A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

126 ARAB TEMPERANCE.
consist in now and then grounding on a sand-
bank, an occurrence which does not even possess
the questionable merit of rousing us up into a
fright. On these occasions our Arabs throw off
their sole garment, jump into the water like
Newfoundland dogs, and setting their bare shoul-
ders against the keel of the boat, they push her
afloat again to the measured Arab chant of
"Halee sa" (God help) led by one voice, and
taken up in chorus by the rest. They are the
merriest, light-hearted young fellow^s I ever met
with, full of fun and jokes among themselves,
and, from what I have already seen, hard-working
and enduring to a miracle, and gifted with a
sobriety and temperance that would put to the
blush even the famous Temperance Society of
the Pickwick Papers. The other evening after
they had been more than half an hour in the
water, working like horses to right the boat
which had stuck fast upon a sand-bank, we desir-
ed Mohammed to give them either wine or
brandy to make a warm drink for them after
their fatigues. One and all refused anything spi-
rituous, and named coiFee in preference, and
when it was served to them, tired as they were,
they immediately improvised a song upon the oc-
casion, which they sung with a glee quite refresh-