A Sportsman at Large 223 



" Why did you ask me if the bath was ready ? " I inquired 

 curiously. Abu salaamed. 



" I tell Ba-sha, is bath ready ? " 



Then it dawned upon me that our head steward's method 

 of making an announcement was to adopt the vocal inflection 

 of interrogation. So for the future, when I wanted to know 

 if I could proceed to my ablutions, I would say : 



" Abu, bath is ready," and he would invariably reply : 



" Ba-sha, is bath ready ?" 



Then I knew that everything was in order ! 



One day, early in the morning, I sighted a large flock of 

 pelicans about a hundred in number busy on the bank, 

 about two hundred yards away from the Dahabieh, as she 

 sailed up stream. As they didn't move, I threw up my Win- 

 chester and let drive. The great birds rose with a loud clatter. 

 As they did so, I pumped in another shot on the off chance, 

 and was pleasantly surprised to see a bird fall in the water, 

 whilst the victim of my first shot lay dead on the sandbank. 

 The second one did not appear to be much the worse for its 

 impromptu dive, for it started to swim off down stream at 

 a surprising pace. Ted, Farag, and a couple of the " donkey- 

 boys " jumped into a small boat and followed it. But it was 

 only after an exciting chase for a couple of miles that they 

 overhauled the bag-billed bird, and took it aboard, when 

 I found that my bullet had shattered the second pinion of 

 its wing. We put it out of its misery and fetched the dead 

 one from the bank. One of the crew, a Soudanese, who fancied 

 himself as a bit of a taxidermist, skinned the pelican quite 

 cleverly ; but such an odour was created that we had to vacate 

 the Cleopatra and amuse ourselves on shore as best we could 

 for the rest of the day. 



Eventually these pelicans were converted into lamp-holders, 

 and became conspicuous ornaments in my hall at Cassiol- 

 ridge, where they remained until disintegrated by a succession 

 of mischievous retriever pups. 



Thousands of duck, of many varieties, were to be seen any 

 day drifting along the edges of the Nile. But all our attempts 

 to bring them to book were unsuccessful, though now and 

 then a vagrant bird would fall a victim to our guns. 



