225 fled in terror, leaving the clothes behind her ; whereupon the beast immediately took her place, and pounded away so vigorously with his feet, that in a short time there was not left a fragment as big as your hand.

On making inquiries for the ruins of Meroe, which we were then approaching, the rais only knew that there were some "beioot Jcadeem" (ancient houses) near the village of Bedjerowiyeh, which we would probably reach that night. As I found on my map a name which nearly corresponded to that of the village, I had no doubt that this was Meroe, and gave orders that the boat should halt until the next day. The rais was greatly surprised at my knowing the names of all the towns along the river, seeing that I had never been there before. I showed him my map, and told him that I knew from it, the name of every mountain, every village, and every river, from Cairo to Abyssinia. The men crowded around and inspected it with the utmost astonishment, and when I pointed out to them the location of Mecca, and read them the names of all the villages as far as Khartoum, they regarded it with an expression of reverential awe. " Wallah ! " exclaimed the rais : " this is truly a wonderful Frank ! " My rais, whose name was Bakhid, belonged, with his men, to the Nubian tribe of Mahass, below Bongola. They were tall, well-formed" men, with straight features and high cheekbones, but the lips were thicker than those of the Arab tribes of Ethiopia. The latter are of almost pure Shemitic blood, and are descended from families which emigrated into Africa from the Hedjaz, seven or eight centuries ago. This accounts for the prevalence and purity of the Arab language in these regions. The descendants of the Djaaleyn, or tribe of Beni 10*