Edwards, Amelia B.: A thousand miles up the Nile (New York, [1888])

DISCO VE1UES AT ABoV SIMBEL. 345

evidence of the sincerity of the religious sentiment in the
minds of a semi-savage people,* that I have thought the
incident worth telling.

We are now less than forty miles from Phila?; but
the head wind is always against us and the men's bread is
exhausted and there is no flour to be bought in these
Nubian villages. The poor fellows swept out the last
crumbs from the bottom of their bread-chest three or four
clays ago and are now living on quarter-rations of lentil
soup and a few dried dates bought at Wady Halfeh.
Patient and depressed, they crouch silently beside their
oars, or forget their hunger in sleep. For ourselves, it is
painful to witness their need and still more painful to be
"nable to help them. Talhamy, whose own stores are at a
low ebb, vows he can do nothing. It would take his few
remaining tins of preserved meat to feed fifteen men for
two days, and of Hour he has barely enough for the howad-
J's. Hungry? well, yes—no doubt they are hungry. But
what of that? They are Arabs: and Arabs bear hunger as
camels bear thirst. It is nothing new to them. They
have often been hungry before—they will often be hungry
ftgain. Enough! It is not for the ladies to trouble them-
selves about such fellows as these!

Excellent advice, no doubt; but hard to follow. Not to
^e troubled and not to do what little we can for the
Ppor lads, is impossible. When that little means laying
violent hands upon Talhamy's reserve of eggs and biscuits
and getting up lotteries for prizes of chocolate and tobacco,
that worthy evidently considers that we have taken leave
°f our wits.

Under a burning sky we touch for an hour or two at
Gertiissce and then push on for Dabod. The limestone
quarries at Gertassee are full of votive sculptures and in-
scriptions; and the little ruin—a mere cluster of graceful
columns supporting a fragment of cornice—stands high on
tlie brink of a cliff overhanging the river. Take it as you

"The peasants of Tafah relate that they are the descendants of
'he few Christian inhabitants of the city who embraced the Moham-
inadan faith when the country was conquered by the followers of
|he prophet; the greater part of the brethren having either fled or
been put to death on the event taking place. They are still called
Uulad el Nusara, or the Christian progeny."—" Travels in Nubia:"
Hurckhardt. Loudon, 1819, p. 131.