'A JOURNEY IN THE EAST: 259 



human industry ; away beyond the lake the boundless desert, 

 and on its waters the truly African bark with its swarthy 

 occupants. These good people were just as much astonished 

 at seeing me, a European " pale-face," on this barren island, 

 usually only inhabited by pensive pelicans. My attendant 

 had a long conversation with the wayfarers, which, so far as 

 I could make out, referred to the weather and the crossing. 



Our day's bag was comparatively small, for the island itself 

 was thoroughly shot out. After dinner our Arab retainers 

 let off some of the fireworks, which have such special charms 

 for all Orientals, and made a diabolical din; but we did not 

 allow that sort of thing to go on long, for we preferred a 

 quiet night's rest to the finest fireworks of our worthy drago- 

 man, and we did not wish the waterfowl to be disturbed by 

 the sudden glare. 



On the 26th we left our tents at a very early hour, long 

 before daybreak, and set out after a hasty breakfast. The 

 lake was quite calm, so we were able to cross over to the 

 desert side, and in the evening we were to find our camp on 

 the cultivated land of the opposite shore. As all Orientals 

 are unpunctual, it was long before our fishermen appeared to 

 get the boats ready, and then they shuffled about the beach 

 in a very sleepy manner, so that we had a deal of trouble 

 in getting this chaos into a certain degree of order. How- 

 ever, after a time the party, consisting of the gentlemen, the 

 jagers, and the dachshunds, pushed off in three boats. Our 

 Arabs rowed in their usual way, singing songs with their 

 hoarse voices, while the stench in the boats was almost in- 

 supportable. 



Luckily the surface of the lake was calm and quiet, for 

 with boats like these, manned by sleepy Arabs, and in the 

 pitch-dark night, we might have had some disagreeable ex- 

 periences if a storm had got up. After about an hour's 

 rowing we reached the shore, where a promontory, formed of 



s2 . 



