THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN or Soleb. But though he offered some peasants, who were watering the fields upon an island opposite the temple, all the dhurra remaining in his provision sack to carry him over and back again, an offer which was equivalent to that of a guinea to a London waterman, he was refused. Not only was there no ferry-boat, but the natives had no goat-skins, which when inflated help to support them when they cross the river. The crossing of the Nile in the Cataract country is even now a difficult business, and I am convinced that nothing but the " order of the Government," backed up by the Inspector's quiet but determined demand, would have caused the boat to be forthcoming so quickly. The ordinary traveller would have had to spend a day or two in bargaining for the use of the boat, and another day in finding a crew, and even then some unforeseen hitch would probably have caused the owner of the boat to cry off his bargain. Mr. Somers Clarke experienced the same difficulty some five or six years ago when he was examining the antiquities between Sarras and Semnah, and travellers who wish to spend some time in the Cataract country should do as he did,—take a boat with them.

So soon as all were aboard, the boat was pushed off, and three or four men towed her a little way up the river, so that we might take advantage of the northerly wind, and when the sail was unfurled we started at a fair rate of speed. We sailed by the side of an island which looked very fresh and green in the sunlight, and at a little distance it seemed to be a veritable paradise. On it were a few goats, and their owners, who wore nothing but waistcloths, sat on the dry mud and watched them placidly as they grazed. We skirted some dangerous rocks, and the man at the helm showed great skill in avoiding some fierce whirlpools, which would have smashed to pieces any boat as small as ours which had the misfortune to get into them. After some forty minutes' sail we stopped by the side of a high mudbank, and ten minutes' walk through dhurra brought us to the ruins of the temple of Sese, or Sisi, which Cailliaud calls the "Temple of Sesceh,'" and Lepsius the "Temple of Sesebi."" This temple was built by Seti I, king of Egypt, about B.C. 1370, and ruins of the walls which ' Voyag-e, torn, i., p. 388.

' Z//rj,p. 236. Hoskinsspellsthename"Sescd,' but he did not visit the ruins.

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