348 INFORMATION CONCERNING side of the ruins, and in the dry season water is to be found at a distance of eight miles from the spot.

This place is very little known in Kordofan even, for no road passes through the neighbourhood. My informant was a Djelabi (merchant), who, on his return from Darfour, had been compelled to make a considerable circuit to avoid a horde of robbers, and had encamped at Cab-Belull. His camel-drivers, who were Kubbabeesh, were acquainted with this spot, and had frequently, on their former journeys, driven their beasts to this place for pasture. I conclude the ruins to be Egyptian antiquities, as the merchant compared them with those at Luxor, with which he was also acquainted. They are said to consist of large portals, and high walls ; some few colossal figures in stone are also reported to be there met with, but the greater part of them is buried in the sands. The Djelabi brought a few cameldrivers to me, who had a knowledge of that neighbourhood, for I had made up my mind to visit the place, but unforeseen circumstances subsequently prevented me from carrying this design into effect.

On the hills, in the neighbourhood of Banda, a race of people dwell, quite uncivilized in manner, warlike and predatory in habit : the enemy, and even the terror, of all the bordering negro tribes. They are of a white complexion, like the Arabs in Egypt, of regular feature, well-grown, and have large blue eyes. They are called by the negroes, Bandanianiam