CAMEL-ElDINGr. 
431 
noonday halt. The river may be called beautiful at 
this point, for it runs at a rate of from three to five 
miles an hour amongst myriads of rush-covered islets, 
with high banks about five hundred yards apart, and 
on the opposite side densely covered with tropical 
vegetation. The people of Bagcere allowed us to 
occupy a shed roofed with the leaves of the doom- 
palm. They brought us milk, and for their attention 
we made them a present of a lantern. Travelling as 
we all did upon camels, not in file as in India, one 
camel tied after the other, but like a herd of cattle 
gently driven by men walking behind them, there was 
always considerable jostling; and if a camel wanted 
to pluck a mouthful you could not prevent him, as 
there was no ring in his nose, only a rope tied round 
his head, which gave the rider no command over him. 
Their pace was slower than that of a man, and so 
rough, that the saddle, assisted a good deal by the cold 
wind every morning, chafed the skin. The march in 
the afternoon to Wadi Shirceg (another dry bed of a 
stream) was over rough stony ground, to the brink of 
the Nile, occupying us only two hours, when we en- 
camped under date-palms, and amongst houses, near 
one of which a rudely-made loom was at work. On 
this march we passed several cairns of stones four and 
five feet above the level of the country; our camel- 
men could not say who had formed them, they were 
of so old a date. 
1st May. — The route to Aboo Hasheem, "the 
Father of Hospitality," was so smooth and pleasant 
that one might have ridden, driven, or walked the 
whole distance, which occupied us more than four 
hours on our baggage-camels. It lay on the outskirts 
