I refer the reader, with great pleasure, to the fifth volume of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, in which there is a very interesting description of the peninsula of Sennaar, communicated by Sir John Barrow, from the memoranda of Lord Prudhoe. Had it been published before this volume was completed, I should have availed myself of the information which it contains; but I am glad to find that in many respects it confirms my statement.
[2]Lord Prudhoe and Major Felix are the only Englishmen who have seen the antiquities of the island of Meroe; and it is deeply to be regretted that they have not published their observations.
[3]In a work on Egypt, for which I have ample notes, and 400 drawings to select from, I may give a more detailed description of these places.
[4]The temples I mention in this volume, below the second cataract, I may perhaps describe at a future opportunity.
[5]It somewhat resembled, also, what Festus says of the Salian dancers: the præsaltor advanced “et amptruabat,” then all the rest came “et redamptruabant,” or danced and sang as he had done.—Sir Wm. Gell, T. R. vol. ii. p. 385.
[6]Part I. Canto II.
[7]The reader will have observed that my estimate of the pace of the camel differs from those of many travellers, and particularly from that of Mr. Burnes, the author of the justly celebrated work “Travels into Bokhara” (see vol. ii. p. 149.); but he must recollect that my camels were of the Bishareen race. My servants were all mounted; and the animals, even at starting, were not heavily laden with a stock of water, which diminished daily. There being only one well containing water, and that bad, in a distance of 250 miles, it was their interest to urge on their camels, which they did by singing in the manner I have described. I took great pains to ascertain the pace of these animals, observing not only theirs, but also that of the drivers walking by their side, dismounting repeatedly myself for that purpose. I had the gratification to find, on arriving at the Nile, that my calculations agreed, within two or three miles, with the observations of latitude. I have made many long journeys on camels, and I certainly think that animal, when well taken care of, and not overloaded, fully capable of marching ten or eleven hours per day, at the average rate of two miles and a half an hour in valleys or over rough roads, and three miles on plains, without being at all distressed. On the banks of rivers, and in districts where water and forage are plentiful, except urged on, the men are always inclined to move more slowly, and make a shorter day’s journey, not so much to save their camels as to lessen the fatigue to themselves: a few days more or less en route being generally a matter of indifference to them.
[8]Burckhardt calls them angareyg, and says the peculiar smell of the leather some of them are made of keeps them free from vermin. I conceive it to be rather the excessive heat of the climate that preserves the inhabitants of these latitudes from the plagues of Egypt.
[9]These flies also annoy the cattle; but neither here nor on the Mugrum (the Astaboras) have they the effect described by Bruce.
[10]The specimens which I brought to England have confirmed the accuracy of the description of them in Cailliaud’s work—“Cette coquille, bien reconnue aujourd-hui comme devant appartenir au genre éthérie, est remarquable par son talon, qui souvent semble s’accroître et présenter nombre de compartimens. J’avais conservé de ces valves d’éthéries qui avaient jusqu’à huit ou dix poules de longueur: la forme en est alongée et variée, la nacre blanche et feuilletée. Les deux attaches musculaires semblent être le seul motif qui jusqu’à present a fait placer ces éthéries avec les cames plutôt qu’avec les huîtres, dont elles ont du reste tout le caractère.”—Vol. ii. p. 222.