THE RUINS OF MEROE. 
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group were arched over with stone, and handsomely 
ornamented with bas-relievo figures chiselled out of 
the sandstone. These figures consisted of men driv- 
ing slaves, carrying sheep, or seated on lion-faced dogs, 
funeral processions, women carrying palm-leaves, and 
representations of birds, lizards, and elephants. The 
third group of five pyramids was across a death-like 
valley covered with withered grass. Having seen all, 
and made some sketches of the curious figures, we next 
visited three sphinxes very much defaced, which re- 
main amongst the ruins of the city. They were not 
marked with scales like the Soba sphinx ; they had 
been cut out of a rock with slaty stratification, and 
were defaced by the laminae having split off. In the 
city, several old walls and pavements, built of immense 
blocks of sandstone, are to be seen ; but everything is 
in utter decay. On returning to our boat we found a 
considerable number of people wishing to dispose of 
curiosities they had gathered. These were relics of 
stone and copper, some representing the scarabseus, 
and others human figures, but no coins were produced, 
for they said the coins were too valuable to show us. 
22d. — A considerable number of palm and acacia 
trees were growing upon the banks we passed to-day, 
and we saw Jubl Ag'edah on the left bank six hours' 
distance above the port of Damur. We called to get 
a letter of introduction, and orders for camels from 
the Mudir, Ibrahim Bey, to the Mudir of Berber. 
There are upwards of one hundred flat-roofed com- 
fortable-looking dwellings near the river, shaded by 
acacias. A market is held every Friday, when cotton, 
salt, baskets, mats, ropes, cattle, &c, are exposed for 
sale. The Atbara, a river navigable for a long dis- 
