96 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



eighteen hours out of the twenty-four, on more than one 

 day. The Polar Star and the pointers of the Great 

 Bear served as the hand of a huge sidereal clock to tell 

 the weary time. 



At length we reached our destination. It is the 

 habit of dragomans to tell fibs about their masters, 

 to enhance their own importance ; anyhow, we were 

 treated to a review as distinguished strangers. I 

 then had little experience with horses ; Boulton was 

 not a much better horseman than myself. Barclay 

 was, but even he found himself in difficulty when 

 sitting in a Turkish saddle with short stirrups and 

 holding a rein armed with so powerful a curb that it 

 required the lightest of hands to use it properly. 

 However, we all passed the ordeal, without ludicrous 

 mishap. 



From Dongola we rode three days across the 

 desert on the opposite side of the Nile, to cut off a 

 small bend, and thenceforward by the west side of 

 the Nile itself, so far as the very broken ground 

 permitted. Semney was a surprise ; a compact little 

 temple, high above a spot where the whole Nile at 

 that time of the year flowed through a channel so 

 narrow that a cricketer ought to be able to throw a 

 stone across. I tried, but, being bad at throwing, 

 failed by a little. On the other hand, at the Sixth 

 Cataract, between Berber and Shendy, where the river 

 is broad, I had waded right across it to shoot ducks. 



We had felt no small anxiety about the fate of our 

 dahabeyah, but there she was at Wady Haifa in spick 

 and span order ; Bob, that bit of a boy, having risen to 

 the level of his responsibilities and maintained perfect 

 discipline. It appeared that the rais, or captain, was 



