OUTFLANKING THE ENEMY.

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This was a fair stroke of policy, for it raised a genuine laugh, thereby displaying in strong light our coolness and utter indifference-signs of a hidden strength, which impose immensely on Easterns. Furthermore, smoking being contagious, one and another scenting the fragrance of the glowing weed became conscious of a sympathetic feeling—an inner craving to partake in the joy. Chiboukes appeared as if by magic, and Smith, who had a large pouch full of tobacco, instantly bethought him of distributing it right and left. Latakia is a bonne bouche not to be put aside. Eagerly each dusky villager darted forward to claim his share, and when a whole box of matches was added for mutual division, the effect was complete-the enemy's flank was turned, he was routed.

Saïd, long out of call, now came up, followed by some women, one of whom, he said, could lead us to the felucca; it was half-a-mile away, but they all wanted backsheesh. Backsheesh we promised to give them, but not until we were fairly in the boat. For the jingle of money in that primitive place would have brought down the whole village upon us like kites upon carrion; we should have barely escaped with our skin.

So we bade adieu to the villagers, standing grim against the background of their moonlit village, and

turning, followed our fair guide through the tangled wood above the river shore. The moon was low in the sky, and its reflection in the sluggish water glinted through the trees as we passed on. A dozen clamorous women were dancing in our wake-strange hooded shapes flitting among the shadows. Their loud jarring voices in wild chorus rang weirdly through that silent grove. like some Bacchic measure, strophe and antistrophe; and echo, amid the stillness of the night, repeated it from rocks across the stream, mingled with the murmur of the current eddying and lapping at the shore.

It was

Sure enough our boat was where we left it, hidden in its nook by the underwood. We found it safe, oars and all, and, after satisfying these daughters of the palm forest with backsheesh, we rowed off, under the midnight heaven, to our floating home. The crew were sleeping on deck. One here and there, as we climbed the bulwarks, started up, but in a moment or two all had sunk back into repose. The rippling of the water at the prow alone broke the stillness of the night.

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CHAPTER XXV.

THE BORDER LAND.

"And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree,
And here were forests ancient as the hills
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery."

I HAVE spoken of this as the border land, for that it is almost within hail of the Cataract, where Egypt and Nubia join. Not only do the inhabitants of this region resemble Nubians in form and feature, but the aspect of the country too has undergone a marvellous approximation to the abrupt and rugged character of Nubian scenery. The mountains, which press in and curtail the already narrow margin of land, are bolder and ruddier than those already passed. They are of sandstone too, various in tint and stratification, and big boulders of red granite already crop up-scattered outworks of that vast granite formation whose centre is Syene. Out of Syene's famous quarries (whence the word Syenite) were dug those giant obelisks and colossi that men

still marvel at, some of the smallest of which have travelled northward, e. g. the obelisk of the Concorde and those of Rome.

We made bold to linger in this pleasant land; somehow we felt at home there. Indeed, who would not be loath to leave a region so eloquent of peace and repose, so free from agitating cares and worries of daily life? Slowly, day by day, we crept up the last reach of the river, shore-girt with all that an unclouded sun can engender in a Nilotic soil of beauty. We wandered abroad, first in the long palmgrove by the bank-we made ourselves acquainted with the village life therein; then in the narrow outlying strip, laboured into complex fertility. We wandered abroad in the mountain; and, finally, found ourselves in an island of surpassing loveliness -Elephanta-that lies at the foot of the Cataract.

Nothing could exceed the beauty of those palms. Ten, twelve, fifteen stems, sprouting through an undergrowth of spiky leaves, soared up lightly from one parent root. Far overhead their plumy crests intermingled and wove a tangled pattern of delicate design on the splendour of the dark blue sky. The home of the feathered folk was there-doves, hoopoos, pigeons. From three to five hundred pounds of dates, so it seems, are harvested from the crimson pendant clusters of one palm. The peasants are rich in dates.

THE CULTIVATION OF GARDENS.

255

They pack them in jars, and ship them down the river. They are thrifty in other matters, too. Look at them tending their garden-like plots of corn, castor-oil, cotton, lentils; it reminds you of the first of all gardens and its primitive husbandry. Each plot is a kind of depressed parallelogram, engirt with little raised dykes flowing from the sakias. man goes from one thirsty plot to another, tapping the channels by indenting the mud with his foot; * so the water floods the bed until the sluice is again closed.

The

In the villages I used to find nothing but women and children; the male population was gone afield. Spinning was the order of the day, and minding babies. I had a rage at that time for collecting spindles. I used to waylay boys and girls, or lurk in some cool shade of quivering leaves, and watch them twisting the little wooden machines-the identical spindle of old Egypt-by the thumb and forefinger, or rolling them down the thigh for greater velocity. The wool, or camel hair, or cotton, is held in the hand. But my best specimens were got from girls who kept goats, who roamed about with them in wild places on the desert's brink for pasture—

*"For the land whither thou goest is not as the land of Egypt, where thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbs." (Deut. ix. 9.)