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The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde". George Davidson
Читать онлайн.Название The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde"
Год выпуска 0
isbn 4064066146689
Автор произведения George Davidson
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
The deep blue of the Mediterranean has been left behind for a time, which may be very short, and certainly cannot be long, and we now float on the light green waters of the Nile. The bugle has just sounded "the officer's mess," a sound that is welcome to me; the heat has not yet taken away my appetite.
March 31st.—We were towed to the wharfside at 3 p.m. Then the unloading of our great sea monster began, men trooped on shore, followed by the horses which, unused to daylight in the miserable dens they had just left, looked terrified and floundered down the gangways. It took hours for this procession of animals to end, the exit from Noah's ark must have been a poor show in comparison.
Our men set off for their camp at Mex, three miles away, about 6 p.m., I being left with a fatigue party of twenty-seven men to finish the packing of our stores on railway trucks, and see them despatched in time to arrive at Mex before the men, so that on their arrival they could set to and pitch their tents on the piece of land allotted to them, and which is said to be composed of equal parts of sand and lice! I feel that I have scored in having one night's relief from this plague—but we are in the land of plagues, the home of the Pharaohs.
About 8 p.m. I set off on a visit to Alexandria, and from the docks passed up a street lined on both sides with our animals tied to picket ropes for the night, and at the top of the street came on a grove of many acres of towering palm trees. After a mile or a mile and a half, seeing no newspaper shops, nor anything resembling a British shop, I asked an Egyptian where a "journal" was to be had. We could not understand each other, even signs were of no use, so I tried again and the next man understood me, and directed my black Soudanese friend, who had attached himself to me as my guide, where to go, but from the deviations he took into narrow and remarkably gay by-streets, he plainly thought that this newspaper hunt was a ruse for seeing Alexandria by night. All this was very interesting all the same. I rubbed shoulders with many an Egyptian "nut" who made no pretence about his errand to this questionable part of the town. The many streets I passed through, and I must have penetrated about three miles into the town, seemed very familiar to me, they were so very like pictures one sees of this part. The cafés were crowded with Egyptian revellers, and occasionally I saw groups of our Tommies enjoying a drink among them. The former were all in their brilliant robes, and as they stood or squatted about, smoking their long pipes, they formed a most interesting picture. Their big pipes even blocked the pavement at times, the men squatted on their haunches with their pipes a couple of feet in front and a passer-by had to be careful not to upset and smash them. A fine picture was made by two old fellows squatting on a rug in the open window of a small shop, smoking and drinking coffee, and looking as if they could curse to fourteen generations any customer bold enough to disturb them in their innocent enjoyment of doing nothing. One of our officers who knows this town and its inhabitants, says if you curse a man he will only laugh in your face, but when you begin cursing to all eternity his brothers and sisters, father and mother, he begins to wax wroth, and by the time you reach the tenth to the fourteenth generation he dances about with fury and gnashes his teeth.
April 1st.—Up early and breakfast at 6.30. By this time the engines were rattling and new ropes creaking, while stores of all kind were being landed. Some acres of quay and side streets were covered with these, the horses and mules having been mostly landed yesterday. Then began the scramble for wagon poles, crossbars, etc., any unit finding itself short just seized the first it came across. We lost odds and ends and followed the recognised custom, known as "skirmishing," and in the end were only short of our full complement by a crossbar and a bicycle. I had a very busy day up to 3 o'clock when we started for Mex camp. We marched out, reaching this at 4.45 after a very warm tramp, tempered by a gentle breeze off the Mediterranean. The country through which we passed was barren in the extreme, honey-combed all the way from quarrying the soil, which is full of salt and soda with a white chalky base. There are everywhere deep holes full of salt water with salt-loving plants about them, practically the only vegetation to be seen; between these there is a mass of hummocks, and pinnacles, with occasional sheep that look like goats, feeding on I do not know what, unless it be a tuft-headed small grass which is found sparsely on the higher grounds. In front of our tents are larger mounds on which four camels are nibbling at this grass, these being kept by some Bedouins for giving milk. Seeing some dark-skinned rascals having a ride on them I went up to them and was offered a mount for a penny; then the urchin, who had an early training in fleecing, thought he might double his charge and held up two fingers to designate the amount and marched off his camel till I consented. The brute nearly broke first my neck and then my back, but I greatly enjoyed my short ride.
Immediately after this an Inniskilling Fusilier raced Thomson and myself over these terrible salt pits to the sea edge where an unconscious man was lying, having been dragged out of the water after disappearing like a stone, although said to be a strong swimmer.
April 2nd.—A day of great heat, were it not for an occasional air from the Mediterranean. The whole of our camp is covered with ordinary soft sea-sand, and it gets very hot and very glaring. Immediately behind the more or less level ground on which the 29th Field Ambulance is encamped the pure white, chalky higher ground commences, peopled by camels, goats, and sheep. The last two are so much alike it is difficult to say which of the families they belong to.
About 6 p.m. I set out for Alexandria with four of our officers. After a little shopping and haircutting we had an excellent dinner at the Grand Restaurant du Nil, all considering some fried mullet to be the finest fish we had ever tasted. With a fairly liberal supply of wine the dinner for the five of us cost only about 17s. Then to the Moulin Rouge, which I should say is the counterpart of its better-known namesake in Paris. The newness of the whole show made it amusing.
April 3rd.—Apparently it never rains here after summer has commenced. I have been studying the ornithology of these bare chalk mounds, and find the birds are practically the same as our commonest ones at home—swallows, stonechats—which have been very busy to-day—our two water wagtails, and the wretched little sparrow. I thought the flamingo was to be found along the coast but have never seen a specimen on this inhospitable shore. I have also seen a bird not unlike a thrush, and a few small things apparently of the linnet family. Creepy animals are only too plentiful, the most objectionable at present is the common housefly which is a perfect plague. They are everywhere and are specially fond of the rope suspending my lantern. Unfortunately the place that is second favourite is one's nose. Locusts are said to be in greater abundance in Lower Egypt than was ever known before. Here I have seen but a few dozen, and at first I took them for small dragonflies. They have the same beautiful wings, but their style of flight is quite different, the locust alighting every few yards to have a look at you. Ants, great and small, are everywhere in the morning, but when the sand gets too hot most of them disappear. One big ant has a huge head, a fairly broad tail piece and small body. Lizards are very common on the chalk mounds, and yesterday I watched four huge specimens basking in the sun half-way down an old lime kiln.
April 4th.—Easter Sunday. We had a service suitable for the day from a Presbyterian Chaplain on the hillside, when there were 700 to 800 present from different units. During the sermon we all lay on the sand, while overhead a lark carolled forth in notes more mild than are uttered by our British lark, but the habits of the two are similar, but ours soars highest.
We have improved our field mess, stores having been got privately among us. By this means we had a very good one o'clock dinner, followed by a snooze by some of us, while others slept straight on till tea-time. I set out alone for a walk into a part I had not visited before, namely, along the seashore west of Mex Camp, to Dakeilah village. I passed an old fort with three very old cast-iron guns of 9-inch bore, lying uselessly on their sides, one labelled "loaded—dangerous". Beyond that the sand is a great depth, and the natives seemed to have it divided into allotments, each piece dug into a deep, wide trench from 6 to 12 feet deep, and along the bottom they have