232 EXTRACTS FROM 



so fast that we had hut a fleeting glimpse of many interest- 

 ing scenes. 



At first the line runs along a low ridge of land between 

 the great marshy lakes of Mareotis on the right and of 

 Aboukir on the left. These broad sheets of water are 

 covered with all sorts of wild fowl, while on the yellow 

 sand-hills stand melancholy herons with long outstretched 

 necks. 



After a time the marshes and lakes of the northern delta 

 disappear and are replaced by highly cultivated land. Every- 

 where is tillage, with the broad fields of green corn, perfect 

 forests of cotton-plants, deep canals, high embankments, 

 occasional clumps of slender palms, shady gardens, and brown 

 ruinous-looking mud-built villages with high minarets, which 

 form the typical features of cultivated Lower Egypt. 



There is plenty of life in the fields and along the embank- 

 ments, which also serve as roads. Labourers working and 

 ploughing, and half-nude figures busy at the water-wheels. 

 Women in narrow blue garments leading naked children, and 

 brown fellaheen walking beside the caravans of stately camels. 

 Troops of Bedouin that proud, independent, and isolated 

 little race passing from desert to desert across the cultivated 

 land, the women on camels, the men both on horseback and 

 afoot. Pure Arabs with their white burnouses, fine horses, 

 long guns, and curved sabres. Turbans and common tar- 

 booshes, long-eared goats, and wolfish dogs, the grey stunted 

 donkeys of the peasants, and the well-cared-for white or black 

 riding asses of the rich, with trains of well-to-do people, 

 the men riding in gay attire, the women on camels in 

 tower-like receptacles which hide them from the eyes of the 

 unbelievers The fields swarm with Buff-backed Herons fol- 

 lowing the nusoandman as he ploughs, and with active Spur- 

 winged Plovers. Ruddy-coloured Palm-Doves coo among 

 the bushes by the banks, over which hover long-billed Pied 



