A JOURNEY IN THE EAST, 297 
t 
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 Hyzena, 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 tothe 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 
