“It’s a long way to Nebrasky,” Augustus said.
-Lonesome Dove, Chapter 35
Beware of trying to learn place names from long distance trail drovers who aren’t from around them there parts. I asked KhairAllah the name of the last Egyptian well we drew from before getting to Binban. Kalābish, he said, and I pronounced it that way for years until I finally learned to say it correctly as Kalabsha, famous for a Pharaonic temple that was moved away from Lake Nasser’s rising waters when they closed the High Dam. So i guessed that KhairAllah’s pronouncing it as Kalābish is something like Augustus saying Nebrasky. Or was it because it reminded him of home, Dar al-Kababish?