Wherever there is a stretch of cultivated land, a village of mud and stone huts has grown up, and such villages spot the banks for hundreds of miles. At times there is no green except between village and river, and one wonders how men can be born and live and die there. Nevertheless, there are more than one hundred thousand people to whom this region is the centre of the world. Though much of this Nile border is too narrow for profitable cultivation, it is very fertile and raises excellent cotton. At present the other chief crops are wheat, barley, and millet, and the chief fruit is dates, which are sweeter and larger than those grown farther down the Nile valley. Indeed, the date trees that one sees almost everywhere along the banks are a source of revenue for the government, which taxes them at the rate of ten cents per tree. [Illustration: “On the _Ibis_ we make about six miles an hour as our dusky Nubian pilot corkscrews up the Nile. Fortunately we are almost free from the myriad flies, the modern plague of Egypt.”] [Illustration: Though the Aswan Dam has been of inestimable benefit to Egypt, the whole world shares regret that when the sluice gates are closed the water backs up and submerges Pharaoh’s Bed and other ancient ruins on the Island of Philæ.] The steamer _Ibis_, on which I have been travelling, is one of the little vessels of the Sudan government which go twice a week from Shellal, just above the Aswan Dam, to Wady Halfa, where the railroad across the desert begins. The ship is a sternwheeler, much like those on some of our rivers. It is about twenty feet wide, one hundred and fifty feet long, and draws only six inches. We make about six miles per hour, and our pilot, a dark-faced, short-bearded Nubian in turban and gown, corkscrews his course from one side of the river to the other as we wind our way up the stream. We fly the Egyptian and Sudanese flags, but the steamer belongs to the government of the Sudan which means it is British. The captain, however, is a German, and the rest of the crew are Nubians, most of whom are as black as your shoes. The captain speaks German, French, English, and Arabic. He attends to everything connected with the steamer, even to the meals and the proper table service. Our waiters are black-faced Nubians in long white gowns and sashes of bright red. They wear white turbans, and their feet are either bare or shod in red slippers. I find the steamer comfortable and the company agreeable. The boat has two decks. On the lower one are thirty cabins and the dining room, where our meals are served table d’hôte. Over the upper deck an awning is stretched, so that we can sit and watch the scenery as we go up the river.