fragments of shafts of columns, standing as described in the annexed figure. The four corner columns, and two of the side ones, are square, the others are round; they appeared to be about two feet and a half in diameter; no hieroglyphics, or sculptures, are visible, and the stones are in a very decayed state. The temple had been surrounded by a high brick wall, fragments of which are still seen. I observed no other remains of antiquity in my hasty view of this ruin. We continued at a brisk trot till the end of eleven hours and a half, when we again reached the bank of the river, opposite Dabrous, and crossed the dry bed of a branch of the stream to an island, where some Kerrarish Arabs were encamped, and we alighted at their tents, late at night, after a ride of twelve hours. I celebrated my safe return into the northern parts of Nubia by having a lamb, which I purchased of the Arabs for three measures of Dhourra, roasted for my supper. The island is thickly overgrown with tamarisk trees, which shoot up spontaneously upon all the islands whose surfaces consist of alluvial mud, and not of sand. I was informed, in the course of the night, that a caravan of sixty camels of the Arabs Sheygya had arrived at Wady Halfa, for dates. Although continually harassed by the predatory incursions of the Sheygya, the Nubians never offer any insult to the merchants of that nation, who visit their villages as friends.
March 21st. In passing over from the island to the main land, my dromedaryi[50] sank into the mud, and it was with great difficulty that I saved it: these animals walk with a firm step through sands as high as their knee; but mud, the depth of an inch only, will make them stumble. In half an hour we passed the village of Argyn (اركين). The western shore, from the Cataract to this village, is quite barren, and continues so to the north of it, where deep sands cover the plain. In one hour and a half, we passed opposite to Eshke. Two hours and a half, saw the village of Debeyra, on the east bank; there is on that side an uninterrupted grove of date trees, from Eshke to Serra. Our road lay N. E. by N. In four hours and a half we came to Serra, nearly opposite the village of the same name, on the east side. At five hours, are the ruins of a small temple, not far from the river, in the midst of low sand hills: its main building is about twenty-four feet square; the roof has fallen in, and the lower parts only of the original walls remain; upon these the Greeks had raised mud walls, and converted the ruin into a church, which, in its turn, had become a mosque. There are no remains of columns; and the hieroglyphics, and other sculptures, which cover the walls, are worse executed than any I had seen, worse even than those at Samne, abovementioned. The fragments of a battle-piece may still be discerned upon the wall, and there is a very spirited, but rudely executed group of Briareus, seized by the hair, and under the victor’s knife, but protected by the out-stretched arm of Osiris; it differs from the similar representation so often repeated on the walls of the Egyptian temples; inasmuch as Briareus is not here a many-headed monster, but of the natural human form, holding in his arms a dying friend; both these figures have rings in their ears, and the hair of the head is cut like that of the Arabs of this part of Africa, in a form which has been mistaken for a cap by some travellers, in describing the same head-dress in the figures of the temples of Egypt. Opposite to this temple, on the east side, is the hamlet of Artynok (ارتنوق), which lies to the north of the eastern Serra. Five hours and a half, Faras, (فَرَس), opposite the fertile island of that name. The sand-hills of Serra continue till opposite Adhendhan; to the west is a wide plain, with insulated rocky hills. At seven hours is a ruined Greek church, the walls of which, in the lower half of their height, are of stone, and in the remainder of bricks. At seven hours and a half, we passed three sepulchres excavated in the sand-stone of a low range of hills; they are coarsely worked; in their interior are several Greek inscriptions of the time of the Lower Empire. Our road was now E. N. E. Opposite Adhendan the western chain of mountains terminates, and some low hills, separated from the river by rising sandy ground, continue to the northward. In nine hours we reached the shore, opposite Kosko. Nine and a half, crossed the dry bed of a branch of the stream to the island of Ballyane; and alighted, at the end of eleven hours, at the huts of some Kerrarish Arabs, on its northern extremity, directly opposite the castle of Adde. All these islands are deserted during the period of the inundation.
March 22d. We recrossed, to the shore, over the sands left on the decrease of the waters, and passed the village of Ballyane (بليني). At one hour and a half, ascended a steep sandy mountain: the mountains on both sides are close to the river. On the east side is Wady Fereyg: on the west side the mountain bears the name of Ebsambal (اِبسَمبَل), probably a Greek word, the final syllable bal being a modification of polis. When we reached the top of the mountain, I left my guide, with the camels, and descended an almost perpendicular cleft, choaked with sand, to view the temple of Ebsambal, of which I had heard many magnificent descriptions. There is no road at present to this temple, which stands just over the bank of the river; but, it is probable, that some change may have taken place in the course of the stream, and that there may have been formerly a footpath along the shore, by which the temple was approached. It stands about twenty feet above the surface of the water, entirely cut out of the almost perpendicular rocky side of the mountain, and in complete preservation. In front of the entrance are six erect colossal figures, representing juvenile persons, three on each side, placed in narrow recesses, and looking towards the river; they are all of the same size, stand with one foot before the other, and are accompanied by smaller figures, which I shall presently describe. They measure from the ground to the knee six feet and a half, and are placed in the following order: 1. A juvenile Osiris, with a narrow beard, and a tiara on his head, accompanied by two small upright figures, about four feet in height, one on each side of his legs. 2. Isis, with Horus in her arms, and a small figure
also, on each side; though coarsely executed, the expression of the countenance of the Isis is truly grand and benevolent. 3. A youth, with the usual high bonnet upon his head, his arms hanging down, and two small figures like the preceding. These are on one side of the door. On the other side is, 4. The same youth; 5. Isis, having the globe, encompassed by two serpents, upon her head; and 6. the youth a third time; each with the two small accompanying figures, as before. Of the small figures, some of those on the side last mentioned differ from the others in having the hair on the right side of the head falling in a thick bunch upon the right shoulder, while the left side is shaved. The spaces between the niches where the large figures stand, are covered with hieroglyphics. A small door leads into the pronaos of the temple, which is supported by six square columns, each three feet square: the pronaos is thirteen paces in length, and seven in breadth. The capitals of the columns represent heads of Isis, similar to those at Tintyra, except that they are in much lower relief, and in the same style as the sculptures on the walls of the temple; the ornament represented on these heads is in the form of a temple, and the hair falls down in two thick ringlets, differing in this respect, also, from the figures at Tintyra. The narrow cella is entered from the pronaos by one large, and two small gates; it is only three paces in depth, with a dark chamber on each side. The adytum is seven feet square; the remains of a statue, cut out of the rock, are visible in the back wall, and in the floor is a deep sepulchral excavation. The walls of the three apartments are covered with hieroglyphics, and the usual sacred figures of the Egyptian temples. The figures seem all to have been painted yellow, excepting the hair, which, in several of them is black; that of Isis is in black and white stripes. Offerings to Osiris of lotus and of leaves of the Doum tree, are frequently represented; and, as in all the Nubian temples, Briareus, beneath the hand of the victor, is repeated in several places; he is here again of the natural human form. The temple of Ebsambal seems to have been the model of that at Derr, to which I think it much anterior in date; it was no doubt dedicated to the worship of Isis. The style in which the sculptures are executed denotes high antiquity. A few paces to the north of the entrance, in the rock above it, is a bas-relief of Osiris, in a sitting posture, with a supplicant kneeling with extended arms before him: both figures are surrounded with hieroglyphic characters. I was afterwards informed, at Derr, that there is, near this temple, on the bank of the river, the statue of a man somewhat above the human size, with the Egyptian corn measure under his arm; and that it is completely overflowed during the inundation.
Having, as I supposed, seen all the antiquities of Ebsambal, I was about to ascend the sandy side of the mountain by the same way I had descended; when having luckily turned more to the southward, I fell in with what is yet visible of four immense colossal statues cut out of the rock, at a distance of about two hundred yards from the temple; they stand in a deep recess, excavated in the mountain; but it is greatly to be regretted, that they are now almost entirely buried beneath the sands, which are blown down here in torrents. The entire head, and part of the breast and arms of one of the statues are yet above the surface; of the one next to it scarcely any part is visible, the head being broken off, and the body covered with sand to above the shoulders; of the other two, the bonnets only appear. It is difficult to determine, whether these statues are in a sitting or standing posture; their backs adhere to a portion of rock, which projects from the main body, and which may represent a part of a chair, or may be merely a column for support. They do not front the river, like those of the temple just described, but are turned with their faces due north, towards the more fertile climes of Egypt, so that the line on which they stand, forms an angle with the course of the stream. The head which is above the surface has a most expressive, youthful, countenance, approaching nearer to the Grecian model of beauty, than that of any ancient Egyptian figure I have seen; indeed, were it not for a thin oblong beard, it might well pass for a head of Pallas. This statue wears the high bonnet usually called the corn-measure, in the front of which is a projection bearing the figure of a nilometer; the same is upon the bonnets of the two others: the arms are covered with hieroglyphics, deeply cut in the sand-stone, and well executed; the statue measures seven yards across the shoulders, and cannot, therefore, if in an upright posture, be less than from sixty-five to seventy feet in height: the ear is one yard and four inches in length. On the wall of the rock, in the centre of the four statues, is the figure of the hawk-headed Osiris, surmounted by a globe; beneath which, I suspect, could the sand be cleared away, a vast temple would be discovered, to the entrance of which the above colossal figures probably serve as ornaments, in the same manner as the six belonging to the neighbouring temple of Isis: I am also led to conjecture, from the presence of the hawk-headed figure, that this was a temple dedicated to Osiris. The levelled face of the rock behind the colossal figures, is covered with hieroglyphic characters; over which is a row of upwards of twenty sitting figures, cut out of the rock like the others, but so much defaced, that I could not make out distinctly, from below, what they were meant for; they are about six feet in height. Judging from the features of the colossal statue visible above the sand, I should pronounce these works to belong to the finest period of Egyptian sculpture; but, on the other hand, the hieroglyphics on the face of the rock are of very indifferent execution, and seem to be of the same age as those in the temple at Derr. A few paces to the south of the four colossal statues, is a recess hewn out of the rock, with steps leading up to it from the river; its walls are covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and representations of Isis, and the hawk-headed Osiris.
The temple of Ebsambal serves as a place of refuge to the inhabitants of Ballyane, and the neighbouring Arabs, against a Moggrebyn tribe of Bedouins, who regularly, every year, make incursions into these parts. They belong to the tribes which are settled between the Great Oasis and Siout. When they set out, they repair first to Argo, where they commence their predatory course, plundering all the villages on the western bank of the river; they next visit Mahass, Sukkot, Batn el Hadjar, Wady Halfa, the villages opposite Derr, and lastly Dakke; near the latter place, they ascend the mountain, and return through the desert towards Siout. The party usually consists of about one hundred and fifty horsemen, and as many camel-riders: no one dares oppose them in Nubia; on the contrary, the governors pay them a visit, when they arrive opposite to Derr, and make them some presents. The incursions of this tribe are one of the principal reasons, why the greater part of the western bank of the Nile is deserted. Whenever they advance towards Ballyane, its inhabitants retreat with their cattle to the temple of Ebsambal. The Moggrebyns, last year attempted to force this place of refuge, but failed, after losing several men.
From Ebsambal our road lay E. N. E. along a barren, sandy shore. At three hours and a half from our setting out in the morning, we passed some ruined Greek chapels; and at the end of six hours and a half, alighted (opposite to Formundy, on the east side), at an Arab tent, in which was a young man, and a pretty girl, his cousin; their relations lived on the east side, and had sent them over to watch a few sown fields. I asked the girl whether she was not afraid of remaining alone with the youth? “O no,” she replied, “is he not my cousin?” (ليش اخاف ما هو ابن عمي). Cousins among the Bedouins are considered almost in the same light as brothers and sisters.
March 23d. A continuation of the high sandy shore. We left the river to our right, and made a short cut across the plain, in a N. E. by E. direction. In two hours and a half, we passed, at about one hour’s distance to our right, the village of Tosko, which stands on both sides of the river. Five hours, Mosmos (مُسمُس), a village on the west bank, opposite to Wady Bostan. Six hours, passed Wady Shubak, on the east bank; from thence our road was E. N. E. over a wide plain, between the western mountains and the river. At nine hours, saw, to our right, the village of Kette. About two miles distance from the river is an insulated hill, composed of sand-stone, in which a small sepulchral chamber has been formed, seven paces in length, three in breadth, and five feet and a half in height, with a sepulchral excavation in the centre; adjoining to it is a smaller chamber, in the bottom of which is a bust placed between two seats, destined probably for mummies. The sides of the principal chamber are covered with paintings, the colours of which are as well preserved as those in the tombs of the kings at Thebes, though they are not so well executed; the principal subjects are figures making offerings and paying adoration to Osiris and Apis: I observed on one side a Cynocephalus embalming a body extended upon a table before him; and on another, the same figure holding in his hand a balance, before which stands a sphinx: in the small chamber agricultural subjects are depicted, as ploughing, sowing, hoeing, &c. There are no other sepulchres in this place. It will always be matter of surprise that similar excavations are not frequently found in the mountains of Nubia, abundant as they are in those of Egypt, in the neighbourhood of all ancient cities. In eleven hours we came again to the river, at a village called Ayfe (عيفه); and at the end of eleven hours and a half reached Tomas (توماس), where we alighted, at a house belonging to Hassan Kashef. This is a large village, and the greater part of its inhabitants are descendants of the Arabs Gharbye, by whom Nubia was formerly occupied.
March 24th. In about one hour and a half from Tomas, we arrived opposite Derr, where is a ferry to convey passengers across. After waiting some time for the boat, which happened to be on the opposite side, I saw Hassan Kashef himself enter it, to cross the river; when he reached the shore, he received me very coolly; “You had no business,” said he, “in Mahass; why did you not return, after reaching Sukkot?” He then asked me what presents I had given to his brothers. I told him that I had given them no presents, as I had none to give. “I wonder, then,” he said, “how they let you pass, for you had no letters to them.” I replied, that they had treated me very kindly, and had even killed a lamb for me; though this was not the truth, and I only said so by way of rebuke to Hassan Kashef, who had not offered me any animal food, while I remained with him. I then entered the boat, which the governor’s slaves dragged along shore, to Tomas, where the Kashef wished to inspect some fields. Here I witnessed one of those cruel acts of despotism which are so common in the East: in walking over a large field, with about thirty attendants and slaves, Hassan told the owner that he had done wrong in sowing the field with barley, as water-melons would have grown better. He then took some melon seed out of his pocket, and giving it to the man, said, “you had better tear up the barley and sow this.” As the barley was nearly ripe, the man of course excused himself from complying with the Kashef’s command: “Then I will sow them for you,” said the latter; and ordered his people immediately to tear up the crop, and lay out the field for the reception of the melon seed. The boat was then loaded with the barley, and a family thus reduced to misery, in order that the governor might feed his horses and camels for three days on the barley stalks.