‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST, 307 
contained a sort of high cupboard, into which one had to 
dexterously scramble through a narrow door, and was so 
low that one could only lie in it. Inside it there was just 
room enough for a couple of mattresses, on which two short 
men might sleep side by side if they doubled up their legs. 
Some of the crew also passed the night on the flat roof of this 
cabin. 
The people belonging to the boat were all fishermen of the 
lake, not over-clean, smelling of stale fish, and attired in 
loose gay robes, with turbans on their heads. None of them 
were of the Arab type, but were yellowish-brown in colour, 
with broad faces and flat noses, muscular in build, but 
not so thin and wiry as most Arabs. One could see at a 
glance that they belonged to a different race; and in fact these 
dwellers on the shores of Lake Menzaleh are said to be the 
pure descendants of the Hyksos, that Cushite people who 
overthrew the reigning power in the time of the fourteenth 
dynasty. It was with these ethnologically interesting, but 
personally somewhat unattractive people, that we had to live 
in close contact on board this little vessel. 
Just before our departure a blinded Pelican was brought 
on board as a decoy-bird, but it struck about so with its bill 
and was so dirty that we soon sent it back to shore. 
A small boat was now made fast to each vessel, and then 
the voyage began. Our worthy fellows handled the sails 
most skilfully, and the strong west wind sent our little flotilla 
through the water at a good speed. 
The great lake of Menzaleh, which is certainly one of the 
largest sheets of brackish water in the world, is a colossal 
lagoon, only separated from the sea by a narrow belt of dunes, 
while its western and southern boundaries are formed by 
extensive marshes, and its eastern by the embankment that 
protects the Suez Canal. 
On leaving Damietta one sees to the north a line of yellow 
x2 
