of grounding on the
shoals. We were twenty-eight days upon the river in going between Bir
and Feluchia, at which last place we disembarked ourselves and our
goods.

During our passage down the Euphrates, we tied our boat to a stake every
night at sun-set, when we went on land and gathered some sticks to make
a fire, on which we set our pot, with rice or bruised wheat; and when
we had supped, the merchants went on board to sleep, while the mariners
lay down for the night on the shore, as near the boats as they could. At
many places on the river side we met with troops of Arabs, of whom we
bought milk, butter, eggs, and lambs, giving them in barter, for they
care not for money, glasses, combs, coral, amber, to hang about their
necks; and for churned milk we gave them bread and pomegranate peels,
with which they tan their goat skins which they use for churns. The
complexion, hair, and apparel of these Arabs, are entirely like to those
vagabond Egyptians who heretofore used to go about in England. All their
women, without one exception, wear a great round ring of gold, silver,