393 The Wilson Bulletin— No. 92 



repetition, variety, and contrast in the arrangements of the 

 plates, showing that the laws of good design have not been 

 overlooked. Dinner-plates, soup-plates, large plates, small 

 plates, various kinds of plates are set fast in the mortar. 

 Above one door there was a large plate in the middle with a 

 smaller one on either side. Another house displayed a single 

 plate with a decoration around its entire edge. A peep into 

 one of these houses, which was about ten feet square, discov- 

 ered a bed, a bench, and some shelves holding a few bottles, 

 cans, and dishes. 



To visit temples we went ashore at Kalabsheh, Dendur, 

 Gerf Hossayn, Wadi Sabua, Amadah, and Abu Simbel. From 

 the nearby hamlets most of the adults were absent at work in 

 Cairo, but their children were left at home with the old and 

 disabled. Upon landing the children came racing down to 

 meet us. With relief it was noted that their faces were free 

 of flies, most of the flies having been left behind in Egypt. 

 All of the children were keenly alert to earn a few piasters, 

 their strongest role consisting in poses for the amateur pho- 

 tographers. Considerable invention was shown in the de- 

 sign of costumes that would catch the eye. At one landing 

 place on the Nile a tiny tot of la girl was busily working a 

 miniature shadoof, apparently entirely unconscious of our 

 arrival. She received her reward. At another place a juve- 

 nile showman exhibited a large green chameleon, while oth- 

 ers brought their household pets, a puppy or a full-grown 

 dog. But animals were rare. At Kalabsheh I saw one don- 

 key. Such scarcity of life, both animal and vegetable, was 

 characteristic of Nubia nearly a half century ago, when 

 Miss Edwards wrote of it in these words : " Meanwhile, 

 it is not only men and women whom we miss — men labor- 

 ing by the river-side ; women with babies astride on their 

 shoulders or water jars balanced on their heads — but birds, 

 beasts, boats ; everything that we have been used to see 

 along the river. The buffaloes dozing at midday in the 

 shallows, the camels stalking home in single file toward sun- 

 set, the water-fowl hauntino- the sandbanks seem suddenly to 



