This command was strictly obeyed, and until we reached our destination I was left in undisturbed possession of my berth.

At two in the afternoon I once more set sail alone in the company of Arabs and Bedouins.
I would counsel any one who can only make this journey to Cairo once in his lifetime to do it at the end of August or the beginning of September.

A more lovely picture, and one more peculiar in its character, can scarcely be imagined.

In many places the plain is covered as far as the eye can trace by the Nile-sea (it can scarcely be called river in its immense expanse), and every where little islands are seen rising from the waters, covered with villages surrounded by date-palms, and other trees, while in the background the high-masted boats, with their pyramidal sails, are gliding to and fro.

Numbers of sheep, goats, and poultry cover the hills, and near the shore the heads of the dark-grey buffaloes, which are here found in large herds, peer forth from the water.