‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST, 283 
While we were at lunch the kites, which live here in 
myriads, kept cruising about over the vessel and eagerly 
picked up the bits of bread that were thrown into the water ; 
nor were the greedy creatures even scared by being fired at. 
As soon as our meal was finished we started off again to make 
an excursion to the quarries so celebrated since the days of 
antiquity. 
The town was quickly traversed, and we came to a broad 
valley, very uneven at the bottom and bounded by low hills 
adorned with the burial-places of sheikhs. This valley is, from 
its commencement at Assuan and for about two miles inland, 
a literal city of tombs. 
There the party divided, some riding home, while Hoyos 
and I climbed up the rather high, stony, and utterly barren 
hill that bounds the valley near Assuan. 
At the top of it stands the old-tomb of a sheikh—a round 
domed building, in front of which we had already had a 
carcass laid, as some large vultures were soaring overhead. 
We at once took possession of this capital place of con- 
cealment, and in a few minutes the Kites and Egyptian 
Vultures began pecking at the dead sheep; but the hour 
was too late for the larger birds of prey, and I shot nothing 
but an Egyptian Vulture. 
‘Time was now pressing ; so we left the gloomy tomb and 
had a. good look at the splendid landscape. To the north, 
just below us, was the narrow valley of the Nile, enclosed 
by mountains, with the river forcing its way through the 
wild rifts of the cataracts. Behind us lay the tropical 
island of Elephantine, the picturesquely situated town of 
Assuan, and the dismal city of the dead; while on all sides 
was an endless maze of hills, valleys, plains, and plateaus, 
all desolate and barren, true deserts of stone and sand. 
Bathed in the fierce sunlight, everything quivered in a glow 
of reflected heat and was of a dazzling white, only here 
