222 A Sportsman at Large 



wordy interchange. Again being asked to interpret, our 

 dragoman announced : 



" Oh, he very much pleased ; say you have another shot 

 at him if you like. He say, ' Allah be praised ! May Ba-sha 

 live long and have many wives.' " Ida was not present ! 



On this particular voyage we did not get very far up the 

 Nile ; for ever and anon the good ship Cleopatra would charge 

 the bank, and then there was a devil of a to-do among the crew. 

 I went so far as to dignify them by the names of sailors, but 

 Abu wouldn't have it. Inflating his widespread nostrils, he 

 scornfully assured me that they were not sailors at all, but a 

 lot of low-down donkey-boys, who had been scraped up by 

 Farag from the streets and bazaars of Cairo. 



At other times we would run on to a sandbank in mid- 

 stream, where we had to remain in solitary grandeur for 

 hours together, while the said " donkey-boys," tucking their 

 jibbehs around their loins, would plunge into the water and 

 attempt to prise the old hulk from her undesirable and 

 impromptu moorings. At last, in despair, I asked Abu when 

 we were likely to reach Wasta. His reply was instructive, 

 but not altogether lucid. 



" Ba-sha hab it is de bath. Shoot de belligans ; come 

 it is back ; hab it is de breakfast ; be zoon gummin ! " which 

 I took to mean that if I had a bath and went out in the dinghy 

 for the purpose of enfilading the pelicans (which occasionally 

 lined the sandbanks), came back and had breakfast, we might 

 with ordinary luck be somewhere within hail of Wasta, 

 where we hoped to reprovision and to investigate that ancient 

 village with a day's quail shooting thrown in. 



Talking of baths. On my first morning on board I was 

 much puzzled by the manner in which Abu announced that 

 my bath was prepared. With much importance, he came to 

 my cabin and apparently asked me a question. 



" Ba-sha, is bath ready ? " 



" Really, Abu," I replied, " I am sure I don't know ! Surely 

 it is your business to find out ? " 



He repeated the question and then signed to me to follow 

 him. Sure enough, the bath, with all its appurtenances, was 

 faithfully prepared. 



