The South-Eastern Desert of Egypt is inhabited by nomad Arabs of the various Ababda and Bisharin tribes.[55] Ababda (Ashabab and Meleikab) occupy the country north of Muqsim and Bir Shalatein, while Bisharin (Hamedorab, Kurbeilab, Koatil, and Balgab) inhabit the country to the south.[56] Only guesses are available as to their numbers, but it is not probable that they comprise so much as one inhabitant for each five square kilometres. A casual journey through the country would lead one to think that it was inhabited to an even less degree, but the Arabs mostly camp in selected narrow wadis out of sight of the traveller. They are a people of good physique, hardy, intelligent, and fair workers if once their employer knows how to handle them. They share, however, in the universal Bedouin dislike to protracted regular work; after a few months of regular routine, even the semi-nomad routine of a survey-expedition, they experience strong desires for their own independent roaming life, and it is impossible to retain them for longer periods. Many of the Ababda who are settled near the Nile have lost their true desert character, and on desert expeditions men of this class are far less satisfactory than nomads; they do not know the country, but fear the desert and are continually desirous of returning to the valley. The better desert guides, on the other hand, love the wilderness, and they have a perfectly marvellous geographic instinct. The skeleton on which they arrange their knowledge is always the system of drainage. If a map of their country is laid before them, and a few points named to them, they will delight in tracing out and naming all the wadis and peaks. But they have very vague ideas of proportion, and can only read a map when it is laid on the ground in its true orientation with respect to the meridian. The Ababda are generally regarded as the best type of Egyptian desert Arab, while my experience of the Bisharin of the Elba district is that they are superior, in industry, intelligence, truthfulness, and orderliness, to the Ababda.[57] It is, however, necessary either to understand the Bishari tongue, or to have men who can interpret into Arabic, as the great mass of the Bisharin understand only their own language, which is quite different from Arabic.[58] Education is very backward, but there is a _kuttab_ (elementary school) at Halaib, where instruction in Arabic reading and writing is given to boys. All the Arabs are of course Moslems, but they are not at all fanatical. PLATE V. [Illustration: Tomb of Sheikh Shadli.] [Illustration: Bir Shadli.]