near the first Cataract above Assouan, sleek-skinned, gentle, patient,
merry black fellows. The little black Reis is the very picture of good-
nature and full of fun, 'chaffing' the girls as we pass the villages, and
always smiling. The steersman is of lighter complexion, also very
cheery, but decidedly pious. He prays five times a day and utters
ejaculations to the apostle Rusool continually. He hurt his ankle on one
leg and his instep on the other with a rusty nail, and they festered. I
dressed them with poultices, and then with lint and strapping, with
perfect success, to the great admiration of all hands, and he announced
how much better he felt, 'Alhamdulillah, kieth-el-hairack khateer ya
Sitti' (Praise be to God and thanks without end O Lady), and everyone
echoed, 'kieth-el-hairack khateer.' The most important person is the
'weled'--boy--Achmet. The most merry, clever, omnipresent little rascal,
with an ugly little pug face, a shape like an antique Cupid, liberally
displayed, and a skin of dark brown velvet. His voice, shrill and clear,
is always heard foremost; he cooks for the crew, he jumps overboard with
the rope and gives advice on all occasions, grinds the coffee with the
end of a stick in a mortar, which he holds between his feet, and uses the
same large stick to walk proudly before me, brandishing it if I go ashore
for a minute, and ordering everybody out of the way. 'Ya Achmet!'
resounds all day whenever anybody wants anything, and the 'weled' is
always ready and able. My favourite is Osman, a tall, long-limbed black
who seems to have stepped out of a hieroglyphical drawing, shirt, skull-
cap and all. He has only those two garments, and how anyone contrives to
look so inconceivably 'neat and respectable' (as Sally truly remarked) in
that costume is a mystery. He is always at work, always cheerful, but
rather silent--in short, the able seaman and steady, respectable 'hand'
_par excellence_. Then we have El Zankalonee from near Cairo, an old
fellow of white complexion and a valuable person, an inexhaustible teller
of stories at night and always _en train_, full of jokes and remarkable