nguished with ease from the Egyptian _fellahin_; for their skin has
more the appearance of bronze, and their features are often more
aquiline. The women do not wear the veil, and their dresses are draped
over one shoulder in a manner unknown to Egypt. The method of dressing
the hair, moreover, is quite distinctive: the women plait it in
innumerable little strands, those along the forehead terminating in
bead-like lumps of bee's-wax. The little children go nude for the first
six or eight years of their life, though the girls sometimes wear around
their waists a fringe made of thin strips of hide. The men still carry
spears in some parts of the country, and a light battle-axe is not an
uncommon weapon.

There is no railway between Aswan and Halfa, all traffic being conducted
on the river. Almost continuously a stream of native troops and English
officers passes up and down the Nile bound for Khartoum or Cairo; and in
the winter the tourists on steamers and _dahabiyehs_ travel through the
country in considerable numbers to visit the many temples which were
here erected in the days when the land was richer than it is now. The
three most famous ruins of Lower Nubia are those of Philae, just above
Aswan; Kalabsheh, some forty miles to the south; and Abu Simbel, about
thirty miles below Halfa: but besides these there are many buildings of
importance and interest. The ancient remains date from all periods of
Egyptian history; for Lower Nubia played an important part in Pharaonic
affairs, both by reason of its position as the buffer state between
Egypt and the Sudan, and also because of its gold-mining industries. In
old days it was divided into several tribal states, these being governed
by the Egyptian Viceroy of Ethiopia; but the country seldom revolted or
gave trouble, and to the present day it retains its reputation for
peacefulness and orderly behaviour.

Owing to the building, and now the heightening, of the great Nile dam at
Aswan, erected for the purpose of regulating the flow of water by
holding back in the plenteous autumn and winter the amount necessary to
keep up the level in the dry summer months, the whole of the valley from
the First Cataract to the neighbourhood of Derr will be turned into a
vast reservoir, and a large number of temples and other ruins will be
flooded. Before the dam was finished the temples on the island of Philae
were strengthened and repaired so as to be safe from damage by the
water; and no