Chapter XXXVII: Letter XXXIV: Thebes, Karnak, the 4th of May

On the 6th of April we quitted Tôr, where we had only spent one night. During our farther voyage we landed every evening on the shelly and coralline coast of Africa, till, on the 10th, we arrived at Kossêr, where excellent Seïd Mohammed of Qeneh was waiting to furnish us with camels for our return to Thebes. In four days we passed over the broad Rossafa road, crossing the mountain range, passed Hamamât, and on the 14th of April once more reached our Theban head-quarters.

We found everything in the most desirable order and activity; but our old and faithful castellan, ʾAuad, met me with a bandaged head, and saluted me in a feeble voice. A short time previously he had a narrow escape from death. I mentioned in a former letter that many years ago he, together with the whole house of the Sheikh of Qurna, burdened themselves with a crime of blood, which had not yet been expiated. The family of the man who had been killed in Kôm el Birât, had, soon after our departure, seized an opportunity when ʾAuad was returning home from Luqsor one evening with a relation, to fall upon the two unsuspicious wanderers. The attack was more aimed at the companion of ʾAuad than at himself, they therefore called out to him to go away; however, as he did not do this, but vigorously defended his relation, he received an almost deadly blow on his head from a sharp weapon, which stretched him insensible on the ground; the other man was murdered and thrown into the Nile, sacrificed to the revenge for bloodshed, which had remained unsatisfied seven years. Since that time there has been peace between the families.

A longer account of our Sinai journey will be despatched to-day, to which I have also added two maps of the Peninsula, by Erbkam, drawn from my notes. I now contemplate the difficult task of finishing my account with Thebes, which, however, I hope to accomplish in about ten or twelve days.