Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/189

 naturally better able than we otherwise should be to appreciate the need of these precautions.

Still, one finds it hard to believe that this quiet little village, lapped as it is now in the sleepy peace of a glowing tropical forenoon, has so lately been given over to rapine and bloodshed, and that seventeen corpses of its innocent, feeble folk, shot or speared by these savage robber-fanatics of the desert, were so short a time ago laid out in the dust of the little village square to await the inspection and examination of those to whom this duty belongs. Assuredly there is nothing to indicate it in the demeanour of the survivors. The little train of villagers which has attended us as we march ankle-deep through the soft, hot sand increases but slightly in bulk with our progress, and is rather more apathetic than an ordinary crowd of fellaheen, They do not even beg for bakshîsh, so primitive is their civilisation. It is indeed more than possible that they have never seen a body of European tourists