His women, who considered me as a rival, looked on me with malignity;
but, being soon informed that I was a great lady, detained only for my
ransome, they began to vie with each other in obsequiousness and
reverence.
"Being again comforted with new assurances of speedy liberty, I was, for
some days, diverted from impatience by the novelty of the place. The
turrets overlooked the country to a great distance, and afforded a view
of many windings of the stream. In the day, I wandered from one place to
another, as the course of the sun varied the splendour of the prospect,
and saw many things which I had never seen before. The crocodiles and
river-horses, are common in this unpeopled region, and I often looked
upon them with terrour, though I knew that they could not hurt me. For
some time I expected to see mermaids and tritons, which, as Imlac has
told me, the European travellers have stationed in the Nile, but no such
beings ever appeared, and the Arab, when I inquired after them, laughed
at my credulity.
"At night the Arab always attended me to a tower, set apart for
celestial observations, where he endeavoured to teach me the names and
courses of the stars. I had no great inclination to this study, but an
appearance of attention was necessary to please my instructer, who
valued himself for his skill; and, in a little while, I found some
employment requisite to beguile the tediousness of time, which was to be
passed always amidst the same objects.
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