40 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

they have a round or oval form, and some are large and of good height. Often are six or eight such hillocks connected with each other, and on these we found some red bricks. The present inhabitants know not whether they are graves or what they are, and this alone testified to their belonging to older times. On the second hill lie blocks of rocks having much resemblance to colossal sarcophagi ; and why these masses were so placed on it cannot be accounted for, unless to serve as memorials. The first hill runs up into two blunt points, on the foremost of which starts up a high rock like a monument, which, perhaps, may have misled Burckhardt. Above this, in the rivers here, mussels and small shells are to he found, similar to those in the Nile, and much petrified wood.

This morning has come in the son of Mohammed Din, the great Sheik of the Haddenda ; but the Pascha has again dismissed him, with the necessary ox'ders to his father. Almost all the inhabitants of Gos-Rajeb have fled from it, carrying off their herds, flocks, &c., so that nothing is to be got there, not even milk. In the rainy season there is much life and bustle on both sides of the river, as most of the Arabs from the lower and overflowed lands then gather up here, especially those of Sauachinn (Sauakim) and Kataref, when on both banks there are large fairs, much bartering, and considerable business is done by the greater merchants (chawagat, from chawagi) and the slave dealers (djellabi or haddaiba). Only a small stripe on the left bank is planted with cotton; all else is barren wilderness. All the birds have also retired from this neighbourhood, save cranes and vultures. The ants here cause much pain by their bites; they are black in colour, carry the hinder part of their bodies upright, and are most rapid in their movements. Ever at night a strong cold breeze gets up ; and even during the day the cold winds raised a feeling of the Chamsin. Tobacco we have never seen on all our journey, and this accounts for the everlasting begging of the natives for it. Much thieving goes on in the open camp, and the soldiers sell many things under the rose to the inhabitants, especially durra, of which 2000 ardips out of the magazine have been issued to the army. To-morrow is to be a grand review, to dazzle and impose on the Sheiks present.

1st April.— At two o'clock p. m., we were marched off in an