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 cafes 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