Aut Nilus, aut nihil!
-The River War, Winston Churchill
Like the Bard before them, the drovers had little Latin and even less need for it. Mā Nīl, Mā Nishrab, they instead might say, No Nile, No Drinking. But Sir Winston’s The Nile or Nothing would have made no sense to them because they had wells…’Idd Ahmad, Mahtoul, Al-Sāfia, and we drank sweet water from them all.