A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

158 PASSING GLIMPSES.
quarries of Hagiar Silsileh, which furnished
materials for so many of the monuments of
Ancient Egypt; and further up, on the eastern
bank, and within nine or ten hours of Es-souan,
is the Temple of Koom Ombos, beautifully situ-
ated upon a rising ground overlooking the river.
At Edfou the castor-oil plant begins to be
very abundant; its medicinal qualities are un-
known to the natives of this country, but the
women use the oil as a cosmetic, anointing their
hair and skins with it in such quantities that
the smell (which does not breathe of " Araby
the Blest") renders their proximity intolerably
offensive. The skins of the natives darken
visibly on approaching the southern limits of
Egypt, and here at Es-souan we have fallen
in with a population completely distinct from
the Fellah race.
We reached Es-souan so late at night as to
be able to see nothing, but that was immate-
rial, as this being the place where the neces-
sary arrangements for passing the First Cataract
are made, the delay it involves has allowed us
more than time sufficient to explore all that
it contains of interest. The management of
the Dahabieh is here to be transferred to the
Reis of the Cataracts, a great official personage,