the plume of beautiful feathers from the tail of the
bird, surrounded by a number of Arabs, when I
observed a throng of women, each laden with a
bundle of wood, crossing the ford in single file from
the opposite bank. Among them were two young
girls of about fifteen, and I remarked that these,
instead of marching in a line with the women, were
wading band-in-band in dangerous proximity to the
bead of the rapids. A few seconds later, I noticed
that they were inclining their bodies up stream, and
were evidently struggling with the current. Hardly
bad I pointed out the danger to the men around
me, when the girls clung to each other, and striving
against their fate they tottered down the stream
towards the rapids, which rushed with such violence
that the waves were about two feet high. With
praiseworthy speed the Arabs started to their feet,
and dashed • down the deep descent towards the
river, hut before they had reached half way, the
girls uttered a shriek, lost their footing, and in
another instant they threw their arms wildly above
their heads, and were hurried away in the foam of
the rapids. One disappeared immediately; the other
was visible, as her long black hair floated on the
surface; she also sank. Presently, about twenty
yards below the spot, a pair of naked arms protruded
high above the surface, with ivory bracelets
upon the wrists, and twice the hands clapped together
as though imploring help; again she disappeared.
The water was by this time full of men,
who had rushed to the rescue; but they had foolishly
jumped in at the spot where they had first
seen the girls, who were of course by this time
carried far away by the torrent. Once more,
farther down the river, the hands and bracelets appeared
; again they wildly clapped together, and in
the clear water we could plainly see the d^rk hair
beneath. Still, she sank again, but almost immediately
she rose head and shoulders above the
surface, and thrice she again clapped her hands
for aid.
This was her last effort; she disappeared. By
this time several men had wisely run along the
bank below the tail of the rapids, and having formed
a line across a very narrow portion of the stream,
one of them suddenly clutched an object beneath
the water, and in another moment he held the body
of the girl in his arms. Of course she was dead?
or a fit subject for the Eoyal Humane Society ?—So
I supposed; when, to our intense astonishment, she
no sooner was brought to the shore than she gave
herself a shake, threw back her long hair, wrung
out and arranged her dripping rahat, and walked
leisurely back to the ford, which she crossed with
the assistance of the Arab who had saved her.
"What she was composed of I cannot say; whether
she was the offspring of a cross between mermaid
and hippopotamus, or hatched from the egg of a
crocodile I know not, but a more wonderfully amphibious
being I have rarely seen.
s 2