THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN for medicines, which we were able to give, and we found that nearly all of them suffered from fever. That is no matter of surprise, for they lack sufficient covering at night and food. The cold both on the Island and at Semna was intense, and the natives must have felt the inconvenience of it at least as much as we did. When we saw their huts and the places where they slept we understood why they were up and about long before dawn, and why they sat outside and waited for the sunrise. Their life is indeed a hard one. They cultivate a little dhurra and dokn (millet), and they rear a few cows, sheep, and goats, but as they only kill a beast every now and then, fresh meat is a great rarity. The women rub down the grain and extract the flour, which they make into large " wafer " cakes and cook on hot stones, and the milk which the goats give forms an important contribution to their food. If they can obtain dates they consider themselves fortunate. The droppings from the animals are carefully collected and used as fuel. The animals live on dry dhurra stalks, the twigs and shoots of the trees on the banks, and anything they can pick up.

There are on the Island a few dogs which act as scavengers.

Matches, salt, and a little sugar are obtained at intervals from Haifa, bat we saw neither tea nor coffee on the Island. But as the wants of the people are few, and as they love their independence, they are content to endure hardship, and hunger when necessary.

On our way down the river from Gazirat al- Malik we passed an island which is formed wholly of rocks, or more correctly, of one rock from which rise several rugged peaks ; on one end is a ruin which was formerly occupied by a Muhammadan saint, and on the other is a fortress built of mud bricks.* The rock which supports the latter has a great crack running down it from the top to the bottom. Lower down, on the west bank, perched high up on the rocks, we saw the ruins of another fortress, and we landed and visited them. The main entrance was on the south side, and to reach this we had to climb up a steep slope covered with yellow sand. The gate, even in its ruined state, is a massive piece of work, and when the walls which guard the approach to it were manned, the entrance to it by a hostile force must have been ' This is, probably, the " brick castle called Esest," mentioned by Burckhardt ( Travels, p. 86).

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