38 THE DOWNFALL OF THE DERVISHES deck playing cards with the men—a species of camaraderve which ts certainly not desirable.

A few-hours before we reached Assouan the ruins of Kumombo had come in sight.

This town, the ancient Ombi, was once, if we may trust an unknown imitator of Juvenal, the scene of a strange and horrible fight between the residents and some malevolent visitors from Denderah, a hundred miles farther down the river. The cause of the encounter has quite a modern flavour about it—each town imagined it had secured the sole and exclusive means of Salvation— : Inde furor vulgo quod numina vicinorum Odit uterque locus, cum solos credat habendos Esse deos quos ipse colit. | The pious citizens of Ombi worshipped the crocodile. At Tentyra this ugly beast appeared on the dinner-table, and was devoured with all the added relish which would arise from cooking and eating the deity of a hostile sect. The Tentyrites, in fact, specialised in crocodiles. Plunging into the river they climbed upon the. saurians’ backs,—so Pliny tells us,—and. when the crocodile opened his jaws they neatly placed