Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/185

 to timely aid from the Administration, entirely denuded of their stock. Goats and sheep are not wanting, and here and there, through the wattled fences of dura, we catch glimpses of horned cattle. It is just an ordinary Nubian village, such as one passes in scores on both banks of the river between the Cataracts; yet we approach it in a very different mood of mind from that in which we should enter any of its neighbours. Indeed, our very debarcation on a spot so like a thousand others in Upper Egypt is enough in itself to keep its object continually before our minds, and the constant presence of our military escort is not needed to refresh our memories.

From the First Cataract upwards we have been "shadowed" by this sable bodyguard from a Soudanese regiment, each with an honest, round, blubber-lipped face, as black and shiny as a patent-leather boot, but tall, strapping, well-set-up fellows, making as brave a show in their blue and yellow jackets