Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/136

118 age? Time seems to pass quicker with you than it does with me, or else your reckoning of it is different from mine. Considering, at least, that one World Empire has passed away, that the Power that wrested from it the dominion of the East has itself been waning for five centuries, and that Egypt has passed under a dozen dynasties, and more than a hundred rulers since I sang my last morning hymn, 'an age' seems rather an inadequate measure of the period, don't you think?"

"How long do you make it, then?" inquired Shama, somewhat nettled.

"Can't you calculate it yourself? You must know very well that I haven't sung since I was repaired."

"Which was in the year—what?"

"About 200, wasn't it?" said the Northern Colossus, after a short pause of reflection.

"Well, if you can't remember the exact date," observed Shama, shaking down a little