y-baked cakes of dhourra, served with sweet or sour milk.
From here to Dehmyt, the grand chain of mountains on the east side of
the Nile is uninterrupted; but from the latter place to the second
cataract, beyond Wady Halfa, the mountains are of sandstone, except some
granite rocks above Talfa. The shore widens at Korosko, and groves of
date-trees adorn the banks all the way past Derr to Ibrim. The rich
deposit of the river on the eastern bank yields large crops of dhourra
and cotton. It is different on the western shore, where the desert
sands, blown by the north-west winds, are swept up to the very brink of
the river.

It is near Derr that occurs the most ancient known temple, entirely hewn
out of the sandstone rock. The gods of Egypt seemed to have been
worshipped here long before they were lodged in the gigantic temples of
Karnac and Gorne. At Ibrim there is an aga, independent of the governors
of Nubia, and the inhabitants pay no taxes. They are descendants of
Bosnian soldiers who were sent by the great Sultan Selym to garrison the
castle of Ibrim, now a ruin, against the Mamelouks. In no parts of the
Eastern world have I ever found property in such perfect security as in
Ibrim. The Ababde Arabs between Derr and Dongola are very poor. They
pride themselves on the purity of their race and the beauty of their
women, and refuse to intermarry with the Nubians.

Beyond Wady Halfa is the second cataract, and the foaming waters dashing
against the black-and-green rocks, or forming quiet pools and lakes, so
that the Nile expands to two miles in breadth, is a most impressive
sight. The rapids render navigation impossible between here and Sukkot,
a distance of a hundred miles, and the river is hemmed in sometimes by
high banks, as at Mershed, where I could throw a stone over to the
opposite side. The rock, which had been sandstone hitherto, changes its
nature at the second cataract to granite and quartz.

At Djebel Lamoule, which we reached on March 9, we had to follow a
mountain track, and, on approaching the river again, the Arab who acted
as guide tried to extract from me a present by collecting a heap of
sand, and placing a stone at each extremity to indicate that a
traveller's tomb is made. I immediately alighted from my camel, and
began to make another tomb, telling him that it was intended for his own
sepulchre, for, as we were brethren, it was but just that we should be
buried together. At this he began to laugh. We