289 
The most lake Ba subtribe of the Beja were the Bishari who spoke ` 
and still s ishari, a language allied to Abyssinian. From the 
inerniarriape of the Rabia’ and the Bishari sprang the Abbadi m 
Ababde) who now inhabit the northern Etbai, and in whom the Semi 
element is-far stronger than the Bishari, a race still found in ass 
um e south. The predominance ‘of the Semitic element may 
: hi 
Il 
of the emerald mines Karkashendah. To-day it is called by the Arabie 
name of Hamata (Ficus pseudosycomorus), an allusion to its shape. And 
Wadi Lehana the Valley of the Tabernemontana, an Abyssinian tree, 
is another survival from pre-islamic days, 
Where these valleys run though the soft sandstone there are, at inter- 
sera shade: -giving boulders, which from time immemorial have been used 
resting places for travellers. ese rocks are scored everywhere with 
ils pictures of cows, of horses, of bowmen, — of Jong lines « woh eA 
of cavalry from three to five hundred in slumber ranged ess disti 
for mo aeri without evecare difficulties. This would be quite 
impossible now. A great change has come over the country, and it is a 
aes which has affected equally both sides of the watershed. 
It is not a question of geological epochs; it is a question merely of 
hundr cds of years. So far as concerns the disappearauce from these 
valleys of trees whose names are still known in a language and to a 
rer A not have been a period of rain — than at pear On this 
cause or the effect of altered meteorological conditions. And speaking 
of the Eastern Desert, he says, “ I incline rather to the latter supposi- 
* tion, because in all my travels in the desert 1 never could persuade 
xs myself that changes of climate have occurred in the last e 
* still less in the historical times. I rather think that Egypt in the 
* old times of its history did not enjoy a better climate than at present. 
> I have abundant proofs to explain the ry 
i of erosions exclusively as teen of water, wind, and general 
* atmospheric influences." In a paper read before the olai 
Society of London it was shown, as far as might be, that there was 
ncthing to indicate a pluvial epoch. It was shown that the erosion in 
the plains was nearly as great as the erosion in the valleys; that 
atmospheri on was nearly as great as the action of combined wind 
and water. After all that has been said there is room for discussion 
about a pluvial ut the disappearance of the animals wh 
formerly dwelt here, and of the plants on which they lived, is shown 
o be a matter of merely 1,200 years by the fact that the names of the 
lost lants and animals remain in a eee which es ws I here 
iots horsemen 
ard to explain how in early times a greater fertility and population 
existed in many countries whose history like that of Palestine secins 
out of proportion to its present circumstances, 
A2: 
