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some other crop, the weight being considerable. To get an easy carriage for the basket the weight must be as nearly perpendicular over the feet as possible, hence her back must be straight and her head erect, and to prevent the basket falling, the walk must be even and graceful. We passed hundreds of these women stepping it out along the roads bound for the village markets. Occasionally they are accompanied by t heir men folk in which case the man would ride on a donkey whilst the woman would walk behind and carry the load on her head. There is no doubt we spoil our women in Australia
Several of the Australian State Governments have irrigation schemes before them, but for some reason or other they hesitate about getting on with the work. If they could only see what has been done in Egypt where there is absolutely no rainfall to help the schemes, they would not hesitate one moment.
Alexandria was reached at 1.30 p.m. after a most unpleasant trip. The novelty of riding in a coal truck wears off in about five minutes and to have to spend 6 ½ hours in one is a severe punishment. Unfortunately our trucks were near the engine and this obsolete vehicle sprayed us with live cinders up to the size of peas. If they hit you on the face they hurt and if they landed on your clothes unnoticed they burnt holes. I had a hole as big as a shilling burnt out of the pocket of the best tunic I possess and then when I put an overcoat on, I had this burnt in places, not to mention a big bit burnt out of my hat which was blazing away freely what time I was searching my clothes for the cause of the smell of burning. Alexandria is not a very interesting place which is generally the case with sea ports which live entirely on the shipping of the Port. Our troop train ran right on to the wharf along-