278 EXTRACTS FROM 
The afternoon was spent partly on board and partly in 
Luxor itself, and after passing a quiet, evening we retired 
early to rest. 
On the 5th we resumed our travels at sunrise, intending to 
follow the advice of some European residents at Luxor, and 
to halt and devote a few hours to sport at Ermant, a village well 
known for its sugar factory and extensive cane-fields. 
After a two hours’ run we reached the village, where some 
of the French officials of the factory, which is arranged quite 
on the European system, received us most kindly, placed at 
our disposal as many men as we required for beating the 
canes, and at once got ready a train to take us to the spot. 
Passing by the buildings of the factory and along a splendid 
avenue of sycamores, we soon came to the little station of the 
short line of rail which connects the factory with the largest 
of the plantations. We had now to pick up the beaters; and 
a gang of fellaheen, coming from work at the mills, were soon 
collected and forthwith bundled on to the trucks used for the 
transport of the canes. We seated ourselves in the last of 
these conveyances and started for the plains, passing on the 
way the pretty gardens of the officials, a most miserable 
fellaheen village, and a little palm-grove. 
Our journey was but short; for-;here the desert comes 
pretty close to the Nile, so that the intervening strip of culti- 
vated country is but narrow. 
We now attempted to drive the nearest field of canes, but 
it was unfortunately too large and too thick. The beaters 
also worked badly, and only brought out one wolf, which left 
the cover unshot at; so we soon recognized the futility of our 
endeavours and returned to the train, from which I shot an 
Egyptian Vulture, one of a number that were sitting neat the 
mud hovels of the above-mentioned village, just like domestic 
fowls. 
In a garden belonging to one of the French officials we 
