1903] Desert Wolves 37 



rence, with eleven camels, four mares, and a donkey, Suliman 

 Howeyti, Mutlak, and servants. I give a few extracts: 



" 6th Jan. — A short day, but an amusing one. Soon after start- 

 ing we crossed the track in the sand of two wqlves, and followed 

 them to a high tell. There we sat looking out over the desert, and 

 I presently caught sight of the wolves cantering across a piece of 

 open sand about a mile away. Then I sent Mutlak back for Suliman, 

 and we went down with him to the place and after some search hit 

 off the tracks, and he followed them with us for an hour back to 

 the Kittaban, where we had camped last night. As we were going 

 up wind, we got close to them before they saw us. Then they 

 were away both together over the high sand ridge, and we after them 

 full gallop. They were immense big wolves, one darker than the 

 other — it looked quite black against the sand. When we reached the 

 top of the ridge they were already a quarter of a mile away, with 

 Mutlak close behind them, for he was riding Manokta, who has great 

 speed. Anne and I did not follow beyond the ridge, but watched them 

 going as straight as a line for Kafr Abusir, till they disappeared in 

 the great distance. Mutlak, after following a couple of miles, had 

 to give it up. It was a fine sight, and the genlemen of the nth 

 Hussars would have had their work cut out for them if they had 

 got upon the line. The track of the larger of the two wolves in the 

 damp sand was as big as the palm of my hand, with immense sharp 

 claws. After this we had a long canter to catch up our camels. We 

 have camped about five miles from Belbeys. 



" yth Jan. — We are camped on the field of battle of Tel el Kebir, 

 inside Arabi's line of earthworks. These are of immense extent, 

 though for the most part a mere ditch and bank, which any cavalry 

 regiment would cross almost without checking speed. As we ar- 

 rived we sighted a jackal running along the embankment, and in an- 

 other direction half-a-dozen British soldiers in their red coats out for 

 a day's holiday to look at the scene of their country's glory. 



" 8th Jan. — We rode all along the front line of entrenchments, 

 in the ditch of which are still numerous human bones and a few 

 skulls of the ' poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed,' who 

 died there twenty years ago. The embrasures of the half dozen forts, 

 where the artillery was posted, are built in part of the rushes of the 

 Wady put in to strengthen the gravel. The lines, though broken 

 through in places by the passage of camels, are still mostly intact, and 

 in this dry climate will last for several thousand years, and I fear 

 outlast the fame of the peasants that built them, in their one assertion 

 of manhood, to defend their country. The outlying fort in front of 

 the lines was visible eastwards. It was there that Ali Rouby was 

 stationed in command of the cavalry, Ali Rouby who betrayed his 



