318 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



taking to draw up a pedigree for man, alters this in the slightest; 

 for true natural science is not satisfied with interpretative theories, 

 it demands proofs; it does not want to believe, but to know/* 



So we may without scruple give the apes the place in the scale 

 of being which unprejudiced investigation points out. We may 

 look upon them as the animals most resembling ourselves, and as 

 our nearest relatives in the zoological sense; anything more than 

 this we must deny. Much that is characteristic of man is to be 

 found in the apes also; but a wide gulf still remains between them 

 and true humanity. Physically and mentally they have many of 

 the characteristics of man, but by no means all. 



DESERT JOURNEYS. 



On the fringe of the desert, under a thick group of palms, a 

 small tent is pitched. Around it is a motley collection of bales and 

 boxes, built into a sort of barricade. Outside this some Nubian 

 boys are lounging or squatting. They are in holiday garb, so to 

 speak, for their glossy skins have been freshly smeared with grease. 



The travellers whom the tent shelters have come so far on a 

 Nile boat, but as the river now describes a huge curve and abounds 

 in rocks and rapids, they have decided to cut across the desert. 



It is about noon. The sun stands almost vertically above the tent, 

 in a cloudless deep blue sky, and his scorching rays are but slightly 

 warded off by the loose open foliage of the date-palms. On the 

 plain between the river and the desert the heat is oppressive, and 

 the strata of air above the burning ground are heaving unsteadily, 

 so that every picture is distorted and blurred. 



A troop of horsemen, evidently hailing from the desert, appears 

 on the horizon. They pay no heed to the village which lies further 

 inland, but make straight for the tent. The horses are thin, but 

 plainly of no ignoble breed; the riders are dark brown and poorly 

 clad, with long loose burnooses more gray than white. Reaching 

 the cluster of palms they dismount. One of them approaches the 



