The coming back thus, after an excursion in the felucca, is one of the many pleasant things that one has to remember of the Nile. The sun has set; the after-glow has faded; the stars are coming out. Leaning back with a satisfied sense of something seen or done, one listens to the old dreamy chant of the rowers and to the ripple under the keel. The palms, meanwhile, glide past, and are seen in bronzed relief against the sky. Presently the big boat, all glittering with lights, looms up out of the dusk. A cheery voice hails from the poop. We glide under the bows. Half a dozen smiling brown faces bid us welcome, and as many pairs of brown hands are outstretched to help us up the side. A savory smell is wafted from the kitchen; a pleasant vision of the dining-saloon, with table ready spread and lamps ready lit, flashes upon us through the open doorway. We are at home once more. Let us eat, drink, rest, and be merry; for to-morrow the hard work of sight-seeing and sketching begins again. CHAPTER XVIII. DISCOVERIES AT ABOU SIMBEL. We came back to find a fleet of dahabeeyahs ranged along the shore at Abou Simbel and no less than three sketching-tents in occupation of the ground. One of these, which happened to be pitched on the precise spot vacated by our painter, was courteously shifted to make way for the original tenant; and in the course of a couple of hours we were all as much at home as if we had not been away for half a day. Here, meanwhile, was our old acquaintance--the Fostât, with her party of gentlemen; yonder the Zenobia, all ladies; the little Alice, with Sir J. C---- and Mr. W---- on board; the Sirena, flying with stars and stripes; the Mansoorah, bound presently for the Fayûm. To these were next day added the Ebers, with a couple of German savants; and the Bagstones, welcome back from Wady Halfeh. What with arrivals and departures, exchange of visits, exhibitions of sketches and sociabilities of various kinds, we had now quite a gay time. The Philæ gave a dinner-party and fantasia under the very noses of the colossi and every evening there was drumming and howling enough among the assembled crews to raise the ghosts of Rameses and all his queens. This was pleasant enough while it lasted; but when the strangers dropped off one by one and at the end of three days we were once more alone, I think we were not sorry. The place was, somehow, too solemn for “Singing, laughing, ogling and all that.”