364 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



as soon as the flood subsides. In such pleasant spots, amid the dreary 

 waste, signs of animal life are to be seen, as in some other parts of 

 the Nile valley. Here and there among the willows a pair of Nile- 

 geese have settled, lively and clamorous; on the rock above, the pretty 

 water- wagtail has made its home; from the shore cliffs sounds the 

 song of the blue rock-thrush or the black wheatear; on the blos- 

 soming mimosas a gorgeous sun-bird the first tropical bird one 

 meets is busily at work; and now and then one may come upon 

 a flock of pretty little rock-partridges. These, and a few others, 

 form the sparse fauna of the rocky valley, but during the migrating 

 season they are often joined by large flocks of birds, who make 

 the course of the stream their highway to the interior, and rest 

 here and there on the journey. But they hasten on again at their 

 utmost speed, since the rocky valley is incapable of supporting 

 them even for a few days; indeed, it is often difficult to understand 

 where they find their daily bread. 



But these are not the only settlers in this wilderness of waters. 

 Even men are able to find a home here. At intervals of a mile 

 or more one comes upon a miserable straw hut, in which a Nubian 

 and his family eke out a meagre subsistence. A small creek be- 

 tween the precipices on the shore filled with fertile mud, or it may be 

 only a deposit of mud upon the rocks themselves, forms the paltry 

 farm which he cultivates. The owner of a creek is rich com- 

 pared with his poor neighbour who can call himself master only 

 of a mere mud-bed. At the risk of his life the latter swims 

 to spots which are inaccessible on foot, and sows some beans on 

 the mud-plot from which the falling stream has just receded. 

 Some days later, when the river has sunk still lower, he repeats 

 his visit and his sowing operations, and so proceeds on the parts 

 of the mud -bank successively uncovered as long as the river con- 

 tinues to fall. Thus at such places one sees fields of beans at all 

 stages of growth, becoming broader as the water sinks; and the 

 frugal husbandman is engaged at once with sowing and reaping. 

 In the most favourable circumstances a deeply receding inlet, filled 

 with Nile mud, makes it possible for the farmer to erect a 

 water-wheel and to irrigate a field a few acres in extent. The 



