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THE STORY OF ISHMAEL PASHA.

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said to exist. In the town there had been a deep shaft dug for a well-evidently ancient, for it is not now in use: a deep stratum of pebbles, with concrete above, forms its sides. There appears to have been a canal or watercourse at this place, for its windings, flooded with water and covered with grass, are still visible. The women, as they carried water on their heads, struck us as having a singular way of dressing their hair; but our Seedees remarked that a race of Central Africans, called the Wabeessa, near Lake Nyassa, adopt the same fashion. The Scendi women, like those of Abyssinia, have a tuft of hair on either side of the head and one behind, and the Wabeessa have the same, but add another tuft, like a high comb, to the top of their heads.

Scendi is a place of some note, being the locality where Nimur (tiger), the former governor of all the blacks, planned the death of Poor Ishmael Pasha. The story was related to us as follows:-After Ishmael Pasha had conquered Khartoom, &c., he returned to Scendi, and asked Nimur what he was to give him. The reply was, "I will give you whatever you name, silver or gold, for I am anxious to make friends with you." After a time Ishmael with some followers became the guest of Nimur, who heaped quantities of provisions and straw for cavalry around the dwelling where Ishmael lived. No suspicion was excited; but the straw was set fire to one windy night. Ishmael, it is said, was too proud to attempt an escape. His followers shielded him as long as they could from the flames, and one arm only was burned, but Ishmael perished under the ruins. After great difficulty a European recovered the body from Nimur, and it was sent for

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THE PYRAMIDS OF MEROE.

interment to Cairo. A bad imitation of the mosque at Khartoom marks the place where this tragedy was enacted.

We left for Meroe, the ancient capital of Ethiopia, before sunrise of the 21st. Date-palms, we observed, were here more frequently irrigated, and the doompalm grew wild. The bunder, or port, from which Meroe (called by the natives Tarabil Kobosheea, or Pyramids of Kobosheea) is visited, may be either Kobosheea or Budjerewa; we chose the latter, as the wind was not favourable for landing at the former. The pyramids are seen two miles across a plain, upon the right bank, near some low elongated hills. To visit them during the heat of the day it is desirable to have riding donkeys, which, with common wooden saddles, may be obtained at either starting-point. A man carries water, and you make straight for the ruins over a plain strewed with small pieces of clay of curious shapes and lustrous colours. There are three groups of pyramids. The first group consists of fifteen, dismantled to half their original height, and built apparently, as to site, without any regular system or order. A pyramidal shell of masonry 24 feet square, built without lime, and eight feet thick, had been filled with the rubble of the country. The sandstone blocks with which they had been faced were now so soft that a knife could cut them. The second group, consisting of 18 or more, half a mile farther east, are in a better state of preservation, and have their figures of men and animals wonderfully complete. We ascended one having ten tiers, each tier a span and a half high, and diminishing in breadth as you reach the summit. The porches or entries into several pyramids of this

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 driving 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 remain 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 lamina 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 scarabæus, 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 comfortable-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

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THE BLACK RIVER OR ATBARA.

tance, is not above a few hours' sail from this port. We lay for the night just above its confluence with the Nile, because there were sunken rocks in the bed of the river. In the morning we saw the Atbara, Bahr-el-aswad (Black river), the Astaboras of Ptolemy -the last great feeder of the Nile. We liked the brown appearance of the stream. From bank to bank it looked one hundred and fifty yards across, but now there was not more than sixty yards of water flowing slowly in its bed, with a low rock at its junction with the Nile. It joins the latter with even a more graceful sweep than we observed at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile. For a distance of two miles below its mouth there are sunken rocks very annoying to the boatmen, but at this dry season of April they are generally visible. While detained below the Atbara on account of contrary winds, Bombay brought his wife up to Speke, saying she was very unwell; but as she was too diffident to speak, we could do nothing to help her. An hour or two elapsed, and Bombay came, grinning with delight, to announce that his wife had presented him with a child! One of the girls in the boat had told him of it, but he did not know whether it was a boy or a girl-he would go and ask. This was the second child born to Bombay upon the journey; but both died, and he regretted very much that there would be no keepsake of the journey for him to take back to Zanzibar. The infant was buried on the shore.

Our journey by water had now for the present ended-we had anchored off the bunder or port of Berber. There was some show of trade, and twelve large boats lay alongside ours. The population of

EGYPTIAN MODE OF THRASHING WHEAT.

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Berber and the neighbouring villages is probably five thousand souls. The houses are built in irregular streets and lanes, chiefly near the Nile. A handsome embankment has been constructed around Berber, which forms a pleasant walk at all seasons. On the outskirts of this is the unenclosed burial-ground. The tombs have upright slabs at either end, with white shingle laid between, and a few are built of bricks and lime. From the number of graves and the extent they cover, it would be supposed that the locality of Berber is unhealthy, but the natives prefer this latitude to Khartoom: provisions, also, are only about half the price. Wheaten bread, milk, meat, oats, onions, water-melons, tobacco, salt, fish, &c., are abundant in the market every morning, and other articles can be obtained and work executed in the bazaar. The operation of thrashing wheat is performed in the true Egyptian style. A man sits on a frame drawn by bullocks, and resting upon three rollers, each furnished with iron discs; the bullocks eat all the while, and the grain is well thrashed, but the work is overdone, as the seed gets bruised in the process. In the bazaars the boys discovered that our Seedees had arrows and other weapons to dispose of, and came offering money. The exchange was very easily arranged, for the Seedees were eager to purchase the Egyptian dates. The inhabitants of Berber are proverbially honest, and their servants are considered superior to those of Khartoom. I went to the market to buy food, and saw the rude way it was managed. The butcher not having sufficient weights and measures, a sheep's head and two broken bricks were put into one scale, and my meat in the other. Having weighed it, he said

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