430 



' 



JOURNAL RELATING TO NUBIA. 



three hours further on the same side. I regretted that no more in- 

 formation was to be procured on this subject, because it appeared to 

 me that the higher I advanced up the Nile, the signs of the early pro- 

 gress and establishment of Christianity southward on its banks be- 

 came more clearly ascertained in the Greek inscriptions and other 

 remains of antiquity. 



I remarked that no buffalo, though very common north of Assouan, 

 was to be seen between Philse and Ibrim ; crocodiles were com- 

 mon here, but no hippopotamus * appeared : the natives spoke of it 

 as seen during the time of the inundation in the Shellaals, particu- 

 larly at Galabshee, calling it Farsh el bahr, the sea-horse. My voyage 

 was made when the Nile was nearly in its lowest state, a circumstance 

 which must be considered in perusing the preceding journal. 



* " Forskal nous apprend que l'hippopotame est nomine par les Egyptiens Abou-Mner. 

 Je soupconne que ce nom est corrompu." S. de Sacy, 165. Abdallatif. — It appears from 

 a passage in Themistius (Orat. x.) that the hippopotamus was rarely seen in Egypt in his 

 time. The oration was spoken in the year 369, at Constantinople. I never saw or 

 heard of the hippopotamus in Egypt, says Mr. Browne ; but in Nubia it is said to 

 abound. 



