A mouse is in the stores ! Sitt^ the sail-
ors, and the cook are all unable to catch
him in the first efforts ; but he darts here
and there once too often, and is at last
caught by the tail. To the surprise of all of
us, his tail comes off ! So Si^ supposes that
he will run away and raise a new family of
tailless or Manx mice. Perhaps he belongs
to the mouse tribe which cut the Assyrians'
bow-strings when the Egyptians went out to
fight the hosts of Sennacherib, king of
Assyria. We have no bow-strings to nibble,
but many things that perhaps the mice of
these days like better.
The crew's rations are so low that we
may be implored to give of our plenty, and
though it is n't in the contract to feed them,
they would not mind our breaking it in this
particular. In fact, that contract seems made



166 OUR HOUSEBOAT ON THE NILE

to be broken. We had supposed that native
bread could be bought alongshore, but the
people of this latitude do not seem to eat
bread, and our servants are really in need of
their strange flat little loaves, in substance
more like the Mexican tortillas than any-
thing Sitt has elsewhere seen.
