Chapter XXIV: Letter XXI: Keli, opposite Meröe, the 29th April

Franke did not return from his expedition to Ben Naga before the 23rd instant. He brought the altar here, on a boat, in sixteen blocks. All the stones taken together, which we must carry along with us on the difficult journey of six or seven days across the desert, form a load for about twenty camels, so that our train will be considerably longer than before. Unfortunately, on account of the difficulty of the means of transport, we have been unable to take anything away with us from NAGA in the desert, except a Roman inscription, mentioned above, and a great _Clavis Nilotica_, peculiarly carved. Some very strange representations are to be seen there; among others, a figure sitting frontways, a crown of rays over the floating hair, the left arm raised at a right angle, and the fore-finger and middle-finger of the hand stretching upwards, as is represented in the old Byzantine figures of Christ. The right hand holds a long staff resting on the ground, as John the Baptist usually holds it. This figure is totally different from the Egyptian representations, and no doubt is borrowed elsewhere, as well as another god who frequently appears, also represented frontwise, with a richly curling beard; he might at first sight be compared to a Jupiter, or Serapis, in bearing and appearance. The mixture of the religions had made great progress at that period, evidently of very late date, and it would not surprise me if it should be proved by later researches that the Ethiopian kings had adopted Christ and Jupiter also, among their various kinds of gods. The god with the three or four lions’ heads is probably not a native invention, but obtained from some other quarter.

On the 25th we crossed the Nile in boats, in order to set out on the left bank, on our road across the desert to Gebel Barkal. There seemed to be difficulties again about procuring camels, but my threat, that if they would not come to a private agreement I should, on the ground of my Firman, settle the matter, not with the Sheikh but with the Government, had such a rapid effect, that, even the following morning, we were enabled to set out with eighty camels from Gôs Burri in the immediate neighbourhood, across the desert.

Here, in Keli, I had again an opportunity of witnessing a funeral ceremony—this time, for a deceased Fellah—for which purpose about two hundred people had collected, the men separate from the women. The men were seated, two and two opposite, embracing each other; they laid their heads on their shoulders, raised them up again, beat themselves, clapped their hands, and wept as much as they were able. The women moaned, sang songs of lamentation, strewed themselves with ashes, walked about in procession, and threw themselves on the ground; everything very similar to what we saw in Wed Médineh, except that their dance more resembled, in its violent movements, that of the Dervishes. The remainder of the inhabitants of Keli sat round in groups under the shade of the trees, sighing and lamenting, with their heads bent down.

As we were obliged to wait for the camels, I once more crossed over to Beg´erauîeh, to search for certain ruins, which were said to be situated somewhat more to the north. Starting from EL GUÊS, I arrived in three-quarters of an hour, upon my ass, at the two villages of Marûga, not far removed from each other. To the eastward of the first, on the low eminences running along in that direction, there are a number of mounds of tombs, which from a little distance looked like a group of Pyramids standing out from the sky. The elevation turns backwards, in the form of a crescent, towards the south, and is covered with these circular-thrown-up mounds, composed of black desert stone; standing on a large mound in the centre I counted fifty-six of them.

Five minutes farther on in the desert there is a second group of similar mounds, twenty-one in number; but many others lie near it, scattered on single small pieces of ground. Situated in a still lower position, and even within the limit of the thicket, I discovered a third group, to the south of the two former ones, containing about forty tombs, in some of which we could still clearly recognise their original square form. The tomb in best preservation was between 15 and 18 feet wide on every side; like many others, it had been excavated in the centre, and had been filled up with mud deposited by the rain, in which a tree was growing; a great square wall of 24 paces enclosing it on every side, was still remaining of another tomb, the lowest layers were built up solidly of small black stones, and a mound seemed to have been erected within, but not in the centre. Another still stronger circumvallation, in good preservation, was not much smaller in circumference, but appeared to have been completely filled up with a Pyramid. Nothing was to be seen of an actual casing. The mounds continued still more to the south amidst the thicket, and altogether there might be about two hundred which could be distinguished. Perhaps, also, they continue still farther on the border of the desert, in the direction of Meröe, whither I would have ridden back had I not sent the boat too far down the river, in quest of which I now was obliged to hasten. It appears, therefore, that this was the actual cemetery of Meröe, and that pyramidal, or, in default of smooth sides, conical mounds of stones, were the usual forms of the tombs, even of private individuals, at that period.