Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/28

10 he is beginning to suffer from severe moral dyspepsia. In such a moment the traveller is thrown back, according to his or her sex, upon one or other of the two great—indeed, one may say the only two known—forms of relief from the irritating ennui of the sea voyage. He is driven to gambling, and she to quarrelling. Occasionally, it is true, the two pastimes are combined, or the former may lead by delightfully easy and natural stages to the latter. But, as a general rule, the two forms of distraction remain distinct in their character and incidents, although there is a certain superficial resemblance in their effects. Both of them exert a markedly centrifugal force. Gambling splits up the men into parties of four or more, according as they seek solace in whist or in "nap"; while quarrelling divides the women into smaller factions still. The process of disintegration, having once set in, advances with as terrible a rapidity as though Mr. Gladstone in person were the presiding genius of the