32 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

would have given all I possessed for a drink of cold water. I never felt the want of water before, but it is fearful. I would much sooner go without food than water. We used to carry our water-bottles full (about a pint and a half); but what was that in the scorching desert? The sun soon burnt our faces and hands nearly black, and my lips were all cracked; and sometimes when I opened my mouth to eat a biscuit, being so hard, they would bleed.

My eyes were quite red; and altogether, when we reached Korti we were a warm-looking lot—and so, in fact, are all the troop up here. So we have to laugh, and congratulate one another on our good looks, and wonder what the people at home would say if they could but see us, all burnt up, while they are frozen out.

I must tell you how I enjoyed my Christmas dinner—something grand, you can guess—about the queerest Christmas dinner I ever dreamt of having. We were about twelve miles from Dongola, when we halted on Christmas-eve, and on Christmas morning at daybreak we started once more, with our dinner in our haversacks.

It consisted of tinned beef, biscuits, and raw onions, washed down with a drink of Nile water, and consumed in the saddle about mid-day. We got to Dongola about three, and then after our ' sliips of the desert' were fed and picketed all correct we went for a bathe, having been without a wash for three days. We jumped into the Nile, and chanced the crocodiles, and had a good cooler; after which we washed our only shirts and waited for them to dry.

After that we had a bit more ' bully' (beef) and a pipe, and we all felt as well as if we had dined off the best, and went to bed happy, after sitting round our camp fire for an hour, having a few songs and a war-dance by the Arabs. I must tell you that although it is so very hot during the day it is equally cold at night, and a fire is very essential. Next day we continued our march to Handak or Shabadool, from thence to Debbeh, and from Debbeh to Ambukol, and then on to Korti, and are now ten days' march from Khartum.

There is an enterprising Greek who managed to get here somehow or other, and has opened a small store. I will just tell you a few things that he sells. Milk cheap; jam, 4. a tin; candles, s. a pound; and matches, 6d. a box. He also makes pancakes with