VIEW OF THE CATARACT.

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protected from the violence of the river by prodigious blocks of granite, which in many places bear the marks of tools. The main stream of the Nile is here so narrow as to excite our pity for its fallen grandeur, being not more than two stones' throw across; but, when we entered into the various currents which branch off, and rush with extreme impetuosity between the rocks, we quickly found that the old dragon had not lost his power. To go with the stream, however, was easy; but when we put about, and endeavoured to row up against the current, it was a different matter; and in turning the point of a small island, the boat struck upon a rock, and we had a narrow escape from being precipitated into the river. Fortunately, however, the boat righted, and we crossed over amid foam and eddies to the eastern shore. Landing here, we climbed the mountains of granite and sandstone to the south of the city, which command an extensive view of the cataracts, and the islands and rapids which constitute the principal beauty of the scene, together with the rugged chain of mountains forming the boundary of the desert towards the west. From the summit of an eminence, at a short distance to the east, we obtained a magnificent prospect of the commencement of the Nubian desert, rocky, dreary, desolate, and cursed with eternal barrenness. Yet the aspect of its arid surface was considerably diversified. Here you observed long ridges of grey sand, everlastingly whirled about by the winds and heated by the sun; farther on, granite rocks of a dirty black colour, like masses of dried mud, resem

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 sheïkh'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.

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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 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.

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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.

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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