y of the Peasant_, in the Berlin Papyri Nos.
ii. and iv., affords us a good example of the use made of
pack-asses; the hero was on his way across the desert, from
the "Wady Natrun" to Henasieh, with a quantity of merchandise
which he intended to sell, when an unscrupulous artisan,
under cover of a plausible pretext, stole his train of pack-
asses and their loads. Hirkhuf brought back with him a
caravan of three hundred asses from one of his journeys; cf.
p. 278 of the present work.

The roads upon which they ventured were those which, owing to the
necessity for the frequent watering of the donkeys and the impossibility
of carrying with them adequate supplies of water, were marked out at
frequent intervals by wells and springs, and were therefore necessarily
of a tortuous and devious character. Their choice of objects for barter
was determined by the smallness of their bulk and weight in comparison
with their value. The Egyptians on the one side were provided with
stocks of beads, ornaments, coarse cutlery, strong perfumes, and rolls
of white or coloured cloth, which, after the lapse of thirty-five
centuries, are objects still coveted by the peoples of Africa. The
aborigines paid for these articles of small value, in gold, either
in dust or in bars, in ostrich feathers, lions' and leopards' skins,
elephants' tusks, cowrie shells, billets of ebony, incense, and gum
arabic. Considerable value was attached to cynocephali and green
monkeys, with which the kings or the nobles amused themselves, and which
they were accustomed to fasten to the legs of their chairs on days of
solemn reception; but the dwarf, the Danga, was the rare commodity which
was always in demand, but hardly ever attainable.*

* Domichen, _Geographische Inschriften_, vol. i. xxxi. 1. 1,
where the dwarfs and pigmies who came to the court of the
king, in the period of the Ptolemies, to serve in his
household, are mentioned. Various races of diminutive
stature, which have since been driven down to the upper
basin of the Congo, formerly extended further northward, and
dwelt between Darfur and the marshes of Bahr-el-Ghazal. As
to the Danga, cf. what has been said on p. 226 of the
present work.

[Illustration: 270.jpg THE ROCKS OF THE ISLAND OF SEHEL, WITH SOME OF
THE VOTIVE INSCRIPTIONS]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken by Deveria in 1864.

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