422 JOURNE? TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

the frontier of Dongola. On the opposite bank is Merawe, the former capital of Dar Shygheea, which must not be confounded with the ancient Meroe, the ruins of which, near Shendy, I have already described. True, the identity of the names a* first deceived antiquarians, who supposed the temples and pyramids in this neighborhood to have belonged to the capital of the old Hierarchy of Meroe ; but it is now satisfactorily established that they mark the site of Napata, the capital of Ethiopia up to the time of the Caesars. It was the limit of the celebrated expedition of the Roman soldiers, under Petronius.

Djebel Berkel, at whose base the principal remains are found, is in lat. 18° 3 5', or thereabouts.

I was welcomed to Abdom by the Shekh or holy man of the place, who met me on the verge of the Desert, and conducted me to the best of his two houses. Shekh Mohammed, Abd e'-Djebal (Mohammed, the Slave of the Mountains), was a dignified old man of sixty, with a gray beard and brown complexion, and was the owner of a water-mill, several fields of wheat and cotton, and an abundance of palm-trees. He had two wives, each of whom, with her family, occupied a separate house — a great mark of discretion on the part of Mohammed. Domestic quiet was thus secured to him, while he possessed that in which the Arab most glories and rejoices — a numerous family of children. His youngest wife, a woman of thirty, immediately vacated the house on my arrival, and took up her temporary residence in a tent of palm-matting, with her four children. The dwelling into which I was ushered was a square structure of clay, one story high, with one door and no windows. It had a flat roof of palm logs, covered with thatch, and the inside walls were hung with large mats, plaited with