‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST,’ 259 
human industry ; away beyond the lake the boundless desert, 
and on its waters the truly African bark with its swarthy 
occupants. These good people were just as much astonished 
at seeing me, a European “ pale-face,” on this barren island, 
usually only inhabited by pensive pelicans. My attendant 
had a long conversation with the wayfarers, which, so far as 
I could make out, referred to the weather and the crossing. 
Our day’s bag was comparatively small, for the island itself 
was thoroughly shot out. After dinner our Arab retainers 
let off some of the fireworks, which have such special charms 
for all Orientals, and made a diabolical din; but we did not 
allow that sort of thing to go on long, for we preferred a 
quiet night’s rest to the finest fireworks of our worthy drago- 
man, and we did not wish the waterfowl to be disturbed by 
the sudden glare. 
On the 26th we left our tents at a very early hour, long 
before daybreak, and set out after a hasty breakfast. The 
lake was quite calm, so we were able to cross over to the 
desert side, and in the evening we were to find our camp on 
the cultivated land of the opposite shore. As all Orientals 
are unpunctual, it was long before our fishermen appeared to 
get the boats ready, and then they shuffled about the beach 
in a very sleepy manner, so that we had a deal of trouble 
in getting this chaos into a certain degree of order. How- 
ever, after a time the party, consisting of the gentlemen, the 
jigers, and the dachshunds, pushed off in three boats. Our 
Arabs rowed in their usual way, singing songs with their 
hoarse voices, while the stench in the boats was almost in- 
supportable. 
Luckily the surface of the lake was calm and quiet, for 
with boats like these, manned by sleepy Arabs, and in the 
pitch-dark night, we might have had some disagreeable ex- 
periences if a storm had got up. After about an hour’s 
rowing we reached the shore, where a promontory, formed of 
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