AN AEAB VILLAGE. 55 



wise ; for although my regular dinner was swallowed up by 

 the Bahr Yoosef, I fared pretty well upon such dishes as were 

 brought in at odd intervals with other things, beginning with 

 a custard-pudding, which I ate with an impromptu spoon 

 made out of a reed. My only uneasiness was, when I heard 

 the water wash against the embankment, whether it would 

 rise high enough to disturb us again : it did not do so, how- 

 ever ; for there being a great number of natives at the factory, 

 they managed to repair the broken embankment in a few 

 hours, and so stop further mischief. We decide to start early 

 the following morning, to take up a position more to the 

 eastward ; so the dragoman goes to get the necessary order 

 from the authorities, who promise to let us have camels 

 whenever we wished. They do not, however, arrive till 

 3 P.M., although I have been waiting since 10 a.m. ; con- 

 sequently, owing to the crookedness of the paths, which in 

 Egypt never go straight for twenty yards, we are only about 

 five miles, as the crow flies, from the factory when night sets 

 in, and compels us to stop close to an Arab village of some 

 half-dozen mud huts, a population of a score or so of natives, 

 and at least as many dogs. The latter, detecting the stranger 

 through the canvas of the tent, make a raid upon me, trying 

 hard to get through the canvas ; and night is made hideous 

 by their howls, in spite of the eff'orts of Dango and the 

 dragoman, the former armed with a big stick, the latter with 

 his revolvers, to quell the disturbance. Determined not to 

 spend another night here, I rise with the sun, and set out to 

 explore the country, and find a bushy spot, the best place 

 for hares I have yet come across. They are lean, deformed- 

 looking animals, all legs and ears ; for the latter are an ex- 

 aggeration of those of our own species, and are exactly 



