SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 97 
draw water, and the naked children with potbellies and 
filthy flies clustering around their eyes, and marvels anew 
at each bend of the river. As he smokes and lounges on the 
quarter-deck, he hearkens with amusement to the shrieks 
for backshish with which an infant population rend the air, 
in the insane hope that the Diabeyha will stop for the 
express purpose of giving them a present. Backshish is the 
potent word of Egypt, and it is probably the first they learn 
to utter. It assails the traveller almost before he can set 
foot upon the quay, it follows him out shooting, it goes with 
him to the temples, it becomes obstreperous at the Pyramids, 
and the night after his visit there, dackshzsh will mingle with 
his dreams of those mighty relics of the past. 
The principal stopping place is generally made at Thebes, 
which is only a small place, but the unrivalled ruins— 
grander than any others in the whole known world—are 
naturally a great attraction. The magnate of the place is 
Her Majesty’s Consul, Mustapha Basha. To him we lent 
“Moss Gathered,” or a “Guide Book to Thebes,’ by 
R. S. Ferguson, which must have tickled the old gentleman, 
who had never seen it, and who there found his peculiarities 
and the minutiz of his daily life set down at full length! 
I do not like to pass by Thebes without describing the 
glories of the great hall of Karnac, but I feel that I can say 
nothing which has not been better said by others before me. 
With regard to the superb tombs of the kings, I shall not 
forget what a broiling walk I had to them, how deliciously 
cool they were after it, and how richly the sight of the 
paintings, fresher far than anything I saw in any other part 
of Egypt, rewarded me. That day is fixed in my mind for 
another reason, for, coming back from the rocky gorge, I 
encountered five new species of birds (Lesser Kestrel, Rock 
Thrush, Nightingale, Collared Flycatcher, and Glossy Ibis,) 
and shot four of them. 
At Thebes, in accordance with the custom, we illuminated 
H 
