THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN disposed, and that they brought him dates, milk, &c. ; another stoppage was made to examine the Egyptian temple of Dakka, and at length Derr was reached without mishap. Here Mr. Legh waited upon Hasan, the governor, who when he appeared was half drunk ; he had been giving a feast to the people in honour of his marriage, and was in an excited state. In reply to his questions, " What do you want ? Why have you come to Derr ? " Mr. Legh replied that he had come to pay his respects to him, to see the antiquities, and to ask his permission to journey on to Ibrim. Hasan flatly refused to allow him to go to Ibrim, saying first that there was nothing to see, and next that he had no horses for him ; in short, he clearly had no intention of letting the party proceed any further south. As he had some three thousand negro slaves, armed with spears, shields, daggers, and swords, under his command, Hasan certainly had the means of making his will felt.

Having appointed a lodging place for Mr. Legh and his party, and sent them a supper of goats* flesh swimming in butter, and a kind of paste made from dhurra, the governor set an armed negro to watch them, and they passed the night as well as they could. On the following morning Mr. Legh presented Hasan with a fine Damascus sword, and in return the governor gave him a negro boy, ten years old, who was afterwards brought to England and lived in the house of Mr. Smelt. Hasan being in an amiable mood, Mr. Legh again asked for permission to go to Ibrim, and it was given without any hesitation ; he set out next day with horses and camels lent by the governor, and reached Ibrim in about seven and a half hours. The district in which Ibrim stands was called " Maamam " by the ancient Egyptians, and it was the seat of a governor under the XVI 1 1th Dynasty, about B.C. 1600. The city which stood there in Roman times was called Primis or Premnis, after it had been conquered by Petronius when he marched southward to reduce Napata. Subsequently it was fortified and held by the Blemmyes, a warlike and brave people who were sufficiently powerful to shake Roman authority in Nubia in the reign of Diocletian. The Blemmyes appear to have been of a savage and ferocious aspect, for the Romans regarded them more as beasts than as men, and classed them with baboons and satyrs. In the 28