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property left in the precincts of these tombs is protected by their sanctity; and so effectually, that I have frequently observed heaps of corn lying there, in the open air and by the road side, as being thus placed in greater security than could have been afforded by the house of their possessor.

"This boy is distinguished in appearance by a different arrangement of his hair, which is curled up close round the head, instead of hanging down in the manner usual with his unconsecrated countrymen.

the travellers arrived at the isle of Benni, the abode, of their conductor, king Tombol. The four following days were spent in receiving his hospitalities, which Mr. Waddington has detailed minutely, and in visiting the antiquities in the adjacent island of Argo. They wished to have made excavations; but, though accompanied by some of Tombol's guards, they could not obtain from the natives the requisite assistance. One reason of their failure was, that they had only the base money of Egypt, on which the Nubians set no value. After they had given up their antiquarian researches, they were detained six days longer by the sickness of one of their servants. This interval of inaction leaves Mr. Waddington at leisure to give us some interest-by God, the creator of the world,' ing details, that illustrate the internal state of society among the Nubians.

"There is a young Shick, or Saint," says he, "who lived in a cottage near our tent, and visited us frequently-an intelligent looking boy, and well versed in the Koran; he fetches water for our servants, and is nephew of the king of Dongola. The title is Shick of Islam, or Supporter of the Faith; the office, and the holiness attending it, are hereditary. The Shieks of Islam are exempted from all bodily labour, and have a portion of land cultivated by others; they generally increase their income by writing charms. The tombs, which we have had so many occasions to notice, contain their bodies; not, however, that such habitations are necessarily built for all who die, but only for those whose conduct is considered by their surviving brethren to have deserved such an honour. All

"He speaks Arabic excellently, and Hadji Yacobe our Irish servant, by our desire, requested him to write some verses of the Koran for him as a charm; he told Yacobe that he must first swear,

that they were for himself (a supposed Mussulman), and not for the Christians. Yacobe offered to swear by the Prophet, but this the saint held insufficient, saying, that the Prophet, though the ambassador of God, was still a man like ourselves, and the oath by him would not be binding. There are three laws (he continued), that of Moses, of Jesus, and Mahommed; Jesus was the Spirit of God, and the mistake of the Christians is, in supposing that he was crucified; the Jew was crucified, but the Spirit did not suffer.'

"Our young instructor received the rudiments of his education in Dar Sheygya, and was afterwards at school in Old Dongola. They are taught in these schools to read and write; and, in arithmetic, addition, subtraction, and multiplication. The saint multiplied several figures into each other in the presence of James. When

their education is finished, the parents pay the master in cotton cloth and dhourra, and when rich, also in cattle. The masters are shieks of Islam; these are not the magicians, nor are they ever shieks of tribes; the employment is considered very honourable, and generally held by relatives of the royal family. The boys are punished for rebellious conduct, for stabbing each other with knives, &c. &c.; but the offence, for which there is the least hope of pardon, is that of allowing the Koran to fall on the ground. Large sticks are, as usual, the instruments of chastisement; but the third offence is in every case expulsion. They are taught to read on the same kind of flat boards that are used for the same purpose in Egypt."

Here, as in other Mohammedan countries, religion seems to be the chief barrier to the power of the Sovereign.

"These petty princes, who, under the titles of Shiek, Casheff, Mek or Malek, have so long possessed and divided the banks of the Nile from Assouan to Sennaar, seem not to have been entirely despotic; and profess to consider themselves as placed in that situation by the will of God, to administer the justice of the Koran: the only law, as it is the only learning of Mahometans. For

murder, the king may punish with instant death; for theft, he has only power to beat the culprit, though it would seem that his life is forfeited by a repetition of the offence. There is no gradation of punishment: mutilation, branding, or banishment are not heard of: nor is there any thing intermediate between the nabboot and death. The laws for securing the property of the subject seem to have been

much less definite; nor could we ever get any clear account of them: for the protection of travellers, certainly none existed. When we have observed the curiosity with which Malek Tombold and his soldiers regarded, and even handled, some of our property, and the avidity they displayed to possess all, even to our very clothes, we have often congratulated ourselves on the protection afforded us by the name of Mahommed Ali, and the vicinity of his armies; without which, I do not believe that any attempt to explore these countries could have been successful."

After taking leave of king Tombol at Banni, three days journey brought our travellers to the northern frontier of Dongola. On the 17th they arrived at Hadji Omar, the capital of one of the chiefs of Dar Mahass, who, accompanied by his minstrel, formed part of the convoy. The hospitable civilities of the sovereign gave Mr. Waddington much less gratification, than the landscape which he surveyed from the summit of a neighbouring rock.

"The view," says he, was as extensive as that I had from the top of Mount Fogo, but the effect extremely different. In the former situation, from the vicinity of the mountain, the Nile and its islands were spread before me like a map; the greater distance to which I was at present removed, left more to imagination. It is a noble sight to contemplate the father of rivers at the same time on the right hand and on the left, before and behind, laboriously forcing his way among the rocks, in appearance a mighty serpent winding through the desert, but in effect the contrary; for where he comes not is desola

tion; before him and by his sides are verdure and life; he seems constantly struggling to do good, and constantly resisted, and you see together his power, his beneficence, and his beauty. The good and evil genii of Africa are in conflict, and it is melancholy to see how limited is the success of the former, and how narrow the line of fertility compared with the barrenness that extends without bounds around it: and yet the very waste has its herds of inhabitants, and it is a wonderful consideration how many animals derive from this river alone their life and the means of preserving it."

Dar Mahass presents ruins at Sasef (which, Mr. Waddington thinks, is the ancient Aboccis), at Sóleb, and at Doshc. Those at Sóleb appear to be the most magnificent in Nubia: they are described by Mr. W. in the following

terms:

"The temple of Sóleb faces the Nile, and is about four hundred yards distant from it. In advancing towards it your attention is first attracted by an elevated stone foundation of thirty feet seven inches in thickness, extending in front of the temple, and of equal length with the portail; it is much ruined, and in some places cannot be traced without difficulty. There is an entrance eight feet six inches in width, exactly opposite to the gate of the temple; two narrow walls, one each side of the entrance, lead nearly up to the remains of two sphinxes, of which the former is of grey granite, and has the ram's head; it is six feet in length; the other is so much broken as to be nearly shapeless; they are situated thirty-four feet six inches from the stone founda

tion, and ninety-feet nine inches farther still is the beginning of a staircase leading up to the temple; two other sphinxes have been posted in front of it, of which there remains a part of one only. Thence to the wall of the temple is an ascent of seventy-two feet over heaps of ruins. The front of the portail, which is far from perfect, is about one hundred and seventyfive feet long; the width of the staircase before it fifty-seven feet. The wall, which is twenty-four feet thick, is not solid, but contains on each side of the entrance three cells, into which there is no door, and whose use is not obvious; there is in the wall of the gateway itself a kind of nook, or retired space, measuring eleven feet seven inches in width, such as I have observed in some temples of Nubia and Egypt.

"The first chamber is one hundred and two feet six inches in breadth, and in depth only eightyeight feet eight inches: round three sides of it runs a single row of pillars, and on the fourth and farthest has been a double row, making, on the whole, thirty columns, of which seven are still standing and perfect; there is nothing original in their shape or execution, and they are all from the same model; the diameter of their base is five feet seven inches, and their height about forty feet; they are inscribed with hieroglyphics only: the space between them and the wall of the temple has been covered by a roof, which is now fallen in.

"The front wall of the second chamber, which is rather less in width than the first, and only sixty-eight feet three inches in length, is niched in the entrance, like the propylon, and is twelve

feet in thickness; in the chamber itself there is no considerable portion of any pillar standing, and it was not without some difficulty that we were enabled to trace a single row of twenty-four columns, exactly resembling those in the first chamber, which has surrounded it within a few feet of the wall; their fragments are scattered about in every direction, and the very bases of some are rooted up, and the mud foundation on which they have stood is exposed. So entire, yet so partial, a ruin, can only be attributed to the sudden yielding of that foundation; an earthquake would not have spared the columns which still remain in the other parts of the temple.

"The middle of the chamber is low and hollow, and a very large stone is lying in one part of it, which might, at first sight, be mistaken for a part of the foundation of a wall. On the posterior wall, and near the entrance into the adytum, lies a sculptured stone, about ten feet long; a hawk, an owl, and an ox, with other hieroglyphical figures are represented on it, of unusual size, but in low relief.

"It is difficult to ascertain the dimensions of the adytum, as no part of the side walls can be traced, and only a few feet of the posterior one; it has, however, clearly contained twelve pillars and not more, and of these three are still entire (except the capital of one), and about a half of a fourth; the rest have fallen chiefly towards the Nile, before their enemy, the desert, and one of them is now so much inclined in the same direction, that he must shortly be laid with his brethren. They are of a different model from those in the first chamber, but not of a new or

uncommon one; they are five feet eleven inches in diameter, and the distance between the two rows on the left is six feet two inches, and between the two middlemost of the four rows nine feet six inches. The length of the chamber appears to be thirty-seven feet. The lower parts of all the columns bear representations of figures about three feet high, of which the lower half is concealed by a tablet inscribed with hieroglyphics. I copied some of them, as I had before copied some similar at Sasef; they are in low relief, but executed in the very best style, as are all the sculptures remaining on the temple, though in some places they have never been finished. Jupiter Ammon appears twice among the few remaining figures, and to him I suppose the building to have been dedicated; part of a Mendes, with the flail and lotus, is distinguishable on a fragment.

"On the western side of a pillar we observed some marks, evidently artificial, and in characters unknown to us, though most resembling Greek. I copied them twice, in two situations of the sun, and, as I believe, with the greatest accuracy. I have shown them to three or four men of learning, who have not recognized them; however, I feel it my duty to make them public, in the hope that they may at length meet some eye, to which they are not strange. It is the only ancient inscription in any language that we have been fortunate enough to observe during our expedition; though we have neglected the examination of no spot, where such a discovery might probably have been made.

"The temple of Soleb affords the lightest specimen I have seen, of Ethiopian or Egyptian archi

tecture. The sandstone of which most of the columns are composed is beautifully streaked with red, which gives them, from a little distance, a rich and glowing tint. The side and posterior walls have almost entirely disappeared; and the roof (for the adytum has been completely covered), has every where fallen in, so that there remains no ponderous heap of masonry to destroy the effect of eleven beautiful and lofty columns, backed by the mountains of the desert, or by the clear blue horizon. We were no longer contemplating a gloomy edifice, where heaviness is substituted for dignity, height for sublimity, and size for grandeur; no longer measuring a pyramidal mass of stone-work, climbing up to heaven in defiance of taste and of nature. We seemed to be at Segesta, at Phigalea, or at Sunium; where lightness, and colour, and elegance of proportion, contrasted with the gigantic scenery about

them, make the beauty of the buildings more lovely, and their durability more wonderful; there is no attempt in them to imitate or rival the sublimity that surrounds them they are content to be the masterpieces of art, and therefore they and nature live on good terms together, and set off each other's beauty. Those works of art that aim at more than this, after exhausting treasuries, and costing the life and happiness of millions, must be satisfied at last to be called hillocks."

At Sóleb the travellers were deserted by their guides, and for seven days had to find out their own route. On the 1st of February they arrived at Wady Halfa, regretting the termination of their labours rather than rejoicing at it. Their expedition had occupied 83 days; of which 34 were spent in the journey upwards, 10 in and about the camp of Ismael, and 39 in returning.

NARRATIVE of an ASCENT to the SUMMIT OF MONT BLANC, August 18th, 1822. By Frederick Clissold, Esq.

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no moon, so that we provided ourselves with a lantern. As the night was dark, and our path wandered over rugged ground, and through a pine-forest, we proceeded but slowly. After an hour's march along the valley, we commenced our ascent, to the east of

the glacier de Bossons. About midnight we reached the cottage of old Favret-one of the guides of Saussure, and father of Pierre Favret, by whom I was accompanied. We procured of him a few thin pieces of wood to serve as the bed, on which we were to re

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