Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/252

 soon see, has not underrated the deficiencies of Keneh in the matter of police. No doubt the whole available force is engaged at the town, for the professional guardian of order rarely shows up at the river-side during these hours. This, however, matters comparatively little in provincial Egypt, where, apparently, any man with a kourbash and a consciousness of good intentions may play the part of policeman without any previous formality of a commission to discharge that office. The Arab crew of our steamer cheerfully undertake it, with pails of water discharged over the side, upon the heads of the too obtrusive crowd. The dragoman occasionally springs ashore and lays about him with his whip. An elderly man with a turban, but with no visible official badge of authority, "teaches" the men of Keneh every now and then, as Gideon taught the men of Succoth, though with a half-broken bamboo used flail-fashion instead of with "thorns and briars."

And every time this blunt Arabic form of