Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/182

164 pursuits of civilised man. The life of the Nubian cataract shooter is, of course, more picturesque, more highly coloured than that of the English man of business who goes to the City every morning by 'bus or Underground; but the nature of his industry after one or other of those conveyances has deposited him in the neighbourhood of Capel Court, has often more points of resemblance to that of the poor benighted African brother than he might care to admit. Shooting the cataract is unquestionably a more or less "casual" kind of business to go into; it would not supply a prudent father with an entirely satisfactory answer to the question: "What to do with our boys." You cannot "plunge" every day in the Nile with a prospect of profit, as you can on the Stock Exchange. Nay, you cannot even seek your own market for yourself; it is necessary to await its coming to you at the uncertain intervals which separate dahabiyehs if not tourist steamers from each other. Yet