Dows Dunham Recollections of an Egyptologist

The Water Lily.
Opposite page:
AeriaI view of the Second Cataract at Semna.
Sometimes the conditions of travel were far from luxurious, but we
were never subjected to real hardship, and we had many amusing and
unusual experiences. From Halfa we ferried across the Nile to the old
temple of Buhen to examine the work done there by Walter Emery
for the Egyptian Exploration Society, then crossed the desert, a trip of
well over an hour by camel, to the fort of Mirgissa, where Reisner had
carried out his last excavations in the Sudan. The ride back to Halfa
was tiring, and poor Cooney suffered it in silence. He had not ridden a
camel before, and he became greatly chafed from the saddle, to such an
extent that we had to seek the aid of the local doctor. For several days
he was obliged to sit on an air cushion while we traveled by light truck
over bad roads, or none at all, to see the fortresses at Semna and
Uronarti in the Second Cataract region.
Provided with camp beds, cooking facilities, and a servant, we stayed at
Semna for two nights. The three ladies of the party found shelter in the
one room of the old expedition house, which still had a roof over it,
while the men set up their camp beds in some of the rooms of the
ancient temple. The only feasible means of travel in this region, as well
as in other desert areas where roads did not exist, was the "lorry."
Though not the most comfortable of vehicles, it would carry six or
more passengers together with their camp equipment. Hung on hooks
along each side of the body were steel troughs that reached from just
behind the front wheels to the rear wheels. These were essential for
negotiating patches of soft sand. These troughs would be detached and
worked under the driving wheels to provide traction, and we seldom
had to repeat the process more than two or three times to get through.
After our excursion to the Second Cataract forts we returned to the
hotel in Halfa and thence took the train on the main Khartoum line to
Abu Hamed. There we were given a special sleeping car, which was
detached from the Khartoum train and picked up by the branch-line
train for Kareima. (From Abu Hamed to Kareima was an all-day journey.)
This small town was close to Gebel Barkal, site of the great temple
of Amon, which was our principal objective. We left the train at
Kareima and were transferred to the Water Lily, the steamer belonging
to the governor of Dongola Province, whose headquarters were at
Merowe, a few miles downstream. On this boat we lived for several days
while we studied the series of ruins at Barkal and the pyramid ruins at
El Kurru and Nuri, which we could reach easily on donkey back.
Our next objective was somewhat more difficult to reach. The temples
of Kawa and the Middle Kingdom site of Kerma, which our expedition
had excavated from 1913 to 1915, and which I had never seen, lay about
one hundred miles to the west across uninhabited desert with no road
and no water. The usual approach to these sites was by river steamer
around the great bend of the Nile, a journey of at least three days each
way. To save time, Arkell arranged for a "lorry" to make the desert
crossing. Since we ran the risk of a breakdown out in the desert, we
had to carry food and water as well as our camp equipment, and it was
decided that only four of us, Miss Moss, Jack Cooney, Arkell, and I
should make the trip. My wife and Mrs. Burney remained behind on the
Water Lily, which was moved down to Merowe, where the two ladies
were hospitably entertained by the resident district commissioner
during our absence.
Early one morning our party set out on the desert crossing. Such a trip
had to be made with special government permission, and on leaving
Kareima we reported to the local police, who telegraphed to the police
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