o months
ago. Their dwellings are made of reeds, a framework of stiff and
pliant reeds and a covering of reed-matting; the whole being like the
cover of a van stuck into the ground and one end closed; but smaller,
about 5ft. x 4ft. x 7ft. There were about 100 of these and I should
put the population at 700.

A whole crowd of boys and some men came out and ran along with us, and
dived in for anything we threw overboard. They swam like ducks of
course. All the boys and most of the men were quite naked, which is a
thing you never see in India. Any boy over twelve there has a
loin-cloth. There seemed to be very few men about: a lot of women
came to the doors of their huts. They made no attempt to veil their
faces, which even the beggar women in Basra did. Only one girl and one
woman ran with the boat; the girl dived with the best; the woman was
dressed and her function was to carry the spoils. Incidentally our men
discovered a better use for their ration biscuits than attempting to
eat them. They made excellent ducks and drakes on the water and the
swimmers were quite keen on them. I must say they tasted rather musty
besides being very hard, but I think the men chiefly objected to a
very small brown beetle which was abundant in them.

When the sun got low we tied up to the bank for twenty minutes and a
good many of the men had a bathe; but owing to the current we had to
make them keep within a yard or two of the bank.

Next morning, Wednesday, a half-gale was blowing against us and
progress was slower than ever. The river got wider again, nearly 200
yards in places, and the wind lashed it into waves. It was a great
bore, because you couldn't put anything down for a second. Also three
days confined to a minute deck-space made me rather bilious.

In the afternoon the wind blew us ashore when we were in sight of
Amara, and it took nearly half an hour to get us off again. Finally,
we arrived here about 5 p.m.

This is a town of about 10,000 inhabitants, on the left bank of the
Tigris. On the river front is a quay about a mile long, and an equally
long row of continental-looking houses. It almost reminds one of
Dieppe at moments. The river is about 150 yards wide, and on the other
side there are hardly any houses, just a narrow fringe of dates and
some fields. All the inhabitants of the river-front have been turned
out and it is occupied with offices, stores, hospitals and billets. We
occupy a block of four houses, which h