vin WANT OF WATER 211 



ruffians have not the most elementary ideas of sport, 

 and rile me dreadfully. The fennec had a very fine 

 brush, a lovely little head, lustrous eyes for a fox, fawn- 

 coloured backs to his ears, light-coloured legs. I am 

 sure I have seen a smaller species and paler in colour, 

 possibly the South African fennec. I wished to keep 

 the skull and skin of this one, but it was mutilated past 

 utility by these sacrilegious scoundrels. About one 

 we halted for lunch to let the camels come up, who 

 lagged dreadfully behind us, and also to get the mules, 

 which we badly wanted. There was not a pick of 

 shade of any description, and the heat was great. The 

 sheikh made an impromptu tent out of one of his 

 Bedouins' robes for his falcons, and we stood it out as 

 best we could. At last the camels arrived after two 

 hours' wait, and we drank the filthy water, which was 

 black with dirt, eagerly. We now kept the camels in 

 front of us, and had not gone very far before we saw a 

 large herd of gazelles going off very wild over a branch 

 of the Geneffe Gebel. It got very cold at nightfall, 

 and the arrangements were simply disgusting. One 

 had to struggle in the dark with no assistance with 

 rugs, mattresses, clothes, guns, etc., all mixed in hope- 

 less confusion, the only comfort being the reflection 

 that we were within two and a half hours' of El Webed. 

 Water was running short, and what there was was 

 nearly undrinkable, having been taken from the filthy 

 wells at Abbounashaba to save the lazy fiends of 

 Bedouins carrying it from the sweet water canal at 

 Tel-el-Kebir. It was full of mud and sheeps' droppings, 

 and of course we had no filter. Ordered two camels 

 to start for fresh water to El Baba, about six hours up 

 the old line from Cairo to Suez, before light to-morrow. 

 I slept better, the Bedouins being too tired to chatter 

 as they did the first night. 



