…there appeared a dark line on the edge of the forward horizon, and soon the line deepened into a delicate fringe which sparkled here and there as though it were sown with diamonds. Then before me were the gardens and minarets of Egypt, and the mighty works of the Nile, and I (the eternal Ego that I am!)- I had lived to see, and I saw.
-Alexander William Kinglake, Eothen, 1844
Those diamonds were moving fast, towards me…camel merchants, swarming the herd, riding donkeys at a fast trot, chalk-marking the flanks of those they wanted for first dibs. Nevertheless it was pleasant to see the Nile and its greenery after the last two desert weeks past Dongola. Was it egotistical of me to think, Hamdillah ‘Ala Salāmti, Praise to God for My Safe Delivery? and not to think of camels marching on to the slaughterhouse?