March 9. We left Shendy later than we intended, having been delayed by the following little difficulties. I had engaged from the government six camels, with three drivers, of which they only sent me one driver. As I found I should lose a day, or perhaps two, in going back to Metammah, and there were said to be none procurable here, I was forced to yield this point. I had also stipulated for a Turkish soldier, who accompanied Cailliaud, and for a habeer (guide), and had agreed to give twelve piastres per day for these two persons. Before setting out, I asked the soldier, “where was the habeer?” “I am the habeer,” he said. “Where, then,” asked I, “is the soldier?” “Oh,” said he, “I am soldier and habeer both.” I was resolved not to start without another, my own men not being sufficient to load the camels. After a long dispute, he at length procured me an Arab. This is a specimen of the little annoyances to which travellers are generally liable in dealing with Turks. The desert to-day has had the appearance of a shrubbery, being richly covered with long yellow grass, acacias, tamarinds, and thorns, and enlivened with numerous herds of gazelles. Every two or three minutes we saw six or eight, but so wild that our attempts to approach them were fruitless.

Ruins of Wady Owataib, or Mecaurat.—March 10. We started this morning at six, and at eleven arrived at these interesting ruins. We passed, at about nine, a range of soft sandstone hills, which run from east to west.

I was surprised to find in this situation, which may be called the interior of the Desert, such extensive remains of antiquity. They consist of an edifice, containing temples, courts, corridors, &c. destined for purposes not religious only, but civil, domestic, or military. After taking a general survey, I returned to my tent for my portfolio, pencils, &c. My dragoman met me, with a bewildered look, and communicated to me intelligence which was any thing but agreeable. A man, who was driving cattle, the only person we have met to-day, came and asked my servants, who were pitching the tent, if they were not afraid of lions, as they seemed to be preparing to pass the night amongst the ruins. He told them that he brought his cattle here to pasture only during the day, when the lions are asleep in their dens among the mountains, but through the night they prowl all over this part of the plain; and only six nights ago four of them had killed three of his cattle, within 200 yards of our tent. He showed them the spot where their bones lay, and advised us immediately to quit this place, and remove either to the Nile, or to a distant mountain, whither he was going, and where we should be in safety. These tidings caused no slight consternation in my little caravan; some repented having come, others wished to return immediately; all seemed dismayed at the idea of passing the night exposed to such unpleasant visiters. Was I then to leave the antiquities of Meroe, and abandon the hope of being able to procure any further memorials of their magnificence? There were only two alternatives: to return with the mortification of having failed in one of the great objects of my journey, and still, as we could not arrive before night, perhaps incur the same danger; or to take the necessary precautions for defence in case of being attacked by these animals. I chose the latter course, and made my men collect all the wood that could be found, to keep up fires during the night. I sent my dragoman and the Turkish soldier towards the neighbouring hills, to see if they could discover any traces of them. After an hour they returned, and said they had seen none. The fact was, my dragoman did not know their footprints, and the Turk concealed the truth. Scarcely had I finished an address to my artist and servants, endeavouring to assure them that, after this intelligence, we should, with proper precautions, be perfectly safe, when, looking down, I perceived, in my very tent, the distinct traces of a lion; but I put my foot upon them, and said nothing. I could discover no other marks about the ruins; but a very light wind is sufficient to efface the impression on a loose sandy desert like this. This evening I have established a watch, and kept it myself five hours. My servants are sleeping on the ground, according to their custom, and have taken the precaution to form the camels into a sort of fortification, by tying them down in a circle round themselves. They are now all sleeping soundly, unconscious of danger, except my habeer, who has fastened the heel of his camel to his own leg, knowing well that the instinct of that creature (trembling and restive whenever a lion is near) will warn him of danger, and at the same time the animal will be prevented from flying off and escaping without his master.

March 11. I had not been long asleep, during the watch of my servants and artist, when I was suddenly roused. The Turk had seen two lions among the ruins, within 100 yards of my tent, and had fired his gun to frighten them away. I immediately ordered additional fires to be lighted: shortly afterwards, the peasant, who had advised us against encamping here, came to us for protection. By the light of the moon he had perceived the approach of two lions, which, he said, were behind him in the plain. I went a short distance from my tent, with the Turk, to reconnoitre, and I heard them roaring at no considerable distance. The roar soon became very distinct, even in my tent, but it did not prevent my falling asleep, as I was dreadfully fatigued by the previous day’s work, the long watch I had made, and the excessive heat. This was yesterday extraordinary for the season, being 110° in the shade (of the temple), though the extreme has been hitherto 98° and 100°. I slept the remainder of the night. This morning we found that the four lions had rambled all over the ruins, and their traces were quite fresh in every part. They had evidently been deterred only by our fires from attacking us. I ascertained them, by their footsteps, to be two males and two females; one of the males must have been very large, the females much smaller.

Every place and country has its danger, but few spread more alarm than this terror of the deserts. Seas and oceans have their tempests, in which vessels are frequently shipwrecked; and, even in smooth water, rocks and shoals send many to a watery grave. The traveller, even on the king’s high road, has sometimes to dread banditti. How many accidents occur even to the citizen on his holyday trips! Thus he who has never quitted his native country, and the traveller in foreign lands, are alike beset with perils; but there are few dangers which cannot be alleviated, often prevented, by prudent and precautionary measures, and which, stripped of the terrors in which heated imaginations have clothed them, present in their reality much that is alarming. By simply keeping up a few fires, the merchants who pass these deserts sleep securely, in defiance of their being infested by the most formidable of all wild beasts. I should, however, state, that instances are mentioned of fires not having this effect, when the lions are excessively pressed by hunger, particularly at the season when they require food for their young. Towards evening (for it is very seldom, if ever, that the lion is seen during the day), one alone has often arrested a large caravan. In some instances they have been known to attack men; but are generally content with an ox or a camel, which they kill, and sometimes, particularly if they have left their females or young in their den, carry away a large part on their shoulders. The number of these animals must increase rapidly every year, for it is very seldom that an instance occurs of one being killed.

They tell me, that a party of twenty peasants went lately to destroy two which had taken a station within a very short distance of the river, and committed great ravages among the flocks. The men were armed with lances, shields, and sabres. They traced the lions to their den, and began lighting fires, to drive them out. The female darted past them immediately. The male remained some time, until he could no longer endure the smoke, when he began to roar in a most terrific manner; he then rushed out, infuriated, upon the peasants: not one, however, of these gallant assailants had the courage to fling his lance, but each, without any consideration for the fate of his friends, sought his own security in flight. Fire-arms only are of use against these formidable animals, but the Italian proverb is said to be true of them:—Il lione ferito alla morte non s’avvilisce ancora. They are generally seen two and four together, often more, but always in pairs. They are very rarely disturbed; and, as no attempts have been made to exterminate them, their number is said to have increased considerably during these last few years. This may be considered the place where their haunts begin. They infest the road to Sennaar and the west side of the Atbara; but travellers incur less danger in the beaten track of the caravans than when, like us, they deviate from it.

The reader will recollect that, at the entrance of this desert, I observed great numbers of gazelles, but for several miles round these ruins and hills I saw none. These timid creatures prefer the risk of approaching the habitations of man, considering the arts of the peasants to destroy them less perilous than the vicinity of the lions. The latter know the places in the plain where the gazelles sleep, and, favoured by the darkness of night, dart upon their victims, whose superior swiftness only avails them when sometimes the roaring of their enemy intimates his approach. The Arabs tell some singularly superstitious tales of the generosity of the lion. The following has been related to me as a fact, by different peasants; but I must confess that, like the generality of Arab tales, it partakes of the marvellous: yet, perhaps, with a mélange of fable, there may be some kind of foundation of truth. They say, that when the lion seizes the cow of a peasant, he will permit the owner to carry away a portion; particularly if he asks for it in the name of his mother, wife, or family, and takes it without showing any fear.—I must apologise to the antiquarian, and perhaps to readers in general, for this long digression from my description of these antiquities, but I promised to give some account, not only of the remains, but also of the present inhabitants of Ethiopia.

The plan (see [Plate XIII.]) which I give of these ruins was made with the utmost care by my artist, Mr. B., and drawn out on the spot. I can testify for the pains that were taken to render it as accurate as possible. The ruin is too much destroyed for the plan to be perfectly correct, as to the size and situation of some of the doors, and the dimensions of many of the apartments; still, there is all that is necessary to exhibit to the reader the general form of the edifice. Even if all the walls were remaining, without any inscription to elucidate them, it would still be doubtful what this extraordinary mass of building has been. The appearance of the ruins is very imposing, from their immense extent; and I will give a detailed description of them, as they are certainly the most curious and inexplicable I have yet seen in Ethiopia. They consist of chambers, courts, corridors, and temples, in an enclosure or parallelogram, 760 by 660 feet; but in more accurate numbers the entire circumference is 2854 feet. The north-east side is 660 feet long; the north-west, the only side on which there are entrances,—

Ft.In.
From the angle to the door880
Width of the door130
To the central entrance2206
Width of the centralentrance160
Thence to the otherentrance2280
Width of that entrance160
Thence to the angle1880
Totalnorth-west side7696
south-west side6650
south-east side7600
north-east side6600
Total circumference of theedifice28546

On the north-east, south-east, and south-west sides, there are no entrances into the enclosure. The wall on the north-west side cannot be traced accurately through its whole extent. There have apparently been three entrances on this side; the central one, which is the most distinguishable, leads into a large court, 620 feet wide and 144 feet long. Opposite to the central entrance, on the south-east side of the court, is a long narrow corridor, 8 feet wide and 205 feet long, which leads to the principal temple, situated in a court 94 feet long by 85 feet wide. To give an exact idea of the situation of this court, I should state, that from the wall of the court to the enclosure on the south-east side is 106 feet; 165 feet to the enclosure on the south-west side; 204 feet from the north-west and 150 feet from the north-east side. Although not exactly in the centre of the structure, a slight examination of the plan will enable the reader to perceive that, from its situation, size, and the circumstance of the corridors leading into it, that edifice was, evidently, the principal temple: it is 47 feet long, from north-west to south-east; and 40 feet 6 inches broad. The large court, and the corridor from it to the temple, in a line with the central entrance of the enclosure, clearly indicate that the grand entrance was on the west side; and yet it is singular there is no doorway in the temple on that side. There are five entrances into the latter; one on the south-east side, two on the north-east, and two on the south-west. In front of the south-east end have been twelve columns, three feet and a half in diameter, in two rows of six each; before the west end, six columns, and five at each side, not including the columns at the angles: making, altogether, twenty-eight columns. There are the remains of four columns, which ornamented the interior of the temple. In front of it, on the south-east side, is a doorway which leads into a room 20 feet by 26, with two chambers on one side and one on the other; before them is an inclined parapet: an architectural ornament to the façades of temples, of which there are examples even in the best style of Egyptian edifices, such as at Solib. ([Plate XL.]) The axis of the door leading through this room to the parapet is the same as that of the central edifice into the temple. The circumstance of this inclined parapet wall, and there being a double row of columns only at this end of the temple, prove that it fronted to the south-east.