Abbadies swam their horses
and dromedaries over the river. Cogia Achmet, one of the chiefs of the
army, in endeavoring to imitate the cavalry of Shageia, lost seventy
horses and some soldiers. The rest of the horses and camels of the army
were taken over by arranging them by the sides of the boats, with their
halters held in hand by the people in the boats. Another large portion
of our horses and camels was taken over by the Shageias and the
Abbadies, who fastened at the breast of each horse, and over the neck of
each camel of ours, so carried over, an empty water-skin blown up with
air, which prevented the animal from sinking, while their guides swam by
their sides, and so conducted them over.]

[Footnote 48: The same day that the camp marched from the Bahar el
Abiud, Mr. Caillaud and Mr. Frediani embarked in the boats to go to
Sennaar, by the river, in order to have an opportunity of visiting the
ruins of "Soba," which lie on the east side of the Nile, not far above
from its junction with the Bahar el Abiud. When these gentlemen rejoined
us at Sennaar, they informed me that almost the very ruins of this city
have perished; they found, however, there some fragments of a temple,
and of some granite, statues of lions: the city itself, they said, had
been built of brick. This city of "Soba" probably takes its name from
"Saba," the son of Cush, who first colonized this country, which is
called, in the Hebrew Bible, "the land of Cush and Saba."--See Gen. x.
7. See the references in a Concordance to the Hebrew Bible, under the
heads of "Cush," and "Saba."

If there were any pyramids near Saba, I should believe it to be the
ancient Meroe, because Josephus represents that the ancient name of
Meroe was "Saba." "Nam Saba urbs eadem fuisse perhibetur quae a Cambyse
Meroe in uxoris honorem dicta est:" quoted from Eichom's ed. of Sim.
Heb. Lex. artic. Sameh Bet Alef

It was impossible for me to ask of the Pasha liberty to accompany the
gentlemen abovementioned, as a battle was expected in a few days between
us and the king of Sennaar, from which I would not have been absent on
any consideration.]

[Footnote 49: The people of Dongola, Shageia, Berber, Shendi, and
Sennaar, do not use mills to make meal. They reduce grain to meal by
rubbing it a handful at a time between two stones--one fixed in the
ground, and one held by the hands. By long and tedious friction, the
grain is reduced to powder. This labor is performed by the women