The reception which our traveller and his guide met with at the Nubian villages was generally hospitable; as soon as they alighted a mat was spread for them upon the ground, just before the door of the house, which none but intimate friends are permitted to enter; dhourra bread, milk, and sometimes dates were placed before the strangers, and their host, if earnestly pressed, sat down with them. Straw, when plentiful, was likewise given to their camels; and when the host desired to be particularly hospitable, a breakfast of hot milk and bread was served up before their departure in the morning. At length, on the 6th of March, they arrived on a sandy plain, sprinkled with rocky points, which thrust up their heads through the sand that concealed their bases. Here they encamped in the evening near one of the islands which are formed by the river. The noise of the cataract was heard in the night, at about half an hour’s distance. The place is very romantic: when the inundation subsides, many small lakes are left among the rocks; and the banks of these, overgrown with large tamarisks, have a picturesque appearance amid the black and green rocks; the lakes and pools thus formed cover a space of upwards of two miles in breadth. The Arabs who serve as guides through these wild districts “have devised,” says Burckhardt, “a singular mode of extorting small presents from the traveller: they alight at certain spots, and beg a present; if it is refused, they collect a heap of sand, and mould it into the form of a diminutive tomb, and then placing a stone at each of its extremities, they apprize the traveller that his tomb is made; meaning that henceforward there will be no security for him in this rocky wilderness. Most persons pay a trifling contribution rather than have their graves made before their eyes; there were, however, several tombs of this description dispersed over the plain. Being satisfied with my guide, I gave him one piastre, with which he was content.”