sources of fertility would be much greater than in our days; and, indeed, without assuming the means of supporting an affluent people, we shall find no small difficulty in accounting for the costly temples and other edifices, the remains of which may be traced from Elephantiné to Sennaar.

The first five miles after leaving Philæ, the course of the navigator is south by east, then it turns towards the west, and finally resumes the former direction. The first object that attracts his attention is Debode, a village situated on the left bank of the river, where are the ruins of a small temple. Here the Nile flows in a regular deep stream, for the most part washing the base of the eastern and western mountains; but wherever the inundation has covered the rocks with soil, or has even thrown up mounds of sand and mud, such spots are cultivated and planted with date-trees. A succession of hamlets meet the eye on both sides as the traveller proceeds into the Nubian valley; but few of them are of so much consequence as to deserve our notice. Dondour is remarkable for a small temple, still in considerable preservation, of which a distinct idea may be formed by examining the drawing inserted in Mr Legh's amusing narrative. The greater part of the enclosure is quite perfect, and the propylon also is very little injured; but the inside, it would appear, has never been completed. There are two columns which must have formed the entrance into the building, and which are ornamented with serpents. The inner shrine, or sekos, consists as usual of three apartments; the first measures eighteen feet in length and twenty in breadth; the columns are three feet in diameter, and the height, ascending to

the top of the cornice, is nearly seventeen feet. The winged globes on the architraves of the temple and propylon are supported in the wonted manner by two serpents. The hieroglyphics are relieved and sculptured in a good style, showing the common objects-priests with jugs offering to Isis, and Osiris who is represented with the hawk's head, and carrying a crosier in his hand. Behind the structure is a small grotto, which has the appearance of a later date, and is most probably to be attributed to the early Christians; there being an inscription with the characters A+ among the fragments which are found in the area.

*

These ruins, however, are surpassed in magnificence and interest by those of Guerfeh Hassan and Sibhoi, of which the relics are yet sufficiently entire to enable a scientific eye to delineate their plan and determine their object. It is justly observed, that the period when these edifices were constructed is a matter of pure conjecture; but it has been remarked, at the same time, that the most striking difference between the temples above and below the Cataracts is the high state of preservation of the stones and outward walls of the former, which have scarcely suffered from the effects of age. From this circumstance, it might at first sight be supposed that these remains of antiquity were more recent than the temples in Egypt; but that opinion is not warranted by any other evidence. It would be difficult, indeed, by any reasonable allowance in dates, to account for the fact now stated; and the real

Legh's Narrative of a Journey in Egypt and the Countries beyond the Cataracts, p. 142.

cause, it is probable, must be sought in the mild unchanging climate which prevails between the tropics. The corroding hand of time works very slowly in the absence of frost and rain and of those extreme variations of the atmosphere which, in the zones called temperate, wage an incessant war with all the works of human art.*

Derr, which is at present considered the capital of Lower Nubia, is the residence of a chief who, while he acknowledges a nominal subjection to the Pasha of Egypt, seizes every opportunity of setting his authority at nought. The name just used, however, seems to apply to a district rather than a town or any particular collection of houses; and the abode of the governor himself can only be distinguished by having in its vicinity a few mud cottages, and a somewhat denser population. But his power, in the absence of law and supported by three thousand barbarian troops, is extremely formidable. Plundered himself from time to time by the agents of the supreme government, he extorts a revenue from his miserable subjects at the point of the spear. He is constantly surrounded by more than three hundred armed slaves, ready to execute any order of capricious cruelty which he may be pleased to issue; for as his soldiers are his own property, purchased from the dealers of Dongola or Sennaar, they are in his hands the most passive instruments whether for good or for evil. Jealous of interference or inspection, he dreads the approach of strangers. When Mr Legh and his friend Mr Smelt made their journey into his district, it was

with the utmost reluctance that he allowed them to proceed beyond Derr. He began by asking in a very boisterous manner what they wanted, and why they had come. It was in vain they replied, that they were desirous to pay their respects to him, and to see the remains of antiquity with which his country abounded. He answered that there was nothing curious to see; but "I suppose," he added, " you are come to visit the tombs of your ancestors ?” They then solicited permission to go to Ibrîm, which he flatly refused; alleging first there was no object there worthy of their attention, and next that he had no horses to convey them. In short, it was not until his obstinacy had been subdued by the present of a handsome sword, that he yielded his consent to their farther progress.

The town which the travellers were so desirous to visit is situated on the right bank of the Nile, at the southern extremity of a ridge of mountains, rising in some parts perpendicularly from the river so as scarcely to leave room for a road. It stands on the eastern slope of the hill, having a citadel which, being built on the summit, must have formerly been a strong position. Its height has been estimated at about two hundred feet above the current, which washes the foot of the rock whereon it is placed, and is at this point about a quarter of a mile broad. The walls that enclosed the fortress and the governor's house can still be traced with ease. But no inhabitant now remains; not a vestige of life is to be seen within its boundaries. The destruction of Ibrîm by the Mamlouks, when they passed into Dongola, had been so complete that not even one solitary native was to be found wandering among its

ruins, nor so much as a date-tree to indicate that it was once the abode of human beings. Burckhardt informs us that those savage horsemen carried away about twelve hundred cows, all the sheep and goats, and imprisoned the most respectable of the people, for whose ransoms they received upwards of a hundred thousand Spanish dollars. On their departure they put the aga to death, after having devoured or destroyed all the provisions they could find. This scene of pillage, as might have been expected, was followed by a dreadful famine.

Ibrîm is said to be the ancient Primmis, and the account of it given by Strabo, as fortified by nature, is confirmed by the actual appearance of the place. But when this geographer states that the Romans, in marching from Pselcha or Kalabshe, passed over the mounds of sand under which the army of Cambyses was buried, he is imagined to be at variance with Herodotus, who relates that the host of the Persian monarch, when surprised by the clouds of moving dust, was proceeding to chastise the Ammonians. Hence it is inferred, that their route must have lain in a direction quite contrary to that of the Romans under Petronius, who was sent to punish the Ethiopians for an irruption into the Thebaid. These remarks, however, are founded on the assumption that the Ammonians must necessarily be the inhabitants of the particular district in Libya where the celebrated temple of Jupiter was erected; whereas there is reason to believe that a sanctuary, dedicated to the same god under the character of Ammon, stood in the peninsula of Meroë near Shendy, the principal seat of the Ethiopians. It is therefore not at all improbable, that the troops of Persia and of Rome fol