so beautifully worked further south; they explained the fine and
carefully polished tube which had been brought to the first
Expedition at Ziba.[EN#10] Several of these articles were all but
whole, an exception in this land of "'clasts." We then struck
over the stony divide to the left, towards a fine landmark--a
Khitm, or "block," shaped like a seal cut en cabochon: its name
is the barbarous sounding Khurm el-Badariyyah. During the ascent,
which was easy, we passed a second strew and scatter of the white
stone broken into small pieces. From the Col, reached at 9.45
a.m., a descent, vile for camels not for mules, presently landed
us in the Wady Umm Amil. The left bank of the hideous narrow
gorge showed a line of wells or water-pits, made, said Furayj, by
the Mutakaddimin (veteres),--the Ancients who were probably
Mediavals. Crossing the torrent-gully we left on its right bank
the ruins of large works, especially the upper parallelogram.
After a thirteen miles' ride we halted at 10.40 a.m. under a rock
on the left side, opposite three couthless heaps of water-rolled
stones surrounded by fine quartz. By far the poorest thing we had
yet seen, this "town" had been grandiosely described to the first
Expedition at Ziba. Many blessings were heaped upon the head of
Amil and his mother: the name, however, as the Sayyid suggested,
is evidently a corruption of Mu'amil--"the workman, the
employee."[EN#11] I would conjecture that here the slave-miners
were stationed, Old Ziba being the master's abode: our caravan
entitled it El-Loman--"the bagnio, the prison for galeriens." On
the coast-town I procured some specimens of heavy red copper
which had been dug out of a ruined furnace; the metal is
admirable, and it retrieves to a certain extent the lost
reputation of Umm Amil.