<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 



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