CHAPTER I.

Intended Return to Cairo. — Arrival of Artist. — Determination to penetrate to Meroe. — Motives. — Advantages to be derived from the Discoveries of Young, Wilkinson, Champollion, and Rosellini. — Departure from Thebes. — Turkish Mode of Fasting. — Arrival at Assuan. — Hints to Travellers on Turkish Etiquette. — Nazr of Berber. — Unpromising Accounts of the Desert. — Detention for Want of Camels. — Sheakh of the Ababde Tribe. — Ruins of Elephantine and Assuan. — Bosnian Soldiers. — Water Skins defective. — Arrival of the Camels. — Commencement of the Journey. — Nubian Poverty. — Caravan from Khartoun. — Cultivation in Lower Nubia. — Singular and Picturesque Scenery. — Nubian Peasantry and their Slaves. — Turkish Humanity. — Roman Enclosure at Dacker. — Provisions in Nubia. — Similarity of a modern and ancient Custom. — Nubians, their Prejudices, Poverty, Food, Want of Religion, and Drunkenness. — Their domestic Comfort, and comparative Freedom. — Wady el Arab. — Arrival at Korosko. — Preparations for crossing the Great Nubian Desert. — The Governor of Korosko. — Drunken Coptic Secretary Page 1