THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN men to excavate the whole site. This, however, was impossible, but it is to be hoped that the work will be taken in hand some day, for the clearing out of the Castle would, no doubt, bring to light man}' important historical facts. Having collected the stones which we had marked, we had them taken to our boat, and then the Inspector paid a visit to the local shekh, who received us very kindly, and regaled us with tea and dates. We resumed our journey about one o'clock, and floated down the river through wild and interesting scenery. We passed the village of Sai, on the right bank, and soon afterwards we saw a man running along the west bank and shouting to us. We saw that he was carrying something on his shoulder, and we stopped to see what he wanted. When he came up we learned that he had been running after the boat for some time, and that he had brought with him a little rectangular slab of sandstone with an inscription upon it. He told us that it had been in his village for many years, but that on hearing that we were collecting antiquities for the Government, he had brought it to us.

The Inspector rewarded the man for his trouble, and we took the little monument, of which a picture is given in the annexed illustration, with us for transport to Khartum. When complete the stone contained twenty-three lines of Coptic text, but the last line has been rubbed away. The slab is fifteen inches long, and ten and a half inches wide at the top and twelve inches at the bottom. The text, after making reference to God, the Demiourgos of the Universe, Who hath power to kill and to make alive. Who said unto our first father Adam, " Thou art earth, and to earth thou shalt return," goes on to say that by His command the most worthy bishop and monk Abba lesou went to his rest (i.e., died) at the sixth hour on the twentieth day of the month Pakhoni (i.e., May i6th) [which fell] on a Sunday. The writer of the text then prays the Master of the Universe to give the deceased rest in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and says that he lived on this earth fifty years before he was consecrated bishop, and that he sat on the episcopal throne for thirty-two years. Bishop Isou was, therefore, eighty-two years old when he died. The last line but one gave, I think, the year of the Era of the Martyrs' in ' This Era began a.d. 284.

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