284 EXTRACTS FROM 
and there broken by orange rocks and masses of black 
granite ; while over all stretched the ever-blue sky, cloud- 
less and clear as crystal. 
We quickly got back to Assuan; but as soon as the sun 
was sinking and flooding the lovely landscape with the most 
glorious colour, Hoyos and I again left the vessel. 
A white-robed Nubian with a long gun, well known as a 
sportsman in Assuan, guided us through the town to its 
outermost houses, where he advised us to wait a little while, 
as the wild beasts come every evening to the outskirts of the 
town to look for plunder. 
Dogs were barking, children screaming, and a band of 
Ababdehs were bawling out as they went along to their 
home in the desert; yet, in spite of all this noise, a jackal 
showed itself on the mound of a little windmill, but instantly 
vanished again among the stones. 
As twilight was now fast advancing, we hurried on to the 
cemetery, where I knocked over a jackal that ran by, with 
a lucky shot. We then proceeded to an old tank situated 
in a little depression among the sandhills near the beginning 
of the tombs, and not far from the foot of the mountain at 
the top of which we had shot the Egyptian Vulture in the 
afternoon. There a carcass had been already exposed, and 
a hiding-place dug out in which we now secreted our- 
selves. 
The moon rose, and in this pure air shed a brilliant radiance 
over the weird and solemn landscape. ‘The desert, the grave- 
stones, and the old domed tombs of the sheikhs glistened in 
its white light ; while a death-like silence that reigned around 
was only broken by the howling of the dogs and jackals. 
We had hardly been sitting half an hour in our very un- 
comfortable ambush when I heard the rustle of an approaching 
animal, and soon saw it glide past like a shadow several times ; 
but at last I made out its form, and, trusting to luck, aimed 
