SARRAS says a good deal for the sense of the natives of this portion of the Second Cataract, but the practical result is that the villages are most uncomfortable. The people are exceedingly poor, and possess hardly anything except their scanty clothes ; many sleep on the ground because they have no ankaribs, and the children we saw were nearly all mother-naked. We found them sitting and lying in the sun, usually under the shelter of some mud wall which the sun had made hot, like so many dogs ; we gave piastres to each of them, but what they were most in need of was food.

The passage of the camels seeming to occupy a long time we went down to the river to see what had become of the boat, and we learned there that in being dragged out one of the camels had smashed a pole connected with the rigging, and had put his foot through the sail. When the beast was extricated from the wreckage he had made, the captain set to work to repair the damage ; hence the delay. At length the boat came over, and we loaded her up, but as we were pushing off a large number of the workmen jumped on, and all but capsized her. She was a crazy craft at the best, and so shallow that, with a load on board, it was difficult to trim her ; this boat was the only one on the river, and we were therefore obliged to hire her. Having made most of the workmen get out, we started to sail up to Semna, and so long as we were under the shelter of the high, rocky sides of the gorge, which is so striking a characteristic of this portion of the Nile Valley, we made steady progress. Soon, however, we came to a place where, on the west bank, there is a valley with its mouth opening on to the river, and along this the wind swept with great force, blowing us into the east bank. To avoid this we had to keep the head of the boat to the wind, but before we could get under the lee of the rocks again, a rope broke and the sail split from top to bottom, and we were blown on to the river bank again. To attempt to mend the wretched sail was hopeless, for it was made up of bits of stuff of all shapes, sizes, and thicknesses, and the numerous holes in it were patched with native calico ! Several of the crew got out on the rocks and began to tow, but we made little headway because it was found impossible to haul on the rope continuously. Then a Berberi waterman jumped into the water and swam to a rock with a rope, and when 473