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the sands that scorched the feet, the bleached bones scattered 

 about, the tracks of hysenas and jackals, the bald-headed 

 vultures circling round, and for background the high utterly 

 barren mountain-sides. Not a blade of grass refreshed the 

 eye, and nothing broke the glare of the burning sun reflected 

 from the wastes of sand and the white and yellow rocks that 

 stood out in sharp relief against the dark blue sky. There was, 

 however, an undeniable poetic charm in this truly monoto- 

 nous but grand district. 



Suitable cover for creeping up to a bait unseen seemed to 

 be afforded by a little hillock ; so I forthwith bought a sheep 

 and had it taken to this place, where it was killed and its 

 inside taken out as a first dainty morsel for the vultures. I 

 then hurried back to my companions at the temple, and after 

 thoroughly investigating all the ancient remains we breakfasted 

 in one of its halls. 



As soon as we had finished our meal Hoyos and I set off 

 again to pay a visit to the dead sheep, but before we had got 

 well within shot of it a wary vulture detected us, and flapped 

 up heavily from the ground, followed by about twenty of his 

 great unwieldy comrades. Hoyos was lucky enough to knock 

 down one of these big Griffon Vultures from the dense mass ; 

 but I was less fortunate and only wounded another very 

 large one, which flew away across the plain hard hit. The 

 ravenous birds had made a tremendous onslaught on the 

 poor sheep, for nothing was left of it but the wool and a few 

 dismembered fragments. 



After this successful sporting interlude we returned to the 

 rest of the party, and went with them to the village, where 

 we paid a visit to a blind peasant. This worthy man is one of 

 the richest householders in the place, and also drives a trade 

 in Egyptian antiquities, which are dug up for him in and 

 about the temple, though quite illegally. Advised by Brugsch 

 Pasha we bought some of the better objects, and had at the 



