Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/129

Rh waking memory, and to ride the dyspeptic dreams.

After the camel race the humours of the Theban race meeting began, it must be admitted, to flag a little. The horse-race was very much like Western horse-races, with performers not of the first class, and the bare-backed donkey-race was commonplace. One of the ladies' events disappeared from the card altogether, and the other drew a very small field, and went but tamely off. Popular interest was evidently centred on the last event of the day—the "wrestling on donkeys for donkey-boys"—the boys being, of course, not as the wording of the programme might appear to suggest the prizes of the competition, but the competitors. Three or four pairs of them entered for the contest, and a struggle of longer duration, of more indomitable spirit, or of so many and such surprising vicissitudes no one need wish to see. The last of the bouts is the best contested of them all. One of the two wrestlers