Travels in Africa during the years 1875-1878 (1879-1883-1882-1886) ... Translated from the German by A. H. Keane ... Illustrated

Preface

. The map of Africa still shows a huge vacuum extending from the head-waters of the White Nile right across the continent to the Gulf of Guinea, and reaching from the Lower Shari southwards to the great northern bend of the Congo. Where the Congo begins to trend south-westwards this blank space is, so to say, divided into a western and an eastern section by the lower course of the Ubanji, first ascended by Mr. Grenfell in 1885-6. The western section still remains mainly a blank ; the eastern has recently been more than half filled in, partly by the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition conducted by Stanley up the Aruwimi Valley, but to a much larger extent by the explorations of Dr. W. Junker in Central Africa. These explorations, begun in 1875, and interrupted in 1878 by failing health, were resumed early in 1879, and actively prosecuted till May, 1883, when they were brought to a sudden close by the spread of the Mahdi's revolt throughout Egyptian Sudan.

Owing to the ensuing troubles, the traveller was obliged to sacrifice all his collections' and hastily withdraw to Lado, where Emin was still holding out. After Emin's retreat southwards to Wadelai, Dr. Junker made his way through Unyoro to the east coast, reaching Zanzibar in January, 1887. In a general way, Dr. Junker's researches may be regarded as

PREFACE.

. IV a continuation of those of his fellow-countryman, Dr. Schwein furth, which closed in 1870 with the discovery of the Welle. In fact, a main object of his later expeditions was the determination of the course of this great river, which Schweinfurth supposed must flow through the Shari to Lake Tsad, but which is now clearly shown to belong to the Congo catchment basin. At one point Junker penetrated westwards to 22° 55' E., that is, to within sixty or seventy miles of the farthest point reached by Van Gele in his ascent of the Ubanji in January, 188S. Thus was practically settled the most important hydrographic problem still awaiting solution in Central Africa. Southwards also Dr. Junker nearly overlapped Stanley's route, for he struck the Nepoko some forty miles due north of Ugarrowwa on the Aruwimi.

Although not the Aruwimi itself, as he supposed, the Nepoko is evidently a northern tributary of that river, and thus were determined the respective limits of the Congo secondary basins towards the Congo-Nile water-parting. These achievements, accomplished without any show of force, and without a single violent death, place Dr. Junker's name high up on the glorious muster-roll of African explorers. In this volume his researches are brought down to Septem ber, 1878, and include, besides an excursion to the Siwa Oasis and Natron Valley, a careful survey of the Baraka water course, wanderings through Upper Nubia, an expedition to the Sobat river, and numerous journeys throughout Makaraka Land and surrounding regions. Much of the latter is entirely new ground, and all of it is here for the first time accurately described.

It will supply cartographers with plentiful material for filling up their blank spaces in a region some 100,000 square miles in extent. In this translation the spirit of the German text has been adhered to, with condensation of non-essential details throughout. PEEFACE. V For the ten first chapters I am entirely responsible ; for the rest I have availed myself of assistance, carefully revising the proof sheets. In transliterating the author's spelling, I have combined the English consonantal with the Italian vowel sounds, an eclectic system which has been found convenient in the case of all Bantu and most other African languages. The phonetic method has also been preferred to the ethnological, where Arabic is concerned. Thus, for instance, .b.*Jl jjj is transliterated beled es-Sudan, not beled el-Sudan.

It should however, be noticed the Arabic jf has rather the sound of g than q in Egyptian Sudan. The inlaut h used by Germans to lengthen a preceding vowel, and often wrongly retained on English maps, is discarded, while the auslaut h is kept where needed to voice a preceding e. Hence Rol = Rohl ; but Mudiriyeh = Mudirije. Note also that initial ss and j German answer to initial English s and z respectively when preceding a vowel. Hence Sandeh becomes Zandeh, and so on. On the same principle the German variants dsch and df are always represented by simple j, as in Jebel for Dfebel. These hints, if attended to, may help map-makers to introduce a little order* into the present chaotic condition of our English atlases. Besides several illustrations, numerous notes, indicated by the initials R. B., have been supplied by the scholar and artist, Hen- Richard Buchta. Others prepared for this English edition seemed to need no special indication. A. H. KEANE. 79, Broadhurst Gardens, N.W., May 30///, 1890. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Journey From Alexandria To The Libyan Desert And Through The

NATRON VALLEY. Occasion of the Journey — Arrival in Alexandria — Cleopatra's Needle — Gerhard Rohlfs and the Bahr-bila-ma problem — Project of a Sahara Sea — The Start — The Caravan — Meks — Ruins of Taposiris — Lighthouse of Oasrel-Amad — The Zones of the Coast Region — BirHamam — Medineh-el-Kafirin — Fauna of the Desert — Hashm-el-'Agl — Amongst the Gawabis — A Night in the Desert — Mehemet Ali and the Bedouins — Aulad 'Aly — The Natron Lakes — The Koptic Convents — History of the Kopts — Origin of the Monophysite doctrine — Deir Baramus and Deir Sudani — The Koptic Manuscripts — Wady Faregh — Arrival in Fayyum — Ruins of Arsinoe — To Cairo. DURING the Paris Geographical Congress of August, 1875, I came into personal contact with those three bright German stars of African exploration, Nachtigal, Rohlfs, and Schweinfurth ; and by them my attention was directed towards Dar-For, a region at that time presenting geographical interests ofthe first importance.

I accordingly selected as the goal of my future activity this land still shrouded in the veil of an awe inspiring mystery. Early in the October cf 1875, I embarked at Trieste, on board the Austrian Lloyd steamer Austria, and in fifteen days the low, narrow, yellow line of the Egyptian seaboard appeared 1; TEA VELS IN AFRICA. 2 on the horizon. Presently the marine glass revealed a group of long -armed windmills, followed by numerous dazzling white houses, the lighthouse of Ras-et-Tin, the ramparts and stone quarries of Meks, with the lead-coloured cupolas of Said Pasha's abandoned palace. The palms also, their tall feathery tufts waving on the breeze, awakened that magic sentiment which the imagination associates with Africa and the East, although the LANDING AT ALEXANDRIA. Egyptian coast itself is uninteresting enough, being destitute of any bold lines or headlands.

The Austria having obtained free pratique from the sanitary authorities, our landing is soon effected at the port of Alexandria, where the luggage is rapidly passed through the custom house, and we rattle away through narrow, busy streets, to our hotel. To a traveller arriving from the interior of Egypt, the impression produced by Alexandria is rather that of a suburb of Naples than of an oriental city. The effect on a person landing fresh from Europe is described in highly graphic language, and with much true local colouring by Bogumil Goltz, in the following passage : — " These Arab proletariates, with naked, yellow or dark-brown arms and legs, in dirty white or blue sleeveless shirts, and soiled turbans, or red tasselled fez on their head, these mahogany faces and limbs in every shade of colour down to the shining coal black of the negro ; these tumultuous donkey ' cavalcades,' of half-naked riders, or grandees in sumptuous geld and silken robes, of German mechanics in German blouses, of Italian or English exquisites, the former in modern swallow-tails and choice Parisian hats, the latter in white broad-brimmed squash hats and all manner of fantastic garbs ; all these violent contrasts of motley throngs, broken at intervals by long lines of camels seaming at the mouth, coupled with palm-fibre cordage, slouching along with ungainly walk and melancholy moan.

This first experience of a heathen land wrapped in old and new marvels, took me so by surprise that I instinctively drew out my watch to see whether it also like my poor bewildered Christian soul, had come to a stop, overwhelmed by amazement." I, however, by no means lost my head, for after all I was no longer quite a novice ; I even soon became accustomed to this strange and at first really marvellous world, ending by finding it uninteresting and even monotonous. For archæologists them selves this ancient capital ofthe Ptolemies presents few points of interest, for the simple reason that very little of the old city has survived to our time. The famous obelisk, however, known as Cleopatra's Needle, was still there, standing on the beach of the " New Port," which was separated from the Eunostos or " Haven of Welcome," by Ptolemy Soter's "Seven Stadia Causeway" connecting the old quarters with the island or peninsula of Pharos.

The historical legend that the obelisk, which originally stood before the great temple ofthe Sun in Heliopolis, was removed to Alexandria by the famous daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, has so B TRA VELS IN AFEICA. 4 persistently held its ground, that the monolith has become inse parably associated with the name of the Egyptian queen. Yet the removal of the obelisk was really effected by the architect Pontius, by order of the Prefect Barbarus, in the year 22 B.C. But the myth-loving fancy of late generations could scarcely remain satisfied with two such insignificant names as these, and they accordingly connected the memory of Cleopatra with monuments with which she had nothing whatever to do. She left, in fact, no enduring memorial of herself to future genera tions, and now this empty reminiscence itself has vanished.

One of the two obelisks which long lay half-buried in the sands has been removed to England, and re-erected on the Thames Embankment, the other, seventy-two feet high, to America, and set up in the Central Park, New York. Of all the splendour and magnificence of this renowned centre of the commercial and intellectual world, nothing remains except a few blocks, which must be carefully sought out in order not to be overlooked. A few days sufficed for me to inspect all that still survives of the old city. Nor was any specially interesting field of inquiry presented by the modern town, with its cosmopolitan inhabitants devoted almost exclusively to money-making. The chief im pression produced on the stranger is that of a population given to luxury and the imitation of Parisian fashions, combined with an extremely superficial culture and the jarring notes of every imaginable living language.

On the Friday, the Mohammedan day of rest, and the Sunday, all the fashionable world resorts to the promenade on the banks of the Mahmudieh canal. Engaging one of the well-appointed public carriages, I took up a good position to watch the gay scene. But for the few acacias (Acacia niloticd) lining the way, a secular sycamore, palms heavily laden with fruit, and bananas, characteristic of African scenery, I might have fancied myself in some large European city with its equipages, handsome and plain women in elegant attire, " ladies " of the demi-monde in landaus and broughams — tout comme chez nous. But there were weighty matters to attend to, and all the preparations had to be made for my proposed journey to Dar-For. Meantime, however, Rohlfs had arranged for a preliminary excursion to the Libyan Desert, with a view, if possible, to a solution of the problems raised by that explorer regarding a hypothetical extensive depression in the desert and the Bahr bila-ma question.

During his journey from Tripoli 1 to Alexandria in the year 1869, Rohlfs had noticed an extensive zone of depressions which apparently comprised the oases of Maradeh, Aujila, and Jalo, disposed in a long chain from west to east, and followed, after a considerable interruption, by Siwah, the famous Jupiter Ammon of the ancients. From Siwah a sort of valley or cutting runs to the vicinity of the Natron lakes and the pyramids of Gizeh, and, according to the readings of Rohlfs' aneroid, this valley would appear to lie below the level of the sea.2 Then came the question, might not the Bahr-bila-ma (" Waterless Sea ") also stand at a lower level than the Mediterranean, seeing that it is separated only by a narrow ridge from the Natron valley? This waterless sea runs from the neighbourhood of the Natron lakes southwards to the desert, and north-westwards in the direction of the Mediterranean, to which it comes within nine or ten miles at Abusir, the Taposiris of the Romans.

Here it is separated from the sea by a limestone ridge, a continuation of the narrow sandy waste which lies between Lake Mareotis and the Mediter ranean, and which has been compared to the tongue of a monster gasping for breath. Rohlfs assumed that the Bahr-bila-ma valley belonged to the large area of depression ; only he was uncertain how far southwards this area extended. The depression itself he regarded as a former marine inlet, which first became separated from the Mediterranean, and then gradually evaporated. Starting from this theory, he at last conceived the idea of a project according to which the waters of the Mediterranean might be let in through 1 That is the North-African Tripoli ; to the Tripoli on the Syrian coast. the Tarabulus-el-gharb, or "West Tri- 2 Gerhard Rohlfs, Von Tripolis nach poli " of the Arabs, in contradistinction Alexandrien.

TRAVELS IN AFEICA. 6 a cutting from the Bir Rassem, and the whole depression again transformed to an inland gulf. In his opinion, a waterway might thus be opened into the interior of Africa, the climate of the surrounding lands improved, and Cyrenaica changed to an island in the middle of the Mediterranean. From Alexandria he wrote to Dr. Petermann, of Gotha, in May, 1869: — " Possibly the whole of the Libyan desert, as well as Kufra, may be lower than the Mediterranean, and what a change might be effected in the physical constitution of Africa by flooding this region as far as Ujanga, and perhaps transforming Cyrene and the so-called Libyan plateau to an island, or, at all events, a peninsula con nected with Lower Egypt. The route followed by me to the Morhara wells showed an average depth of 100 feet below the sea, and as I was provided with an excellent aneroid, by Sekretan, on this point there can be no doubt.1 Strange to say, the long petrified stems of trees numerous enough in the Waterless Sea, and also occurring both farther west and eastwards to the pyramid plateau, are supposed by the natives to be the masts of a shipwrecked fleet.

Can this surmise be based on some vague tradition of an historic event handed down from remote times, or is it merely a spontaneous explana tion inspired by the imagination of these nomad children of the desert ? 2 The French traveller, Pere Sicard, who visited Egypt early in the eighteenth century, also supposed that " masts and the 1 Petermann' s Mittheilungen, 1869, p. 228. After his expedition to the Lihyan Desert Rohlfs entirely changed his views on the Bahr-bila-ma, and even desired all such indications to be effaced from th3 map. (See Petermann' s A/ittheilungen for 1879.) Schweinfurth three or four miles south of the pyramids of Gizeh on the verge of the Nile valley, were pronounced by Mayer- Eymar to be diluvial and on this evidence he inferred the former existence of a dilu vial sea in the Sahara.

They probably belong to the middle pliocene epoch, and show lhat at that time the Nile delta was an arm of the sea. The fauna is distinctly Mediterranean, 95 per cent, ofthe species belonging to the present Mediter ranean fauna, as proved by Neumayr in his Pliocene Marine Shells from Egypt. R.B. The assumed depression of the oises is now reduced to that of Siwah, where the Caravanserai lies ninety-five feet below sea-level. On the other hand, the results of the Kufra expedition show that Augila stands 132 and Jalo 296 feet above the sea (Rohlfs). R.B. 2 The fossiliferous sands discovered by FROM ALEXANDEIA TO THE LIBYAN DESEET. 7 remains of vessels are found in the valley of the waterless river."1 Anyhow, Rohlfs's somewhat academic project was attacked by Dr. W. Zenker in his essay On the Zone of Depression in the Libyan Desert and the Waterless River.

This writer pointed out that the result of such a flooding of the northern Sahara would be the formation of an enormous saline deposit, which would fill the whole region of the depression, and render North Africa permanently uninhabitable. However, no attempt has been made to realize either Rohlfs's scheme, or that of Captain Roudaires, who also proposed to create an " inland sea " south of Tunis and Algeria. According to an older hypothesis the Bahr-bila-ma was regarded as the dried-up bed of the Nile, which was made to flow from the Fayyum to the Mediterranean ; its fluvial formation being taken almost as a matter of course. Although lying, so to say, almost at the gates of Cairo, from which it is distant in a bee-line not more than eighty miles, the Waterless Sea had never been systematically explored by any traveller.

It was visited by some members of the French expedition in 1799, but not seriously examined. A gap thus remained to be filled up in our knowledge of an easily accessible region, and I was readily induced by Rohlfs to undertake the journey. Through the consulate I obtained from the Khedive, Ismail I., an order signed by the keeper of the great seal and addressed to all the chiefs of the Aulad 'Aly Bedouins, who occupy the Libyan desert from Alexandria to the great oasis. In this document they were called upon to lend me every assistance in carrying out the object of my visit. Said, one of their sheikhs, was summoned to Alexandria by the Government, and instructed to provide the necessary camels, the hire of each being fixed at seven and a half francs a day. I also secured two saddle-asses at five francs a day each, a Nubian interpreter who spoke French, and Italian, and two personal attendants, Ali and Soliman.

After a stay of three weeks in Alexandria, I was able to set out for the Libyan desert on November 6th, 1875. Sending 1 Lettre a Mgr. le Comte de Toulouse, &c. Paris, 1717. forward the baggage to the Gabari Gate on the south-west side of the city, where the camels were assembled, I followed, accompanied by the consular dragoman Minotto, who had received me in the most friendly manner, freely placing at my service his personal experience in making my preparations for the trip. A LADi.V CAMEL. The " Habir," conductor of our little caravan, hailed me with the kindly greeting, " Blest be thy day and commended ! " The camels, sprawling in the dusty road, stupidly gazing in the distance and incessantly moving the jaws as they placidly chewed the cud, were loaded with the packages secured in stout netting.

DESEET. 9 Whoever for the first time assists at the loading of these hump backed animals, might suppose from their continual moaning and plaintive cries that they were enduring the roughest usage and agonies of torture. But scarcely is the loading completed and the weight as far as possible equally distributed on both sides of the primi tive saddle, when the camel struggles to its feet, suddenly ceases all noise, and for the rest of the day never utters another groan. Then the jere- A camel's box. miads are renewed at the unpacking, and the doleful concert is thus rehearsed at every loading and unloading, that is, at the start and conclusion of each day's journey. But against such drawbacks may well be set the many unspeakable pleasures of a trip through the desert. The Bedouins, ever anxious to spare their own beasts to the utmost, will always endeavour to persuade you that more pack animals are needed than were originally hired.

And so it was in my case, and to put an end to their importunities, urged with amazing glibness and vivacity, I promised these disingenuous children of nature that the very next day another camel should be engaged. At last our little convoy was fairly started. The foremost animal was led by a rope, the rest strung together followed in Indian file, the Bedouins walking at their side, and one bringing up the rear. All these swarthy Arabs began the march with a devout ejaculation uttered in a half singing voice. I followed for a short distance in a carriage, which however I had soon to abandon owing to the wretched state of the sandy track, in which it sank every now and then up to the axle. But in the very act of alighting I was threatened with a serious accident. A heavily laden stone cart, which was just then passing, went plump into a hole, instantaneously discharging its whole con tents on our side.

Ali, my donkey-boy, was standing close to the carriage, and on seeing the stones tumbling down I gave him up for hopelessly lost, and in fact the very wheels were damaged. Yet the cloud of dust had scarcely rolled away, when I beheld my little man scatheless and lively about a hundred paces out of harm's way. White as a miller from the limestone dust, I cheerfully mounted the little donkey, which was henceforth safely to carry me through the desert. He was greatly to be preferred to the camels, with their swinging, tiring gait. A short halt was made in the Alexandrian suburb of Gabari, where one or two of our people quickly vanished, and as quickly returned with a goodly supply of green stuffs, onions, fresh bread, and the like, all of which was taken on board the " ship of the desert," or else disappeared in the capacious folds of the Bedouins' flowing robes.

We trended south-westwards along the narrow spit of land between the sea, which however was not here visible, and Lake Mareotis, whose shores were everywhere lined with saline deposits left by the evaporation of the water ; presently we also came upon the people engaged in harvesting the salt. Between the coast and the lake runs a chain of limestone hills 100 to 1 1 5 feet high, varying in breadth from half a mile to nearly two miles. Wherever the bare rock does not crop out, the surface consists of heaps of rubbish, the remains of old buildings. I followed the route already taken by Alexander the Great, to the boundless aqaba — that is, the waterless, uninhabitable wilderness, which separates the once flourishing and thickly peopled Mareotis district from the western oasis of Jupiter Ammon.1 The aspect of the land changes immediately beyond Meks, a wretched Fellah village, near which are the large quarries, which are worked by an English company, and which supplied part of the material required for the huge breakwater which was still in course of construction in the harbour of Alexandria.

Here the well-beaten, dusty, limestone highway is succeeded by a road partly stony, partly sandy, where flourishes the characteristic vegetation of the hattiek? 1 Aqaba or aqubeh, the Arabic jjjij: in the narrower sense of hill or steep way, is in other regions applied in a general way to any uninhabited wilderness cr solitude, whether waste, stony, or even partly overgrown by vegetation. — R.B. 2 Hattieh, waste lands overgrown with scrub and brushwood. DESERT. u At Meks we left, on our right hand, the now neglected summer retreat of the former Viceroy, Said Pasha. Although scarcely more than twenty years old, the walls are pulled down the large court empty and lifeless, the surrounding structures galleries, kiosks, turrets, and minarets— all crumbling to dust. At a steady pace we plodded on for hours and hours without getting a glimpse of the sea, which was yet so near us.

After four o'clock we halted at a place where there was a spring of bad water, with a few Bedouin tents, and the name of which sounded like Umusgheu. In many places the colocynth, or bitter apple, the hdndal of the Arabs, was seen trailing on the CARAVAN IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. ground. The extremely bitter fruit of this plant is used as a purgative by the Pedouins, who remove the pulp, pour milk in, and drink it off. Next morning we left Umusgheu, skirting the southern slope of a ridge of white sandstone and shifting dunes, on which stood several old watch-towers (geld'h), and extensive quarries. This ridge was crossed by our caravan to reach the hamlet of Dehr, on the south side of a chain of dunes skirting the sea-coast, whither we were attracted by a clump of some twenty date palms. Here was also a garden, irrigated by two springs of indifferent water, and growing fig-trees, onions, pepper, and the TRA VELS IN AFEICA. 12 like.

We passed several other springs, amongst which was one which yielded excellent drinking-water. They are usually from six teen to twenty feet deep, and are here and there surrounded by a few tents, under which women and children take shelter from the sun. Then our steps were directed towards a long line of palms, which it took nearly half an hour to pass ; at last, after leaving fully a dozen wells behind us, we pitched our tents about the time for afternoon prayer.1 During the morning, while we enjoyed the cool breezes from over the sea, all was life, song, and chatter in the caravan. But as the sun rose higher, and the heat grew more oppressive, every voice was gradually hushed, and my swarthy comrades con tinued to march in silence by the inaudible step of the camel, indifferent alike to fair or foul weather.

But the arrival at our camping-ground again loosens all tongues ; camels roar and groan, drivers shout and babble to their heart's content. The name of this place we were informed was Kifan el- Magarin, " Kifan of the Quarries." Before resuming our march on November 8, I made an excursion to the third watch-tower on the ridge stretching away on the left, on whose southern slope are the excavations of the real Kifan el-Magarin. The parts of the rocky surface that have least resisted the action of weathering presented a singular appearance, which might be compared to gigantic honeycombs of the most diverse forms all placed side by side. Northwards a view is afforded of the sea, along which runs the already mentioned ridge, and through this ridge winds the gully followed by our route. Towards the south-west stretches the continuation of the Mareotis depression, the saline sebkha,2 beyond which rose a third ridge, or mountain range. 1 The Mohammedans divide the day according to the five times for prayer.

The afternoon (asr) is the time between noon (dhu'hr) and evening (maghrib). According to the Shafey rite asr begins the moment a man's shadow measures twelve lengths of his foot, or two of his body. In determining these periods Mussulman tradition requires physical observation, rejecting time-pieces and computations. 2 Sebkha, or better, sabkheh, sdbakheh, sdbakheh A_ss>— > plural sibakh, means literally salt marsh, salt ground, from sdbakh — Xo contain salt. DESEET. 13 Continuing our march towards the south-west, we ascended the Kom-en-Ngus,1 on whose summit I noticed a crater-like depres sion, besides some old walls and circular stone enclosures, burial places of the Arabs. In the afternoon we encamped on the southern slope of Mount Abusir, where we again came upon vast quarries, beyond which stood an old half-ruined tower, apparently of hexagonal form.

Then followed the remains of a colossal building still several stories high, whose eastern facade is so massively built that spacious and still well-preserved cells have been constructed in the thickness of the walls on the inner side facingthe court. At the north-east angle of this Roman structure stands an Arab watch-tower, and near it a small ruined building of recent date. These ruins of the ancient city of Taposiris are so extensive that next day our caravan marched for, say, ten minutes by the foundation of an old wall or rampart. Pushing forward across a plateau with a southern incline, and over the sand-hills, we next halted at the Bir Burden, close to the sea-shore, which had previously been visited by the French traveller R. Pacho in the year 1824. My night's rest was broken by a high wind, which covered my bed with sand, for which, however, I was next morning indemnified by a plunge in the sea.

Now we crossed the sand-hills where the white sandstone crops well out, and leaving the pack-animals in the rear we pushed rapidly across the Ferekh el-Burden plain, which is partly over grown with herbs and brushwood, and partly belongs to the sebkha formation. Thus was reached the lofty iron lighthouse of El Amad,2 westernmost point of my excursion to the desert. On the " ground floor " of this building I found lodging, but also, unfortunately, vermin enough to destroy a second night's rest Gruoc, a member of the Ehrenberg Ex pedition, is undoubtedly a corruption of Qasr el- Amad, that is, " Castle of the Pillars," in reference to a ruin now no longer extant. The traveller St. John writes Kasr-el-Amaid. — R. B. 1 Kom, properly kii/n, pi. kimdn, a mound, knoll, or slight eminence, is a term prefixed to the names of places or settlements occupying such sites.

Its original meaning is "Dunghill." — R.B. 2 The form Lamaid, adopted even by the Libyan desert, Jrom an original drawing by L. H. FISCHER. FEOM ALEXANDEIA TO THE LIBYAN DESERT. 15 I had moreover to pick a bone with my Bedouin friends. It had been agreed that our men were to cater for themselves ; but through greed and the hope that I would keep open board, which here meant open bread-basket, they had neglected to provide their own supplies, and had consequently made a tremendous hole in my stock. On counting the loaves I found that there would be enough to last twelve days longer for my two attendants. So the bread-basket was henceforth hung not only higher but quite out of reach. I ascended the lighthouse to the lantern, which is approached by a flight of 250 steps. My observations so far led me to the following conclusions regarding the configuration of the region we had just traversed.