KHARTOUM AND OMDURMAN 307 



opened for us ... when subsequently- {on March i8th, 

 1 9 1 9) the outbreak in Egypt cut off Sudan from the outer 

 world, and, for the time, utterly closed every homeward 



route. 



[Having digressed so far, I may as well complete the yarn : 

 The "Northern Gateway" being thus closed, we essayed the 

 Eastern; and after a terribly rough week on the Red Sea 

 aboard a coaster, crammed with pilgrims for Mecca (very high), 

 cattle, and crowds of other passengers we finally (my brother 

 and I) reached Suez, and thence Port Said by rail, passing on 

 the latter journey certain marvellous monuments of British 



THE BARBARIC BEAUTY (Nectarinia metallica). 



energy during the strenuous days of war ; particularly El 

 Kantara, on the Canal, the military base whence was organised 

 the conquest of Palestine and Syria. Port Said proved a cul- 

 de-sac, crammed to every roof with crowds all homeward-bound 

 yet never a vacant berth aboard the huge troopers, transports 

 and liners that daily passed our doorstep each a swarming 

 hive of massed humanity (in khaki). At length, in exhaustion 

 and despair, we had " signed-on " at the British Consulate as 

 stevedores aboard a tramp bound to Leghorn at a shilling 

 a month ! Then, at the eleventh hour, a true deus ex machind 

 descended and a great I2,ooo-ton New Zealander, the Ruahine, 

 found steerage room (fourth class) for one and two desperate 

 men jumped at the chance. Thus we reached home just in 

 time to catch an April trout (in a snowstorm . . . and a 

 spring-salmon when that snow melted ! )] 



To return to Khartbum and its historic palace. Therein 

 still remains one human link with the tragic past. When 

 a cruel temperature oft soared beyond 110, GORDON'S 



