mutually destroyed each
other's labour, and in riding along he exclaimed from the Koran: "No
mortal knows the spot on earth where his grave shall be digged." In the
plain of Aamara, which begins the district of Say, there is a fine
Egyptian temple, the six columns of which are of calcareous stone--the
only specimen of that material to be met with, those in Egypt being all
sandstone.

On March 13 we reached the territory of Mahass, and at the castle of
Tinareh I visited the camp of Mohammed Kashefs, a Mamelouk chief who had
captured the castle from a rebel cousin of the Mahass king. He behaved
like a madman, got very drunk on palm wine, and threatened to cut off my
head on suspicion of my being an agent of the pasha of Egypt, who was
the enemy of the Mamelouks. Had it not been for the arrival of the
nephew of the governor of Sukkot, the threat would in all probability
have been carried into execution.

_II.--Discoveries in Egyptian Temples_

On March 15 my guide and I escaped from the Mamelouk's camp, and at
Kolbe crossed to the west side of the river by swimming at the tail of
our camels, each beast having an inflated goatskin tied to its neck. I
thought it wise to return down the Nile to Assouan, and we pushed on as
hard as our camels could proceed. Passing the cataracts at Wady Samme
and Wady Halfa, we came to Wady Fereyg, where there is a mountain on
both sides of the Nile. At the bottom of that, on the west side, is a
hitherto undiscovered temple named Ebsambal. The temple stands about
twenty feet above the surface of the water, entirely cut out of the
almost perpendicular rocky side of the mountain, and is in complete
preservation. In front of the entrance are six erect colossal figures
representing juvenile persons, three on each side of the entrance, in
narrow recesses. Their height from the ground to the knee is about
6-1/2 feet. The spaces of the smooth rock between the niches are
covered with hieroglyphics, as are also the walls of the interior. The
statues represent Osiris, Isis, and a youth, and each has small figures
beside it four feet high.

I was about to climb the mountain to rejoin my guide and the camels,
when I fell in with what is yet visible of four immense colossal statues
cut out of the rock at a distance of 200 yards from the temple. They
stand in a deep recess excavated in the mountain, and are almost
entirely buried beneath the sands, which are blown down here in
torrents. The entire h