'A JOURNEY IN THE EAST: 297 



last come, somewhat after one o'clock, but that he had missed 

 it. I did not credit his assertion, and determined to look at 

 the place myself and at the same time to pay some attention 

 to the vultures, which, according to the Arab, had there 

 assembled in large numbers. Unfortunately, by the time I 

 got to the spot the great birds of prey had finished their meal 

 and were sitting in the desert a few hundred yards away 

 lazy but unapproachable. The donkey was terribly mangled, 

 whole limbs were gone, and everything was covered with the 

 droppings and feathers of the Vultures. 



I had done the .Arab an injustice, for I at once found the 

 track of the Hygena, leading to the carcass on one side and to 

 the desert on the other. On the way back to Medinet Abu 

 I also noticed the perfectly fresh footprints of Gazelles. 



As soon as I had got back to the rest of the party we began 

 our inspection of the Ramesseum, that marvellously fine and 

 well-preserved sepulchral temple which lies near the village. 



We had now to bid adieu to beautiful Luxor, the splendid 

 ruins of hundred-gated Thebes, and the Theban plain, which, 

 swathed in the noontide haze and girt with lofty blue moun- 

 tains, made a wonderful farewell picture. 



We journeyed all the afternoon, spending some pleasant 

 hours on deck, for there was a cool breeze on the river, and a 

 succession of lovely landscapes unfolded themselves before us ; 

 and by six o'clock we had reached Keneh, where we now 

 landed at the modern town on the eastern bank, instead of at 

 Dendera on the western. 



The evening was passed in a sporting ramble round the 

 neighbourhood, Hoyos and I riding across the broad and well- 

 tilled plain, and then following the course of a canal well 

 stocked with birds, of which we shot a great variety of 

 species. 



Fording the water at a shallow place, we returned to the 

 town, on the outskirts of which a palm-grove rears its proud 



