EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN 87 



interesting man than we had supposed, and had much 

 to tell us in French. He invited us to see his hut, 

 where everything was perfectly clean and well ordered. 

 Small as it was, a scientific and literary air pervaded 

 it. There were maps, good books and scientific 

 instruments of various kinds, so my heart warmed 

 towards him. Then he began to address us in fairly 

 good English, and made us understand that he was 

 quite aware of our phrases when we were cross, and that 

 he forgave us, but did so in a dignified way. There 

 was one thing we could do well which he could not, 

 and that was to provide a really good dinner. Evard 

 and the cook rose at once to the occasion, and nothing- 

 could have been managed in better style under the 

 circumstances. 



The stranger proved to be Arnaud Bey, one of 

 the distinguished St. Simonians who, having been 

 banished from France, helped greatly to civilise Egypt 

 in the days of Mehemet Ali. He had just returned 

 from a long exploratory journey after gold and other 

 valuable products in the districts about the Blue Nile. 

 It will be hard now for a reader to put himself in the 

 attitude of geographical ignorance that was then 

 almost universal in respect to those places. Arnaud 

 said at last, " Why do you content yourself like other 

 tourists to go no farther than Wady Haifa ? Why not 

 travel overland by camel from this very place, 

 Korosko, to Khartum ? The Sheikh of the intervening 

 Bishari Desert is in the village at this very moment. 

 I know him well, and can easily arrange that he shall 

 take you to Berber at moderate cost. You will then 

 find your way by boat to Khartum." We were amazed 

 at the proposition, for the very names of those places 



