352 AN ARAB TRAVELLER. bling in the midst of the sandy plain so many islands in the ocean; and this alternation of dusky mounds with beds of light shifting sand, formed by the agency of the wind into valleys, circular hollows, vast wavy slopes, crested ridges, and ominous heaps, like graves, continued as far as the eye could reach. In returning to the town we passed by a sheikh's tomb, most picturesquely situated on the sharp point of a mountain, round which the wind, now very powerful, roared and blew tremendously. CCLVI. On returning to our boats we found the reis of the cataract's deputy waiting for us, together with a camel driver, called Mohammed, well known to travellers, who was very earnest in persuading us to proceed to Wady Halfa on dromedaries ; this being, he said, by far the most expeditious way, since, instead of three weeks or more, which we must inevitably consume in the kandjias, we could, on dromedaries, perform the whole journey in ten days. Mohammed was a keen, shrewd fellow, who, in his way, had been a great traveller, having frequently made the perilous traject of the Nubian desert east of the Nile, by the track pursued by Bruce in his return from Abyssinia, visited many of the black countries with slave caravans, and even penetrated as far as Suakin on the Red Sea through the country of the Bisharein Arabs. He had moreover contrived, Heaven knows how, to pick up a little Italian in his journeyings, sufficient to make himself understood. Besides his business of camel-driving, he likewise exercised the CURIOSITIES AND AMULETS. 353 profession of a merchant, of a guide, and of a dealer in curiosities and antiquities; and had spears, Fellata bows, poisoned arrows in quivers of crocodile or fish skin, ostrich eggs, feathers, &c., for sale. His prices were not exorbitant, and I purchased of him several remarkable curiosities for less than one twelfth of what would be demanded for them in Cairo. Among the articles which he exhibited to us was a spear with a rosewood-coloured handle, belonging to a native of Darfoor, and said by its owner to have been taken in battle from a black king. It was curiously ornamented with brass wire, and had no doubt been the weapon of some wealthy chief, as the spears of the common Africans are very plain and rude. Nearly all the Arabs and Nubians whom we saw here, wore upon their arms, above the elbow, amulets carefully sown up in square red leather cases, and fastened to the arm by a broad thong of the same colour. Their nature was unknown to the wearers, and their virtue, it was said, would depart from them the moment they should be opened and inspected. Some would not part at any price with these preservatives against evil, and others, whom the auri sacra fames overcame, asked so extravagant a price for them, that we declined the purchase altogether. CCLVII. While we were bargaining with these chapmen, the reis of the cataract himself arrived; a fine-looking old Arab, but whose demands for towing our kandjia up the rapids were so exorbitant, that we declined entering into any arrangement with him, and 354 QUARRIES OF ES-SOUAN. began to negociate with Mohammed for dromedaries, several of which were brought for trial, but all so lean, galled, and woe-begone, that, when mounted, and pressed by the saddle, they roared with pain, endeavoured to throw their riders, and became nearly unmanageable; so that they also were dismissed. Mohammed then became our guide to the granite quarries, south-east of the city, where we saw, in several places, figures and hieroglyphics rudely sculptured on the rocks. In one of the quarries was an unfinished obelisk, which had been quite severed from the rock, ready to be carried away. It was now partly covered with sand; but the part still visible measured sixty-six feet in length, nine in breadth, and about eight in thickness. It contained no figures or hieroglyphics, nor was it nicely cut and polished; it having been the practice of the Egyptians to set up these monuments in their rough state, and afterwards to smooth and sculpture them. Our guide remembered the names of nearly all the travellers whom he had conducted round the environs of Es-Souan, but spoke particularly of Mrs. Light, whose beauty even this rude Arab could not behold with indifference. On our way back to the town we saw a poor ass dying in a pit, into which he had fallen with his legs tied; that being the practice of the Arabs when they send out these animals to feed. Having cut the cord, we endeavoured to lift him out, but it was too late; he could make no effort to assist us, his strength being exhausted, as he had, perhaps, not tasted food for several days; yet EGYPTIAN CHAPEL. 355 he raised his head, and looked wistfully around, seeming unwilling to die. A young Nubian girl, whom we met near this spot, was decked in the most strange and primitive costume I had ever beheld, though it afterwards became familiar to me in her native country: a small piece of blue cotton thrown over the shoulders, and round the loins a deep fringe of leather thongs, adorned at the top with small white shells, like the concha veneris, constituting the whole of her dress. The thongs, however, were so numerous, and fell about her so opportunely as she walked, that there was nothing unbecoming in her appearance. In descending towards the Nile, near the palm grove south of the town, we saw a small newly excavated chapel, picturesquely situated on the slope of the rocky hill. It had been built with a fine white stone, in a bold massive style, and, like the temples, was richly sculptured on all sides with hieroglyphics and figures of the gods; but, at the very moment of our arrival, labourers were employed in pulling it down, a part of the cornice being already on the ground, while an Arab, with a kind of pickaxe, was engaged in obliterating the winged globe. At our request he stopped for a moment, just to give us time to admire the beautiful ornament before he destroyed it; and then began to hammer away as before. There was nothing in the sculpture which could enable us to decide to what deity it had been consecrated; but this is of little moment, as, from the vigorous manner in which they were en 356 NILOMETER OF ES-SOUAN. gaged in the work of destruction, every trace of it, I imagine, will quickly disappear. Lower down, among the date trees, we observed four small upright columns, two of a square form; and near them, upon the ground, two other shafts, which were double. In returning to the town along the river, we passed by that round low tower, rising out of the water like an old bastion, which is called the Nilometer of Es-Souan. What its original purpose may have been, I know not; probably it once contained something like a measure, by which the inhabitants might learn the gradual rise of the river; but, if so, the measure has now disappeared, though several holes, both round and square, remain, through which they may have observed it. In the evening the reis of the cataract had grown more reasonable in his demands, and we entered into an arrangement with him to ascend into Nubia on the morrow. CCLVIII. The ancient inhabitants of Syene were a kind of heretics, worshipping the phagrus, a species of fish found in the Nile, which, according to Plutarch, assisted the Lepidotus and Oxyrynchus in devouring the phallus of Osiris, when it had been thrown into the river by Typhon. Our learned and able mythologist, Dr. Pritchard, whose work both amused and instructed me on the Nile, observes, after Plutarch*, that, in consequence of the action above commemorated, all these fishes were held in * De Iside et Osiride, c. 72. |