These Nubians, though in appearance and colour they are not to be distinguished from the Indians [Ethiopians], nevertheless differ from them and are recognised by reason of the long scars which they bear upon their faces. For they burn their ugly faces with hot irons, making long and terrible scars, believing, it is said, that in so doing they are baptizing themselves with flame and cleansing themselves from sin with fire. Since they became Mahometans they are more dangerous to the Christians than the Saracens are, in this respect resembling the renegade Knights of Rhodes ... On the day on which, accompanied by some Jewish boys,135 we left Cairo on our way to Jerusalem, we were attacked in the desert by groups of these Nubians and most ferocious Egyptians, who repeatedly hit us with stones and attempted to murder us. For these we entreat the merciful God that they may not die, like Haaman the persecutor of the Jews who was hanged, but that their pride may be humbled, their errors condemned, their intelligence illumined, and their inclinations rectified, and that they may be redeemed and saved by the blood of the spirit of Christ. It may also be remarked that these Nubians are found in countless numbers in the cities mentioned above and in all Saracen lands.