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TO MR. A. C. DUNHAM, AND THE VOYAGERS ON THE DAHABEËH “RIP VAN WINKLE,” THIS IMPERFECT RECORD OF THEIR EXPERIENCE IS DEDICATED.
TO MR. A. C. DUNHAM, AND THE VOYAGERS ON THE DAHABEËH “RIP VAN WINKLE,” THIS IMPERFECT RECORD OF THEIR EXPERIENCE IS DEDICATED.
O Commander of the Faithful. Egypt is a compound of black earth and green plants, between a pulverized mountain and a red sand. Along the valley descends a river, on which the blessing of the Most High reposes both in the evening and the morning, and which rises and falls with the revolutions of the sun and moon. According to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the country is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest. From Amrou, Conqueror of
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CHAPT. I.—AT THE GATES OF THE EAST.
CHAPT. I.—AT THE GATES OF THE EAST.
The Mediterranean—The East unlike the West—A World risked for a Woman—An Unchanging World and a Pickle Sea—Still an Orient—Old Fashions—A Journey without Reasons—Off for the Orient—Leaving Naples—A Shaky Court—A Deserted District—Ruins of Pæstum—Temple of Neptune—Entrance to Purgatory—Safety Valves of the World—Enterprising Natives—Sunset on the Sea—Sicily—Crete—Our Passengers—The Hottest place on Record—An American Tourist—An Evangelical Dentist—On a Secret Mission—The Vanquished Dignitary...
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CHAPT. II.—WITHIN THE PORTALS.
CHAPT. II.—WITHIN THE PORTALS.
Africa—Alexandria—Strange Contrasts—A New World—Nature—First View of the Orient—Hotel Europe—Mixed Nationalities—The First Backsheesh—Street Scenes in Alexandria—Familiar Pictures Idealized—Cemetery Day—A Novel Turn Out—A Moslem Cemetery—New Terrors for Death—Pompey's Pillar—Our First Camel—Along the Canal—Departed Glory—A set of Fine Fellows—Our Handsome Dragomen—Bazaars—Universal Good Humor—A Continuous Holiday—Private life in Egypt—Invisible Blackness—The Land of Color and the Sun—A Casino...
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CHAPT. III.—EGYPT OF TO-DAY.
CHAPT. III.—EGYPT OF TO-DAY.
Railways—Our Valiant Dragomen—A Hand-to-Hand Struggle—Alexandria to Cairo—Artificial Irrigation—An Arab Village—The Nile—Egyptian Festivals—Pyramids of Geezeh—Cairo—Natural Queries....
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CHAPT. IV.—CAIRO.
CHAPT. IV.—CAIRO.
A Rhapsody—At Shepherd's—Hotel life, Egyptian plan—English Noblemen—Life in the Streets—The Valuable Donkey and his Driver—The “swell tiling” in Cairo—A hint for Central Park—Eunuchs—“Yankee Doodles” of Cairo—A Representative Arab—Selecting Dragomen—The Great Business of Egypt—An Egyptian Market-Place—A Substitute for Clothes—Dahabeëhs of the Nile—A Protracted Negotiation—Egyptian wiles...
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CHAPT. V.—ON THE BAZAAR.
CHAPT. V.—ON THE BAZAAR.
Sight Seeing in Cairo—An Eastern Bazaar—Courteous Merchants—The Honored Beggar—Charity to be Rewarded—A Moslem Funeral—The Gold Bazaar—Shopping for a Necklace—Conducting a Bride Home—A Partnership matter—Early Marriages and Decay—Longings for Youth...
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CHAPT. VI.—MOSQUES AND TOMBS.
CHAPT. VI.—MOSQUES AND TOMBS.
The Sirocco—The Desert—The Citadel of Cairo—Scene of the Massacre of the Memlooks—The World's Verdict—The Mosque of Mohammed Ali—Tomb of the Memlook Sultans—Life out of Death...
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CHAPT. VII.—MOSLEM WORSHIP—THE CALL TO PRATER.
CHAPT. VII.—MOSLEM WORSHIP—THE CALL TO PRATER.
An Enjoyable City—Definition of Conscience—“Prayer is better than Sleep”—Call of the Muezzin—Moslems at Prayer—Interior of a Mosque—Oriental Architecture—The Slipper Fitters—Devotional Washing—An Inman's Supplications...
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CHAPT. VIII.—THE PYRAMIDS.
CHAPT. VIII.—THE PYRAMIDS.
Ancient Sepulchres—Grave Robbers—The Poor Old Mummy—The Oldest Monument in the World—First View of the Pyramids—The resident Bedaween—Ascending the Steps—Patent Elevators—A View from the Top—The Guide's Opinions—Origin of “Murray's Guide Book”—Speculations on the Pyramids—The Interior—Absolute Night—A Taste of Death—The Sphinx—Domestic Life in a Tomb—Souvenirs of Ancient Egypt—Backsheesh!...
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CHAPT. IX.—PREPARATIONS FOR A VOYAGE.
CHAPT. IX.—PREPARATIONS FOR A VOYAGE.
A Weighty Question—The Seasons Bewitched—Poetic Dreams Realized—Egyptian Music—Public Garden—A Wonderful Rock—Its Patrons—The Playing Band—Native Love Songs—The Howling Derweeshes—An Exciting Performance—The Shakers put to Shame—Descendants of the Prophet—An Ancient Saracenic Home—The Land of the Elea and the Copt—Historical Curiosities—Preparing for our Journey—Laying in of Medicines and Rockets—A Determination to be Liberal—Official life in Egypt—An Interview with the Bey—Paying for our Rocket
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CHAPT. X.—ON THE NILE.
CHAPT. X.—ON THE NILE.
On Board the “Rip Van Winkle”—A Farewell Dinner—The Three Months Voyage Commenced—On the Nile—Our Pennant's Device—Our Dahabeëh—Its Officers and Crew—Types of Egyptian Races—The Kingdom of the “Stick”—The false Pyramid of Maydoon—A Night on the River—Curious Crafts—Boat Races on the Nile—Native Villages—Songs of the Sailors—Incidents of the Day—The Copts—The Patriarch—The Monks of Gebel é Tayr—Disappointment all Round—A Royal Luxury—The Banks of the Nile—Gum Arabic—Unfair Reports of us—Speed of
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CHAPT. XI.—PEOPLE ON THE RIVER BANK.
CHAPT. XI.—PEOPLE ON THE RIVER BANK.
Sunday on the Nile—A Calm—A Land of Tombs—A New Divinity—Burial of a Child—A Sunday Companion on Shore—A Philosophical People—No Sunday Clothes—The Aristocratic Bedaween—The Sheykh—Rare Specimens for the Centennial—Tracts Needed—Woman's Rights—Pigeons and Cranes—Balmy Winter Nights—Tracking—Copying Nature in Dress—Resort of Crocodiles—A Hermit's Cave—Waiting for Nothing—Crocodile Mummies—The Boatmen's Song—Furling Sails—Life Again—Pictures on the Nile....
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CHAPT. XII.—SPENDING CHRISTMAS ON THE NILE.
CHAPT. XII.—SPENDING CHRISTMAS ON THE NILE.
Independence in Spelling—Asioot—Christmas Day—The American Consul—A Visit to the Pasha—Conversing by an Interpreter—The Ghawazees at Home—Ancient Sculpture—Bird's Eye View of the Nile—Our Christmas Dinner—Our Visitor—Grand Reception—The Fire Works—Christmas Eve on the Nile...
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CHAPT. XIII.—SIGHTS AND SCENES ON THE RIVER.
CHAPT. XIII.—SIGHTS AND SCENES ON THE RIVER.
Ancient and Modern Ruins—“We Pay Toll—Cold Weather—Night Sailing—Farshoot—A Visit from the Bey—The Market-Place—The Sakiyas or Water Wheels—The Nile is Egypt...
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CHAPT. XIV.—MIDWINTER IN EGYPT.
CHAPT. XIV.—MIDWINTER IN EGYPT.
Midwinter in Egypt—Slaves of Time—Where the Water Jars are Made—Coming to Anchor and how it was Done—New Years—” Smits” Copper Popularity—Great Strength of the Women—Conscripts for the Army—Conscription a Good Thing—On the Threshold of Thebes...
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CHAPT. XV.—AMONG THE RUINS OF THEBES.
CHAPT. XV.—AMONG THE RUINS OF THEBES.
Situation of the City—Ruins—Questions—Luxor—Ivarnak—Glorification of the Pharaohs—Sculptures in Stone—The Twin Colossi—Four Hundred Miles in Sixteen Days...
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CHAPT. XVI.—HISTORY IN STONE.
CHAPT. XVI.—HISTORY IN STONE.
A Dry City—A Strange Circumstance—A Pleasant Residence—Life on the Dahabeëh—Illustrious Visitors—Nose-Rings and Beauty—Little Fatimeh—A Mummy Hand and Thoughts upon it—Plunder of the Tombs—Exploits of the Great Sesostris—Gigantic Statues and their Object—Skill of Ancient Artists—Criticisms—Christian Churches and Pagan Temples—Society—A Peep into an Ancient Harem—Statue of Meiùnon—Mysteries—Pictures of Heroic Girls—Women in History...
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CHAPT. XVII.—KARNAK.
CHAPT. XVII.—KARNAK.
An Egyptian Carriage—Wonderful Ruins—The Great Hall of Sethi—The Largest Obelisk in The World—A City of Temples and Palaces...
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CHAPT. XVIII.—ASCENDING THE RIVER.
CHAPT. XVIII.—ASCENDING THE RIVER.
Ascending the River—An Exciting Boat Race—Inside a Sugar Factory—Setting Fire to a Town—Who Stole the Rockets?—Striking Contrasts—A Jail—The Kodi or Judge—What we saw at Assouan—A Gale—Ruins of Kom Ombos—Mysterious Movement—Land of Eternal Leisure...
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CHAPT. XIX.—PASSING THE CATARACT OF THE NILE.
CHAPT. XIX.—PASSING THE CATARACT OF THE NILE.
Passing the Cataract of the Nile—Nubian Hills in Sight—Island of Elephantine—Ownership of the Cataract—Difficulties of the Ascent—Negotiations for a Passage—Items about Assouan—Off for the Cataracts—Our Cataract Crew—First Impressions of the Cataract—In the Stream—Excitement—Audacious Swimmers—Close Steering—A Comical Orchestra—The Final Struggle—Victory—Above the Rapids—The Temple of Isis—Ancient Kings and Modern Conquerors...
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CHAPT. XX.—ON THE BORDERS OF THE DESERT.
CHAPT. XX.—ON THE BORDERS OF THE DESERT.
Ethiopia—Relatives of the Ethiopians—Negro Land—Ancestry of the Negro—Conversion Made Easy—A Land of Negative Blessings—Cool air from the Desert—Abd-el-Atti's Opinions—A Land of Comfort—Nubian Costumes—Turning the Tables—The Great Desert—Sin, Grease and Taxes...
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CHAPT. XXI.—ETHIOPIA.
CHAPT. XXI.—ETHIOPIA.
Primitive Attire—The Snake Charmer—A House full of Snakes—A Writ of Ejectments—Natives—The Tomb of Mohammed—Disasters—A Dandy Pilate—Nubian Beauty—Opening a Baby's Eyes—A Nubian Pigville...
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CHAPT. XXII.—LIFE IN THE TROPICS—WADY HALFA.
CHAPT. XXII.—LIFE IN THE TROPICS—WADY HALFA.
Life in the Tropics—Wady Haifa—Capital of Nubia—The Centre of Fashion—The Southern Cross—Castor Oil Plantations—Justice to a Thief—Abd-el-Atti's Court—Mourning for the Dead—Extreme of our Journey—A Comical Celebration—The March of Civilization....
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CHAPT. XXIII.—APPROACHING THE SECOND CATARACT.
CHAPT. XXIII.—APPROACHING THE SECOND CATARACT.
Two Ways to See It—Pleasures of Canal Riding—Bird's Eye View of the Cataracts—Signs of Wealth—Wady Haifa—A Nubian Belle—Classic Beauty—A Greek Bride—Interviewing a Crocodile—Joking with a Widow—A Model Village...
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CHAPT. XXIV.—GIANTS IN STONE.
CHAPT. XXIV.—GIANTS IN STONE.
The Colossi of Aboo Simbel, the largest in the World—Bombast—Exploits of Remeses II.—A Mysterious Temple—Feting Ancient Deities—Guardians of the Nile—The Excavated Rock—The Temple—A Row of Sacred Monkeys—Our Last View of The Giants...
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CHAPT. XXV.—FLITTING THROUGH NUBIA.
CHAPT. XXV.—FLITTING THROUGH NUBIA.
Learning the Language—Models of Beauty—Cutting up a Crocodile—Egyptian Loafers—A Modern David—A Present—Our Menagerie—The Chameleon—Woman's Rights—False Prophets—Incidents—The School Master at Home—Confusion—Too Much Conversion—Charity—Wonderful Birds at Mecca...
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CHAPT. XXVI.—MYSTERIOUS PHILÆ.
CHAPT. XXVI.—MYSTERIOUS PHILÆ.
Leave “well enough” Alone—The Myth of Osiris—The Heights of Biggeh—Cleopatra's Favorite Spot—A Legend—Mr. Fiddle—Dreamland—Waiting for a Prince—An Inland Excursion—Quarries—Adieu...
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CHAPT. XXVII.—RETURNING
CHAPT. XXVII.—RETURNING
Downward Run—Kidnapping a Sheykh—Blessed with Relatives—Making the Chute—Artless Children—A Model of Integrity—Justice—An Accident—Leaving Nubia—A Perfect Shame...
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CHAPT. XXVIII.—MODERN FACTS AND ANCIENT MEMORIES.
CHAPT. XXVIII.—MODERN FACTS AND ANCIENT MEMORIES.
The Mysterious Pebble—Ancient Quarries—Prodigies of Labor—Humor in Stone—A Simoon—Famous Grottoes—Naughty Attractions—Bogus Relics—Antiquity Smith...
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CHAPT. XXIX.—THE FUTURE OF THE MUMMY'S SOUL.
CHAPT. XXIX.—THE FUTURE OF THE MUMMY'S SOUL.
Ancient Egyptian Literature—Mummies—A Visit to the Tombs—Disturbing the Dead—The Funeral Ritual—Unpleasant Explorations A Mummy in Pledge—A Desolate Way—Buried Secrets—Building for Eternity—Before the Judgment Seat—Weighed in the Balance The Habitation of the Dead—Illuminated—Accommodations for the Mummy—The Pharaoh of the Exodus—A Baby Charon—Bats...
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CHAPT. XXX.—FAREWELL TO THEBES.
CHAPT. XXX.—FAREWELL TO THEBES.
Social Festivities—An Oriental Dinner—Dancing Girls—Honored by the Sultan—The Native Consul—Finger Feeding—A Dance—Ancient Style of Dancing—The Poetry of Night—Karnak by Moonlight—Amusements at Luxor—Farewell to Thebes...
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CHAPT. XXXI.—LOITERING BY THE WAY.
CHAPT. XXXI.—LOITERING BY THE WAY.
“Very Grammatick”—The Lying in Temple—A Holy Man—Scarecrows—Asinine Performers—Antiquity—Old Masters—Profit and Loss—Hopeless “Fellahs”—Lion's Oil—A Bad Reputation—An Egyptian Mozart...
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CHAPT. XXXII.—JOTTINGS.
CHAPT. XXXII.—JOTTINGS.
Mission School—Education of Women—Contrasts—A Mirage—Tracks of Successive Ages—Bathers—Tombs of the Sacred Bulls—Religion and Grammar—Route to Darfoor—Winter Residence of the Holy Family—Grottoes—Mistaken Views—Dust and Ashes—Osman Bey—A Midsummer's Night Dream—Ruins of Memphis—Departed Glory—A Second Visit to the Pyramids of Geezeh—An Artificial Mother...
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CHAPT. XXXIII.—THE KHEDIVE.
CHAPT. XXXIII.—THE KHEDIVE.
Al Gezereh—Aboo Yusef the Owner—Cairo Again—A Question—The Khedive—Solomon and the Viceroy—The Khedive's Family Expenses—Another Joseph—Personal Government—Docks of Cairo—Raising Mud—Popular Superstitions—Leave Taking...
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CHAPT. XXXIV.—THE WOODEN MAN.
CHAPT. XXXIV.—THE WOODEN MAN.
Visiting a Harem—A Reception—The Khedive at Home—Ladies of the Harem—Wife of Tufik Pasha—The Mummy—The Wooden Man Discoveries of Mariette Bey—Egypt and Greece Compared—Learned Opinions...
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CHAPT. XXXV.—ON THE WAY HOME.
CHAPT. XXXV.—ON THE WAY HOME.
Leaving our Dahabeeh—The Baths in Cairo—Curious Mode of Execution—The Guzeereh Palace—Empress Eugenia's Sleeping Room—Medallion of Benjamin Franklin in Egypt—Heliopolis—The Bedaween Bride—Holy Places—The Resting Place of the Virgin Mary—Fashionable Drives—The Shoobra Palace—Forbidden Books—A Glimpse of a Bevy of Ladies—Uncomfortable Guardians....
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CHAPT. XXXVI.—BY THE RED SEA.
CHAPT. XXXVI.—BY THE RED SEA.
Following the Track of the Children of Israel—Routes to Suez—Temples—Where was the Red Sea Crossed?—In sight of the Bitter Lakes—Approaching the Red Sea—Faith—The Suez Canal—The Wells of Moses—A Sentimental Pilgrimage—Price of one of the Wells—Miriam of Marah—Water of the Wells—Returning to Suez—A Caravan of Bedaweens—Lunch Baskets searched by Custom Officers—The Commerce of the East...
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CHAPT. XXXVII.—EASTWARD HO.
CHAPT. XXXVII.—EASTWARD HO.
Leaving Suez—Ismailia—The Lotus—A Miracle—Egyptian Steamer—Information Sought—The Great Highway—Port Said—Abd-el-Atti again—Great Honors Lost—Farewell to Egypt...
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CHAPTER I.—AT THE GATES OF THE EAST.
CHAPTER I.—AT THE GATES OF THE EAST.
T HE Mediterranean still divides the East from the West. Ages of traffic and intercourse across its waters have not changed this fact; neither the going of armies nor of embassies, Northmen forays nor Saracenic maraudings, Christian crusades nor Turkish invasions, neither the borrowing from Egypt of its philosophy and science, nor the stealing of its precious monuments of antiquity, down to its bones, not all the love-making, slave-trading, war-waging, not all the commerce of four thousand years
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CHAPTER II.—WITHIN THE PORTALS.
CHAPTER II.—WITHIN THE PORTALS.
E AGERNESS to see Africa brings us on deck at dawn. The low coast is not yet visible. Africa, as we had been taught, lies in heathen darkness. It is the policy of the Egyptian government to make the harbor difficult of access to hostile men-of-war, and we, who are peacefully inclined, cannot come in till daylight, nor then without a pilot. The day breaks beautifully, and the Pharos is set like a star in the bright streak of the East. Before we can distinguish land, we see the so-called Pompey's
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CHAPTER III.—EGYPT OF TO-DAY.
CHAPTER III.—EGYPT OF TO-DAY.
E GYPT has excellent railways. There is no reason why it should not have. They are made without difficulty and easily maintained in a land of no frosts; only where they touch the desert an occasional fence is necessary against the drifting sand. The rails are laid, without wooden sleepers, on iron saucers, with connecting bands, and the track is firm and sufficiently elastic. The express train travels the 131 miles to Cairo in about four and a half hours, running with a punctuality, and with Egy
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CHAPTER IV.—CAIRO.
CHAPTER IV.—CAIRO.
O CAIRO! Cairo! Masr-el-Kaherah, The Victorious! City of the Caliphs, of Salah-e'-deen, of the Memlooks! Town of mediaeval romance projected into a prosaic age! More Oriental than Damascus, or Samarcand. Vast, sprawling city, with dilapidated Saracenic architecture, pretentious modern barrack-palaces, new villas and gardens, acres of compacted, squalid, unsunned dwellings. Always picturesque, lamentably dirty, and thoroughly captivating. Shall we rhapsodize over it, or attempt to describe it? Fo
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CHAPTER V.—IN THE BAZAAR.
CHAPTER V.—IN THE BAZAAR.
O UR sight-seeing in Cairo is accomplished under the superintendence of another guide and dragoman, a cheerful, willing, good-natured and careful Moslem, with one eye. He looks exactly like the one-eyed calender of the story; and his good eye has a humorous and inquiring twinkle in it. His name is Hassan, but he prefers to be called Hadji, the name he has taken since he made the pilgrimage to Mecca. A man who has made the pilgrimage is called “the hhâgg,” a woman “the hhâggeh.”—often spelled and
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CHAPTER VI.—MOSQUES AND TOMBS.
CHAPTER VI.—MOSQUES AND TOMBS.
W HAT we in Cairo like most to do, is to do nothing in the charming winter weather—to postpone the regular and necessary sight-seeing to that limbo to which the Arabs relegate everything— bookra , that is, tomorrow. Why not as well go to the Pyramids or to Heliopolis or to the tombs of the Memlooks tomorrow! It is to be the same fair weather; we never plan an excursion, with the proviso, “If it does not rain.” This calm certainty of a clear sky adds twenty-five per cent, to the value of life. An
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CHAPTER VII.—MOSLEM WORSHIP.—THE CALL TO PRAYER.
CHAPTER VII.—MOSLEM WORSHIP.—THE CALL TO PRAYER.
I SHOULD like to go once to an interesting city where there are no sights. That city could be enjoyed; and conscience—which never leaves any human being in peace until it has nagged him into a perfect condition morally, and keeps punching him about frivolous little details of duty, especially at the waking morning hour—would not come to insert her thumb among the rosy fingers of the dawn. Perhaps I do not make myself clear about conscience. Conscience is a kind of gastric juice that gnaws upon t
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CHAPTER VIII.—THE PYRAMIDS.
CHAPTER VIII.—THE PYRAMIDS.
T HE ancient Egyptians of the Upper Country excavated sepulchres for their great dead in the solid rocks of the mountain; the dwellers in the lower country built a mountain of stone in which to hide the royal mummy. In the necropolis at Thebes there are the vast rock-tombs of the kings; at Sakkara and Geezeh stand the Pyramids. On the upper Nile isolated rocks and mountains cut the sky in pyramidal forms; on the lower Nile the mountain ranges run level along the horizon, and the constructed pyra
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CHAPTER IX.—PREPARATIONS FOR A VOYAGE.
CHAPTER IX.—PREPARATIONS FOR A VOYAGE.
W E are giving our minds to a name for our dahabeëh. The owners have desired us to christen it, and the task is getting heavy. Whatever we are doing; guiding a donkey through the mazes of a bazaar; eating oranges at the noon breakfast; watching the stream of color and fantastic apparel, swaying camels and dashing harem-equipage with running saïses and outriding eunuchs, flowing by the hotel; following a wedding procession in its straggling parade, or strolling vacantly along, knocked, jostled, e
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CHAPTER X.—ON THE NILE.
CHAPTER X.—ON THE NILE.
W E have taken possession of our dahabeëh, which lies moored under the bank, out of the current, on the west side of the river above the bridge. On the top of the bank are some structures that seem to be only mounds and walls of mud, but they are really “brivate houses,” and each one has a wooden door, with a wooden lock and key. Here, as at every other rod of the river, where the shore will permit, the inhabitants come to fill their water-jars, to wash clothes, to bathe, or to squat on their he
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CHAPTER XI.—PEOPLE ON THE RIVER BANKS.
CHAPTER XI.—PEOPLE ON THE RIVER BANKS.
T HE morning puts a new face on our affairs. It is Sunday, and the most devout could not desire a quieter day. There is a thick fog on the river, and not breeze enough stirring to show the stripes on our flag; the boat holds its own against the current by a sort of accumulated impulse. During the night we may have made five miles altogether, and now we barely crawl. We have run our race; if we have not come into a haven, we are at a stand-still, and it does not seem now as if we ever should wake
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CHAPTER XII.—SPENDING CHRISTMAS ON THE NILE.
CHAPTER XII.—SPENDING CHRISTMAS ON THE NILE.
P ROBABLY this present writer has the distinction of being the only one who has written about the Nile and has not invented a new way of spelling the name of the town whose many minarets and brown roofs are visible over the meadows. It is written Asioot, Asyoot, Asiüt, Ssout, Siôout, Osyoot, Osioot, O'Sioôt, Siüt, Sioot, O'siout, Si-ôôt, Siout, Syouth, and so on, indefinitely. People take the liberty to spell names as they sound to them, and there is consequently a pleasing variety in the names
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CHAPTER XIII.—SIGHTS AND SCENES ON THE RIVER.
CHAPTER XIII.—SIGHTS AND SCENES ON THE RIVER.
A S WE sail down into the heart of Egypt and into the remote past, living in fact, by books and by eye-sight, in eras so far-reaching that centuries count only as years in them, the word “ancient” gets a new signification. We pass every day ruins, ruins of the Old Empire, of the Middle Empire, of the Ptolomies, of the Greeks, of the Romans, of the Christians, of the Saracens; but nothing seems ancient to us any longer except the remains of Old Egypt. We have come to have a singular contempt for
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CHAPTER XIV.—MIDWINTER IN EGYPT.
CHAPTER XIV.—MIDWINTER IN EGYPT.
W HETHER we go north or south, or wait for some wandering, unemployed wind to take us round the next bend, it is all the same to us. We have ceased to care much for time, and I think we shall adopt the Assyrian system of reckoning. The period of the precession of the equinoxes was regarded as one day of the life of the universe; and this day equals 43,200 of our years. This day, of 43,200 years, the Assyrians divided into twelve cosmic hours or “sars,” each one of 3,600 years; each of these hour
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CHAPTER XV.—AMONG THE RUINS OF THEBES.
CHAPTER XV.—AMONG THE RUINS OF THEBES.
Y OU need not fear that you are to have inflicted upon you a description of Thebes, its ruins of temples, its statues, obelisks, pylons, tombs, holes in the ground, mummy-pits and mounds, with an attempt to reconstruct the fabric of its ancient splendor, and present you, gratis, the city as it was thirty-five hundred years ago, when Egypt was at the pinnacle of her glory, the feet of her kings were on the necks of every nation, and this, her capital, gorged with the spoils of near and distant ma
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CHAPTER XVI.—HISTORY IN STONE.
CHAPTER XVI.—HISTORY IN STONE.
I T NEVER rains at Thebes; you begin with that fact. But everybody is anxious to have it rain, so that he can say, “It rained when I was at Thebes, for the first time in four thousand years.” It has not rained for four thousand years, and the evidence of this is that no representation of rain is found in any of the sculptures on temples or monuments; and all Egyptologists know that what is not found thus represented has had no existence. To-day, it rained for the first time in four thousand year
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CHAPTER XVII.—KARNAK.
CHAPTER XVII.—KARNAK.
T HE WEATHER is almost unsettled. There was actually a dash of rain against the cabin window last night—over before you could prepare an affidavit to the fact—and today is cold, more or less cloudy with a drop, only a drop, of rain occasionally. Besides, the wind is in the south-west and the sand flies. We cannot sail, and decide to visit Karnak, in spite of the entreaty of the hand-book to leave this, as the crown of all sight-seeing, until we have climbed up to its greatness over all the lesse
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CHAPTER XVIII.—ASCENDING THE RIVER.
CHAPTER XVIII.—ASCENDING THE RIVER.
W E resume our voyage on the sixth of January, but we leave a hostage at Luxor as we did at Asioot. This is a sailor who became drunk and turbulent last night on hasheesh, and was sent to the governor. We found him this morning with a heavy chain round his neck and tied to a stake in one corner of the court-yard of the house where the governor has his office. I think he might have pulled up the stake and run away; but I believe it is not considered right here for a prisoner to escape. The common
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CHAPTER XIX.—PASSING THE CATARACT OF THE NILE.
CHAPTER XIX.—PASSING THE CATARACT OF THE NILE.
A T LAST, twenty-four days from Cairo, the Nubian hills are in sight, lifting themselves up in the south, and we appear to be getting into the real Africa—Africa, which still keeps its barbarous secret, and dribbles down this commercial highway the Nile, as it has for thousands of years, its gums and spices and drugs, its tusks and skins of wild animals, its rude weapons and its cunning work in silver, its slave-boys and slave-girls. These native boats that we meet, piled with strange and fragra
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CHAPTER XX.—ON THE BORDERS OF THE DESERT.
CHAPTER XX.—ON THE BORDERS OF THE DESERT.
I N PASSING the First Cataract of the Nile we pass an ancient boundary line; we go from the Egypt of old to the Ethiopia of old; we go from the Egypt proper of to-day, into Nubia. We find a different country, a different river; the people are of another race; they have a different language. We have left the mild, lazy, gentle fellaheen—a mixed lot, but in general of Arabic blood—and come to Barâbra, whose district extends from Philæ to the Second Cataract, a freer, manlier, sturdier people altog
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CHAPTER XXI—ETHIOPIA.
CHAPTER XXI—ETHIOPIA.
I T IS a sparkling morning at Wady Saboda; we have the desert and some of its high, scarred, and sandy pyramidal peaks close to us, but as is usual where a wady, or valley, comes to the river, there is more cultivated land. We see very little of the temple of Rameses II. in this “Valley of the Lions,” nor of the sphinxes in front of it. The desert sand has blown over it and over it in drifts like snow, so that we walk over the buried sanctuary, greatly to our delight. It is a pleasure to find on
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CHAPTER XXII.—LIFE IN THE TROPICS. WADY HALFA.
CHAPTER XXII.—LIFE IN THE TROPICS. WADY HALFA.
O URS is the crew to witch the world with noble seamanship. It is like a first-class orchestra, in which all the performers are artists. Ours are all captains. The reïs is merely an elder brother. The pilot is not heeded at all. With so many intentions on board, it is an hourly miracle that we get on at all. We are approaching the capital of Nubia, trying to get round a sharp bend in the river, with wind adverse, current rapid, sandbars on all sides. Most of the crew are in the water ahead, tryi
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CHAPTER XXIII.—APPROACHING THE SECOND CATARACT.
CHAPTER XXIII.—APPROACHING THE SECOND CATARACT.
THERE are two ways of going to see the Second Cataract and the cliff of Aboosir, which is about six miles above Wady Haifa; one is by small boat, the other by dromedary over the desert. We chose the latter, and the American officers gave us a mount and their company also. Their camp presented a lively scene when we crossed over to it in the morning. They had by requisition pressed into their service three or four hundred camels, and were trying to select out of the lot half a dozen fit to ride.
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CHAPTER XXIV.—GIANTS IN STONE.
CHAPTER XXIV.—GIANTS IN STONE.
W HEN daylight came the Colossi of Aboo Simbel (or Ipsambool) were looking into our windows; greeting the sunrise as they have done every morning for three thousand five hundred years; and keeping guard still over the approach to the temple, whose gods are no longer anywhere recognized, whose religion disappeared from the earth two thousand years ago:—vast images, making an eternity of time in their silent waiting. The river here runs through an unmitigated desert. On the east the sand is brown,
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CHAPTER XXV.—FLITTING THROUGH NUBIA.
CHAPTER XXV.—FLITTING THROUGH NUBIA.
W E HAVE been learning the language. The language consists merely of tyeb . With tyeb in its various accents and inflections, you can carry on an extended conversation. I have heard two Arabs talking for a half hour, in which one of them used no word for reply or response except tyeb “good.” Tyeb is used for assent, agreement, approval, admiration, both interrogatively and affectionately. It does the duty of the Yankee “all right” and the vulgarism “that's so” combined; it has as many meanings a
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CHAPTER XXVI.—MYSTERIOUS PHILÆ.
CHAPTER XXVI.—MYSTERIOUS PHILÆ.
W E are on deck early to see the approach to Philæ, which is through a gateway of high rocks. The scenery is like parts of the Rhine; and as we come in sight of the old mosque perched on the hillside, and the round tomb on the pinnacle above, it is very like the Rhine, with castle ruins. The ragged and rock island of Biggeh rises before us and seems to stop the way, but, at a turn in the river, the little temple, with its conspicuous columns, then the pylon of the great temple, and at length the
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CHAPTER XXVII.—RETURNING.
CHAPTER XXVII.—RETURNING.
W E ARE on deck before sunrise, a film is over the sky and a light breeze blows out our streamer—a bad omen for the passage. The downward run of the Cataract is always made in the early morning, that being the time when there is least likely to be any wind. And a calm is considered absolutely necessary to the safety of the boat. The north wind, which helps the passage up, would be fatal going down. The boat runs with the current, and any exterior disturbance would whirl her about and cast her up
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CHAPTER XXVIII.—MODERN FACTS AND ANCIENT MEMORIES.
CHAPTER XXVIII.—MODERN FACTS AND ANCIENT MEMORIES.
O N a high bluff stands the tottering temple of Kom Ombos conspicuous from a distance, and commanding a dreary waste of desert. Its gigantic columns are of the Ptolemaic time, and the capitals show either Greek influence or the relaxation of the Egyptian hieratic restraint. The temple is double, with two entrances and parallel suites of apartments, a happy idea of the builders, impartially to split the difference between good and evil; one side is devoted to the worship of Horus, the embodiment
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CHAPTER XXIX.—THE FUTURE OF THE MUMMY'S SOUL.
CHAPTER XXIX.—THE FUTURE OF THE MUMMY'S SOUL.
I SHOULD like to give you a conception, however faint, of the Tombs of the ancient Egyptians, for in them is to be found the innermost secret of the character, the belief, the immortal expectation of that accomplished and wise people. A barren description of these places of sepulchre would be of small service to you, for the key would be wanting, and you would be simply confused by a mass of details and measurements, which convey no definite idea to a person who does not see them with his own ey
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CHAPTER XXX.—FAREWELL TO THEBES.
CHAPTER XXX.—FAREWELL TO THEBES.
S OCIAL life at Thebes, in the season, is subject to peculiar conditions. For one thing, you suspect a commercial element in it. Back of all the politeness of native consuls and resident effendis, you see spread out a collection of antiques, veritable belongings of the ancient Egyptians, the furniture of their tombs, the ornaments they wore when they began their last and most solemn journey, the very scarabæus, cut on the back in the likeness of the mysterious eye of Osiris, which the mummy held
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CHAPTER XXXI.—LOITERING BY THE WAY.
CHAPTER XXXI.—LOITERING BY THE WAY.
W E ARE at home again. Our little world, which has been somewhat disturbed by the gaiety of Thebes, and is already as weary of tombs as of temples and of the whole incubus of Egyptian civilization, readjusts itself and settles into its usual placid enjoyment. We have now two gazelles on board, and a most disagreeable lizard, nearly three feet long; I dislike the way his legs are set on his sides; I dislike his tail, which is a fat continuation of his body; and the “feel” of his cold, creeping fl
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CHAPTER XXXII.—JOTTINGS.
CHAPTER XXXII.—JOTTINGS.
L ETTING our dahabeëh drift on in the morning, we spend the day at Assiout, intending to overtake it by a short cut across the oxbow which the river makes here. We saw in the city two examples, very unlike, of the new activity in Egypt. One related to education, the other to the physical development of the country and to conquest. After paying out respects to the consul, we were conducted by his two sons to the Presbyterian Mission-School. These young men were educated at the American College in
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CHAPTER XXXIII.—THE KHEDIVE.
CHAPTER XXXIII.—THE KHEDIVE.
W HAT excitement there is in adjacency to a great city! To hear its inarticulate hum, to feel the thrill of its myriads, the magnetism of a vast society! How the pulse quickens at the mere sight of multitudes of buildings, and the overhanging haze of smoke and dust that covers a little from the sight of the angels the great human struggle and folly. How impatient one is to dive into the ocean of his fellows. The stir of life has multiplied every hour in the past two days. The river swarms with b
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CHAPTER XXXIV.—THE WOODEN MAN.
CHAPTER XXXIV.—THE WOODEN MAN.
T HE Khedive and his court, if it may be so called, are not hedged in by any formidable barriers; but there are peculiarities of etiquette. When his Highness gives a grand ball and public reception, of course only the male members of his household are present, only the men of the Egyptian society; it would in fact be a male assembly but for the foreign ladies visiting or residing in the city. Of course there cannot be any such thing as “society” under such circumstances; and as there are no wome
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CHAPTER XXXV.—ON THE WAY HOME.
CHAPTER XXXV.—ON THE WAY HOME.
F OR two days after the sand-storm, it gives us pleasure to write, the weather was cold, raw, thoroughly unpleasant, resembling dear New England quite enough to make one homesick. As late as the twenty-eighth of March, this was. The fact may be a comfort to those who dwell in a region where winter takes a fresh hold in March. We broke up our establishment on the dahabeëh and moved to the hotel, abandoning I know not how many curiosities, antiquities and specimens, the possession of which had onc
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CHAPTER XXXVI.—BY THE RED SEA.
CHAPTER XXXVI.—BY THE RED SEA.
A GENTLEMAN started from Cairo a few days before us, with the avowed purpose of following in the track of the Children of Israel and viewing the exact point where they crossed the Red Sea. I have no doubt that he was successful. So many routes have been laid out for the Children across the Isthmus, that one can scarcely fail to fall into one of them. Our purpose was merely to see Suez and the famous Sea, and the great canal of M. Lesseps; not doubting, however, that when we looked over the groun
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CHAPTER XXXVII.—“EASTWARD HO!”
CHAPTER XXXVII.—“EASTWARD HO!”
W E left Suez at eight in the morning by rail, and reached Ismailia in four hours, the fare—to do justice to the conductor already named—being fourteen francs. A part of the way the Bitter Lakes are visible, and we can see where the canal channel is staked out through them. Next we encountered the Fresh-Water Canal, and came in view of Lake Timsah, through which the Suez canal also flows. This was no doubt once a fresh-water lake, fed by water taken from the Nile at Bubastis. Ismailia is a surpr
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