JOURNAL RELATING TO NUBIA. 



417 



the rest of the temple appears to be almost buried in the sand. A 

 few palm-trees and small strips of cultivated land, with here and there 

 a miserable hut, serve to show that the country is not entirely 

 abandoned. We passed El Garba on the east, where the Nile flows 

 close to the base of the mountains, which present a wild and dreary 

 appearance. 



May 24. — We towed from our mooring-place a few miles to El 

 Kharaba. At Songaree the Nile takes a bold turn to the west, and 

 we continued in that direction to El Kharaba. At CrOska, there is a 

 small Shellaal on the eastern side, opposite to which at Erreiga is a 

 mud fort. 



The west bank is almost a desart ; the east continues with bold 

 rocks and hills, lined with villages of a better construction than those 

 on the west ; the buildings here consisting only of stones or of poles 

 covered with mats on palm-branches. 



May 25. — Arrived at Deir, which is a long straggling village of 

 mud cottages, situated in a thickly planted grove of palm-trees. The 

 cashief's house, the best I had seen since I left Cairo, is built of 

 baked and unbaked brick ; in front is a rude colonnade forming a sort 

 of caravansera. Adjoining to it is a mosque, the only one I had 

 observed since I quitted Philse. The village is about a mile in length ; 

 its population must be considerable, though I could never obtain any 

 other answer to questions on this subject, than " many." 



I landed and went to a mud building used as a caravansera, in 

 which were horses; and waited until the cashief's son could be 

 sent for. 



A Mamaluke with a Greek for his attendant had lately come there 

 from Dongola as a merchant. From him I heard that the Mamalukes 

 had taken possession of the country on the western bank of the Nile 

 opposite to Dongola, where they had been driven by the pasha of Egypt ; 

 that they were in force about eleven hundred, under Ibrahim Bey, the 

 partner and competitor in power with Mourad Bey at the time when the 

 French took possession of Egypt ; that after destroying the petty 

 chiefs of the country, they had armed five or six thousand blacks ; 



3 H 



