Water for men and animals was obtained from the Nile, _via_ the Sweet Water Canal, which runs a few hundred yards west of the Suez Canal. Darius the Persian is credited with the construction of the Sweet Water Canal, which he used for transport between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. After Actium the remnant of Cleopatra’s galleys took refuge therein. It fell into disuse for centuries, and was restored by de Lesseps as a water-supply for his workmen while the Suez Canal was under construction. There were filtering plants at all pumping stations, and as Nile water contains the parasite of the dreaded disease bilharziosis, there was a strict rule against bathing in the Nile or the Sweet Water Canal. Water for the troops was at first brought in barges from Suez and stored in tanks on both sides of the Suez Canal, being distributed by camel transport to the outposts in _fanatis_. A _fantasse_ (plural, _fanatis_) is a stoppered flat box of zinc which holds from ten to twelve gallons and usually leaks a little. A camel carries a _fantasse_ slung on either side. As the scheme grew the engineers laid a six-inch water-main across the desert, and thus the ancient prophecy that Palestine would never be freed from the Turkish yoke until Nile water flowed into it was fulfilled. [Sidenote: _Shallufa and Suez_] The third line of works was within easy walking distance of the Canal. It was good fun for the veterans of Gallipoli to bandy repartees from the water with the newly-trained drafts for India and Mesopotamia who, looking down upon them from the towering decks of big transports, asked when they were going to “do their bit,” instead of taking a seaside holiday at an Egyptian pleasure-resort. Much booty in the form of tins of cigarettes thrown by passengers on liners was gathered in by bold swimmers. The weather was cool, and, in spite of very strenuous labour in the loose sand, the stay at Shallufa was a pleasant holiday as compared with conditions in Gallipoli. The sandstorms of March were decidedly unpleasant, however, for the sand penetrated everywhere. To attempt to keep it out of food, equipment, clothing or lungs was quite futile, and a sandstorm would quickly fill the trenches that had been dug at the cost of several days’ steady labour. These sandstorms began with amazing regularity about midday and continued until 6 p.m. All cooking had to be done before or after these hours.