THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN Letorzec and six men, including the guide, set out on his journey through Nubia ; he arrived at Abu Simbel on December 4th, and visited a second time the temple, which he was now able to enter. On the occasion of his first visit the whole temple was filled to its mouth with sand, and the natives of the neighbouring village agreed to clear it out for the sum of three hundred piastres. When Cailliaud and Drovetti returned there from Wadi Haifa they found that the natives had not touched the work, for the simple reason that they were afraid to undertake it. A local shekh had assured them that the opening of the temple would be followed by a series of dire calamities which would fall upon their village, and that the foreigners would carry off the treasure which it contained ; that the natives believed these forebodings is proved by the fact that they sent back the money which had been given them in advance as payment for their work. Six months later Belzoni went to Abu Simbel, but although he succeeded in overcoming the prejudices of the natives sufficiently to make them start the work, he had, for various reasons, to leave it unfinished ; six months later, however, he returned and cleared out the temple from one end to the other at the expense of Mr. Henry Salt. On December 2 1st Cailliaud arrived at Semna ; he stayed there to examine the antiquities, and afterwards succeeded in crossing over to the west bank, where stand the fine remains of the temple of Kumma. Early in January he reached the Island of Sal, and having crossed over to it on a raft made of pieces of palm trunks and reeds, he visited the ruins of the Coptic church which still exist on the northern end of the Island. A mile or so to the east he found the ruins of a modern fort, which was built by Turks or Arabs upon the remains of an ancient Egyptian fortress or temple. Passing up the river, he examined the tomb hewn out of the rock of Dosha, which forms such a striking feature of the landscape, and then came to Soleb, or 8ulb. In this portion of Nubia he found great difficulty in feeding himself and his camels, for meat was not to be had, and dliurra and straw were very scarce. The fact is that then, as now, the people of Sukkot produced just enough for their own wants, and no more.

' His first visit took place on March 5th, 1816, and he was accompanied by M. Urovetti.

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