186 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

spare, but hardly anything to eat they had long ago devoured all vegetation within reach, and every day it became a harder task to supply them. Accordingly a strong forage-party was sent out daily with about forty camels, to bring back loads of green-stuff from wherever they could get it. This occasionally led to skirmishes, and battles on a small scale.

Parties of the enemy used to hide in the dhurra, the other side of the river, and keep up a dropping fire ; sometimes they even ventured to skirmish around on our bank, but never came to close quarters.

No one on our side was ever hit, so we came to look on these little encounters as an agreeable diversion in the morning's work. On these expeditions we used to loot everything we came across, but as all the villages near were perfectly empty, the spoils were generally confined to picking beans and lentils for the mess, and seizing as many angarebs (native wooden bedsteads) as we could carry off.

The villages were far better than many I have seen in Egypt, and, for the matter of that, better than a good many at home very clean, strongly