ὁδοιπόρῳ διψῶντι πηγαῖον ῥέος.
ὁδοιπόρῳ διψῶντι πηγαῖον ῥέος.
ὁδοιπόρῳ διψῶντι πηγαῖον ῥέος.
At the same time, indiscriminate drinking is a tiresome habit, which can be shaken off with a little practice and determination. The inexperienced traveller in the East always carries a huge water-bottle, from which he is continually drinking copious draughts; but after a few months he learns to drink at meal times, and not to encumber himself with his water-bottle on every occasion when he is away from the tent. Education and self-control go largely hand in hand. Officers stand hunger and thirst much better than the rank and file, who, in the Sudan, exercised very little self-control in the matter of drink. Whenever they could get it, the soldiers were perpetually dipping their tin mugs in the large "zias" or "fantasias" provided for their use.
Just before the evening shadows cooled theair too much and made a chill possible, we spread our india-rubber baths on the ground and enjoyed the refreshment of a good "tub." The Nile water was so saturated with mud that when one stood in one's bath upon a thick precipitate of sand the sensation recalled the seaside paddling of one's childhood.
The tropical twilight was all too brief, and darkness fell suddenly like a pall upon the landscape. Then out came candlesticks and lanterns, and the one substantial meal of the day made its appearance. The quality of ourcuisinevaried considerably. At a stationary camp like Wad Hamed we sometimes purchased fresh meat from an enterprising Greek called Loisa, but this was always very lean and tough, and these fleshpots of Egypt had few charms for us. The Arabs devour any sort of meat, whatever be the condition of the beast which supplies it. Two days after the battle of Omdurman, Ali appeared before the tent with a wretched kid in the last stage of a rapid decline. He knew I disapproved of loot, and declared that he had purchased the animal, and intended to fry the liver for me for to-morrow's breakfast. Asthe poor kid was far too ill and weak even to stand on its legs, I declined the suggested dainty. There were quite enough bacilli prowling around in Omdurman without incurring the risk of trichinosis. In less than an hour I saw our quaternion of servants with several guests enjoying a ghoulish banquet off the remains of the invalid animal.
Sometimes we had splendid dinners of tinned curry, preserved pine-apple, and other delicacies; and except on the evening of the battle, nobody, as far as I know, ever went without his dinner if he was well enough to eat it. Occasionally, if there was a downpour of rain or other cause which rendered cooking difficult, we sank to this sort of level—
Potage à la Khalifa.
(Ingredients—a morsel of emaciated goat with some onions; simmer as long as possible. Sufficient for two. Seasonable, when one is very hungry.)
Bully Beef au naturel.
Jam.
Biscuit à discrétion.
Whisky. Sparklets. Lime juice. Nile water.
On the 26th of August we were told to hold ourselves in readiness to embark on theMetemmehnext morning. The Gyppy troops and Sudanese had already gone, and a general exodus of the British battalions was taking place. On the evening before our departure I strolled once more along the river. Scarcely a sound broke the silence; the busy scene of the day's restless activity was still. The rows and rows of tents and mountainous heaps of baggage had vanished like magic; little remained to show that for more than a week some twenty-two thousand men had lived and moved within this vast area. Here and there various relics of the encampment lay scattered about,—soda-water bottles, empty tins, old newspapers, the framework of blanket tents, and so on,—but the only permanent structure which marked, and perhaps still marks, the site of the abandoned camp was a wattled hut which Howard's servant built for him, as his master had arrived at Wad Hamed without a tent of any kind. An army of vultures had spread over all the space within the zeriba, and seemed to be having a good time amongst old sardinetins and fragments of offal and similar dainties.
The glow of a tropical sunset was falling on the Nile; yet, beautiful as it was, the scene lost something from the dead level of the surrounding prospect. For an ideally beautiful effect of the kind one needs mountains as well as water. Who, for example, that has ever seen it, can forget the play of moonbeam and starlight on the lake—
When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee?
When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee?
When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee?
It was strange to think that within a week the campaign would be ended, Gordon avenged, and the Crescent flag flying over the ramparts of Omdurman—the final goal of all this vast congeries of men and stores, guns and ammunition. As the postal connection with the outside world was now to cease until the capture of Omdurman, many letters had been sent off on the previous day, and for several of the writers the message which sped home was a final one. Later on, when the battle had been fought, a man whom I knew showed me a letter which he was sending off to his widowed mother to tell her that he had come safe through the fight and was on the point ofreturning home. This note reached its destination a day after the receipt of a telegram announcing his death from fever! Surely it would be difficult to meet with a sadder and more pathetic instance of the vicissitudes and uncertainty of human life!
FOOTNOTE:[1]A brief list of the entomological specimens brought back from the campaign is given onp. 253.
[1]A brief list of the entomological specimens brought back from the campaign is given onp. 253.
[1]A brief list of the entomological specimens brought back from the campaign is given onp. 253.
R. V. Darbishire 1898.{Click on map for larger image.}THE NILEfrom the Atbara to Khartum.Scale 1 : 1,500,000.
R. V. Darbishire 1898.{Click on map for larger image.}THE NILEfrom the Atbara to Khartum.Scale 1 : 1,500,000.
R. V. Darbishire 1898.
{Click on map for larger image.}