TItffi PLAGUE OF BLACK GNATS. 459 opposite side of the island nry map indicated a ruined temple, and I made a strong effort to see it • but at Binni, which was the nearest point, there was no ferry, and the people knew nothing of the temple nor of any thing else. I left the main road and followed the bank, but the terrible flies drove me away, and so, maddened and disgusted, I came at last to a saJcia, where the people informed me that the ferry was still ahead and the ruins already some distance behind me. They said this deliberately and carelessly, sitting like black spectres in the midst of thick smoke, while I was crazily beating my ears. " Tell the caravan to go ahead," I said to Achmet, at length, " and don't talk to me of temples until we have got away from these flies."

The next morning Achmet had some difficulty in awaking me, so wrapt was I in dreams of home. I sat shivering in the cool air, trying to discover who and where I was, but the yellow glimmer of my tent-lining in the dim light of dawn soon informed me. During the day we passed through a more thickly settled country, and owing to the partial cultivation of the soil, were less troubled by that Nubian plague, which is always worse about the ruined villages and the fields given up to halfeh grass. It was market-day at the village of Hafier, and we met and passed many natives, some with baskets of raw cotton and some with grain. I noticed one man riding a donkey and carrying before him a large squash, for which he would possibly get twenty paras (2J cents). My camel-men, who had neglected to buy dourra in El Ordee, wanted to stop until noon in order to get it, and as I would not wait, remained behind.

The scenery had a wild and picturesque air, from the iso-