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422 JOURNAL RELATING TO NUBIA. 



the Shellaal. At Galabshee, the Nile flowing with a wide and beauti- 

 ful course, divides itself among several rocks and uninhabited islands ; 

 the river increases in breadth, as it enters into a grand amphitheatre 

 of bold and craggy rocks, interspersed with cultivated spots of 

 ground extending for about a mile ; then contracting itself, as it ap- 

 proaches Taeefa, it resumes its ordinary breadth. On the eastern 

 bank on an elevated spot are the remains of an Arab mud-built 

 castle, and on one of the islands those of a village and another castle, 

 which, though of bad construction, prove that a greater degree of 

 civilization had formerly marked this place. Beyond, the rocks re- 

 cede, become lower, and the land appears cultivated. The village of 

 Galabshee, which Norden by mistake places opposite to Taeefa, is 

 close to the opening on the west bank, and has a larger population 

 than Taeefa. The inhabitants live in huts round a ruined temple. 

 They seemed more jealous of my appearance among them, than any 

 of this country whom I had hitherto seen. I was surrounded by 

 them, and " bucksheesh, bucksheesh" (a present) echoed from all 

 quarters, before they would allow me to look at the temple. One 

 more violent than the rest threw dust in the air *, the signal both of 

 rage and defiance, ran for his shield, and came towards me dancing, 

 howling, and striking the shield with the head of his javelin, to inti- 

 midate me. A promise of a present pacified him and enabled me to 

 make my remarks and sketches. 



A butment of masonry rises above the bank of the river, at about 

 one hundred and seventy or eighty feet from the front of the temple, 

 to which a paved approach leads from the butment ; on each side of 

 this pavement there formerly had been an avenue of Sphinxes, one 

 of which was lying headless near the pavement. At the end, steps 

 appear to have been raised, leading to a terrace of thirty-six feet in 

 breadth, from which rise two pyramidal moles with a gateway between 



• " And they gave him .audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices and 

 said, Away with such a fe low from the earth ; — and as they cried out, and cast off their 

 clothes, and threw dust into the air." — Acts of the Apost. xxii. 



