Dows Dunham Recollections of an Egyptologist

Kerma, the western Defufa.
post at Kerma to announce our departure. When we arrived at Kerma
we again reported to the police, who wired the news of our safe arrival
back to Kareima. If there had been no notice of our arrival within
twelve hours, the authorities would have sent out a rescue party. Although
there was no road, the route was marked from time to time by
cairns, and as one of these was always in sight, there was no danger of
our getting lost. We duly reached the fairly large village of Kerma in
somewhat under eight hours, having stopped for breakfast after the first
hour or two.
I shall always remember that journey, the heat of the sun and the glare
of the barren desert, but especially the approach to Kerma, during the
last hour, when we came into a low-lying region of grass, with trees,
pools of water, and many birds. This was the famous Kerma Basin,
which is flooded at high Nile. The relief of shade and coolness after the
hours of desert travel was indescribable.
At Kerma we were most hospitably received by the local notable, whose
name I have unfortunately forgotten. We were told that, in the days
before the rule of the Anglo-Egyptian government, his father had been
king of the region. Although our host spoke nothing but Arabic, he was
a man of considerable wealth and great influence. He insisted on our
staying the night in his fine home and provided a room for Miss Moss,
while we men set up our camp beds on the large shady porch. We all
sat in the comfortable reception room, whose walls were decorated with
large photographs of the family, and our host and Arkell, who were old
friends, conversed at length in Arabic. We then moved into the large
dining room for dinner, an excellent and lavish meal. I was especially
interested in the furnishings. There was a fine dinner table with matching
chairs and a large mahogany sideboard, but the place of honor in
the room was held by a large white refrigerator, to which our host
called our attention with great pride. He had recently purchased it, as
the latest thing in modern furniture, in Cairo and had it shipped to
Kerma by river steamer at great expense. I think he had no idea of its
real purpose, for there was no electricity within hundreds of miles!
The next day we visited the temples of Kawa, which had been excavated
some time before by Professor Griffith, of Oxford and Liverpool
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