The second construction train had reached the scene of
active operations just before we arrived, and the desert fairly hummed
with busy turmoil. It has been given but to few to see a railway line
made and used while you wait. Yet we had that experience on this
afternoon. Everything was done at once. The long train moves slowly
toward the end of the rails, getting as near to the bare bank as is
possible. So soon as she stops, an eager army of workers attack her,
with, of course, much wild noise of strange rhythmic chant. To the
uninitiated this onslaught of the workers on the train bears all the
appearance of a raid, yet, should one watch awhile, it gradually dawns
upon one that marvellous orderliness and most studied method underlie
every seemingly wild movement. The engine stops--say, ten rail lengths
from the end of the track--and the game begins. The rail-cars are in
front, just behind the tender, with the rails neatly ranged on racks. At
once to either side of each rail-car rushes a party of, if Egyptians,
eight men, if blacks, ten, upon whose padded shoulders the ton of
sun-heated metal is placed by the car party.
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