turns, with intervals of an entertaining work, the opening sentence of
which is "Birds are warm-blooded vertebrate animals oviparous and
covered with feathers, the anterior limbs modified into wings, the
skull articulating with the vertebral column by a single occipital
condyle" and so on. I also work spasmodically at Hindustani. I rather
fancy my handwriting in the Perso-Arabic script. Arabic proper I am
discouraged from by the perverse economy of its grammar and syntax. It
needs must have two plurals, one for under ten and one for over,
twenty-three conjugations, and yet be without the distinction of past
and future. Which is worse even than the Hindustani alphabet with no
vowels and four z's--so _unnecessary_, isn't it, as my Aunts would
say.

* * * * *


AMARAH.

_September_ 29, 1915.

TO HIS FATHER.

One's system has got so acclimatised to high temperatures that I find
it chilly and want my greatcoat to sit in at any temperature under
80°, under 100° is noticeably warm.

The men are getting livelier already and the sick list will soon, I
hope, shrink. The chief troubles are dust and flies. About four days
per week a strong and often violent wind blows from the N.W., full of
dust from the desert, and this pervades everything. The moment the