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

182 SLAVE-BOAT.
under the escort of three or four Egyptian sol-
diers. There were about seventy of them, but to
call them prisoners of ivar is preposterous, the
greater part being women with infants at their
breasts, probably the result of some raid, or raz-
zia, which has sw^ept away into slavery the whole
population of a wretched village. The appear-
ance of these poor creatures was truly miserable ;
besides their natural ugliness, (being the blackest
and most hideous race of negroes) they bore the
traces of wretchedness and privation legibly
stamped upon their projecting bones and attenu-
ated forms. Huddled together at the bottom of
the boat, where they were packed as closely to-
gether as sheep in a pen, they did not exchange
a word, even with each other,—they appeared
quite brutified,—insensible even of the treatment
to which they are victims. When they were
marched out of the boat, (for, to avoid the trou-
ble of taking them down the Cataract, they are to
proceed by land to Es-souan, there to be reship-
ped for Cairo,) we sent Mohammed to buy them
a good meal of dates, and for ten piastres,—about
two shillings,— he brought back as much as two
men could carry. We distributed them in equal
portions among the poor creatures ;
but, although
they ate them like people who had been hunger-