CHAPTER VII.

FERLINI'S EXCAVATIONS AT' THE PYRAMIDS OF BAGKAWIYA.

The iirst European who attempted to excavate the temples and pyramids on the Island of Meroe was Joseph Ferlini, an Italian doctor of medicine, who entered the service of the Egyptian Government as a Surgeon-Major in 1830. His first appointment took him to Sennaar, but he was afterwards sent to Kordofan, and finally, in connection with the rearrangement of the medical branch of Muhammad All's army in the Sudan, he was despatched to serve in Khartum. When he had been in this town for a few months, he asked permission of the Governor of Khartum, Kurshid Pasha, to make excavations on the ancient sites in the country ; but the Pasha, assuming his wish was to dig for buried treasure, advised him to be content with what he had already saved during his four years' residence in the Sudan, and not to run the risk of losing everything. He further pointed out that if Ferlini were to find any valuable object, the blacks would certainly kill him and take possession of it. These remarks produced not the smallest effect on Ferlini, and so soon as his successor had been found, and he had left Cairo for the south, Ferlini set to work to prepare for his archaeological researches. There was at that time in Khartum an Albanian called Antoine Stefani, who had lived in the country for fifteen years, and carried on business as merchant. Him Ferlini made a partner in the undertaking, and promised to give him onehalf of the proceeds, and putting 400 dollars (?) into his hands, he sent him to Masallamiya to buy camels, ropes, grain, water-skins, &c. He next hired 30 young men for their food and two Spanish dollars per month each, and laid in a large stock of meat, which he cut into strips, and dried in the sun according to the custom of the country. The day after his successor arrived from Cairo (August loth, 1834), Ferhni sent off the camels by land, and he 285