376 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



shameless, indeed an unendurable beggar; and the strangers whom 

 he importunes, because his poor land will not support him, do not 

 tend to ennoble him. On the whole, however, he may fairly be 

 called an honest fellow. One misses, it is true, the strength of will 

 characteristic of his fathers, but spirit and courage are by no means 

 lacking. He is gentler and more good-natured than the Egyptian, 

 and not less trustworthy and enduring when he has to face difficult 

 or dangerous tasks. In his poor, unproductive country his whole 

 being is rooted. Of it he thinks with pathetic constancy when in 

 a strange land; he labours, pinches, and saves with the one desire to 

 pass his manhood and old age at home; and this desire, which com- 

 pels him to a ceaseless struggle for existence, gives strength to both 

 body and soul. The raging stream, with which he contends not less 

 persistently than with the rocky land, arouses and preserves his 

 courage and self-reliance, just as it develops his calm confidence in 

 face of danger. Thanks to the qualities thus acquired, the Nubian 

 is a trusty servant, a reliable companion, a restless djellabi or 

 merchant, and, above all, an adventurous, fearless boatman. 



It almost seems as if the parents disciplined their sons from their 

 earliest years in all the services which they may have to discharge 

 when grown up. As in Egypt, so in Nubia the children of the poor 

 are hardly educated at all; they are at most urged to work, or rather 

 are utilized according to the measure of their strength. However 

 small the boy, he must do his work and fulfil his allotted task; 

 however tender the girl, she must help her mother in the many 

 duties which are laid upon the women of the land. But whereas 

 in Egypt they scarcely allow the children any recreation, in Nubia 

 merry games are as far as possible encouraged. In Egypt the boy 

 becomes a thrall and the girl his slave, without ever knowing the 

 joys of childhood; in Nubia even those who are more than half 

 grown-up are often still children alike in their disposition and in 

 their ways. Thus the Egyptian youths seem to us as unnaturally 

 serious as their fathers, while the Nubians are as joyous as their 

 mothers. 



Every traveller becomes familiar with a favourite game, which 

 he cannot watch without delight, for it displays agility and grace 



