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 ReceivedyOctoher , 1894. 
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 The EtMopiairiL Kile 
 
 EW TOHJvS Go T, FUTNAMc 
 
 18 59 
 
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 ^ 
 
 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA; 
 
 LIFE AND LANDSCAPES FROM EGYPT 
 
 TO THE NEGRO KINGDOMS OF 
 
 THE WHITE NILE. 
 
 BY 
 
 BAYARD TAYLOR 
 
 »itj a m^ ut SllEHtrationg hn tje autlior. 
 
 TENTH EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 G. P. PUTNAM, 506 BROADWAY 
 
 1859. 
 
^'' 
 
 
 according to Act at Oor%re9«, In the year 1864, by 
 G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 
 
 la tae Clerk's Office of the District Oourt for the Soathern District of 
 New York. 
 
 B. OEAIGHEAD, 
 
 Printer, Stereofyper, and Electrotypvr, 
 
 Caitort 33tnnjmg, 
 
 81, 83, and 85 Centre Street. 
 
f' 
 
 iBi jbicateD to 
 
 A. B. 
 
 on SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA 
 
 BY 
 
 HIS FELLOW-TRAVELLER IN EGYPT, 
 
 B. T. 
 
 #■ 
 

 
[iJiriVBRSITYj 
 PREFACE. 
 
 m^ 
 
 There is an old Italian proverb, which says a man 
 has lived to no purpose, unless he has either built a 
 house, begotten a son, or written a book. As I have 
 already complied more than once with the latter of 
 these requisitions, i must seek to justify the present 
 repetition thereof, on other grounds. My reasons for 
 offering this volume to the public are, simply, that 
 there is room for it. It is the record of a journey which 
 led me, for the most part, over fresh fields, by paths 
 which comparatively few had trodden before me. Al- 
 though I cannot hope to add much to the general 
 stock of information concerning Central Africa, I may 
 serve, at least, as an additional witness, to confirm or 
 illustrate the evidence of others. Hence, the prepara- 
 tion of this work has appeared to me rather in the light 
 
2 PEEPACE. 
 
 of a duty than a diversion, and I have endeavored to 
 impart as much instruction as amusement to the 
 reader. While seeking to give correct pictures of the 
 rich, adventurous life into which I was thrown, I ha^e 
 resisted the temptation to yield myself up to its more 
 suhtle and poetic aspects. My aim has been to furnish 
 a faithful narrative of my own experience, believing 
 that none of those embellishments which the imagina- 
 tion so readily furnisheSj can equal the charm of the 
 unadorned truth. 
 
 There are a few words of further explanation which 
 I wish to say. The journey was undertaken solely 
 for the purpose of restoring a frame exhausted by 
 severe mental labor. A previous experience of a tropi- 
 cal climate convinced me that I should best accomplish 
 my object by a visit to Egypt, and as I had a whole 
 winter before me, I determined to penetrate as far into 
 the interior of Africa as the time would allow, attracted 
 less by the historical and geographical interest of those 
 regions than by the desire to participate in their free, 
 vigorous, semi-barbaric life. If it had been my inten- 
 tion, as some of my friends supposed, to search for the 
 undiscovered sources of the White Nile, I should not 
 have turned back, until the aim was accomplished or all 
 means had failed. 
 
 I am aware that, by including in this work my 
 journey through Egypt, I have gone over much ground 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 which is already familiar. Egypt, however, was the 
 vestibule through which I passed to Ethiopia and the 
 Idngdoms beyond, and I have not been able to omit my 
 impressions of that country without detracting from 
 the completeness of the narrative. This book is the 
 record of a single journey, which, both in its character 
 and in the circumstances that suggested and accompa- 
 nied it, occupies a separate place in my memory. Its 
 performance was one uninterrupted enjoyment, for, 
 whatever the privations to which it exposed me, they 
 were neutralized by the physical delight of restored 
 health and by a happy confidence in the successful 
 issue of the journey, which never forsook me. It is 
 therefore but just to say, that the pictures I have 
 drawn may seem over-bright to others who may here- 
 after follow me ; and I should warn all such that they 
 must expect to encounter many troubles and annoy- 
 ances. 
 
 Although I have described somewhat minutely the 
 antiquities of Nubia and Ethiopia which I visited, and 
 have not been insensible to the interest which every 
 traveller in Egypt must feel in the remains of her 
 ancient art, I have aimed at giving representations of 
 the living races which inhabit those countries rather 
 than the old ones which have passed away. I have 
 taken it for granted that the reader will feel more 
 interested — as I was — in a live Arab, than a dead 
 
4 PRSFAOE. 
 
 Pliaraoli. I am indebted wholly to the works of Cham-, 
 pollion, WiUdnson and Lepsius for whatever allusions I 
 have made to the age and character of the Egyptian 
 : ruins. B. T. 
 
 New Yoek, July, 1864. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 ArrlTil at Alexandria— The Landing— My First Oriental Bath— The City— Prepar** 
 tions for Departaro, ,' ^' 
 
 CHAPTER a 
 
 Departure— The Eangia— The Egyptian Climate— The Mahmoudieh Canal— Entrance 
 into the Nile— Pleasures of the Joomey— Studying Arabic— Sight of the Pyramida 
 —The Barrage— Approach to Cairo, 21 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 Entrance- The Ezbeklyeh— Saracenic Houses- Donkeys— The Bazaars— The Streeta 
 —Processions— View from the Citadel— Moeque of Mohammed Ali— The Eoad to 
 Suez— The Island of Bhoda, 84 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Necessity of Leaving Immediately— Engaging a Boat— The Dragomen— Achmet e! 
 Saidi — Funds — Information— Procuring an Outfit— Preparing for the Desert— The 
 Lucky Day— Exertions to Leave— OflF, 46 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Howling Dervishes— A Chicken Factory— Eide to the Pyramids— Quarrel with the 
 Arabs— The Ascent— View from the Summit— Backsheesh— Effect of Pyramid- 
 dimbing— The Sphinx— Playing the Cadi— We obtain Justice— Visit to Sakkara 
 •nd the Mummy Pits— The Exhumation of Memphis — Interview with M. Mariett© 
 -Account of his Dlscoverlea— Statue of Eemeses II.— Eetum to the Nile, . 60 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Leaying the Pjrramids— A Calm and a Breeze— A Coptic Visit— Minyeh— The Grottoes 
 of Beni-Hassan — Doum Palms and Crocodiles — Djebel Aboufayda — Entrance into 
 Upper Egypt— Diversions of the Boatmen — Siont— Its T<«nbs— A Landscape— A 
 Bath, Tl 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Independence of Nile Life- The Dahabiyeh— Our Servants— Our Eesidenco— Our Man- 
 ner of Living— The Climate — The Natives— Costume — ^Our Sunset Eepose— My 
 Friend— A Sensuous Life Defended, 88 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Calm— Mountains and Tombs — A Night Adventure in Ekhmin— Character of the 
 Boatmen— Fair Wind— Pilgrims — Egyptian Agriculture— Sugar and Cotton— Graiu 
 —Sheep — Arrival at Kenneh— A Landscape— The Temple of Dendera— First Inv- 
 pressions of Egyptian Ai —Portrait of Cleopatra— A Happy Meeting— "We approach 
 Thebes, 98 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Arrival at Thebes — Ground-Plan of the Eemains — "We Cross to the "Western Bank — 
 Guides— The Temple of Goorneh— Valley of the Kings' Tombs— Belzonfs Tomb — 
 The Eaces of Men— Vandalism of Antiquarians— Brace's Tomb— Memnon— The 
 Grandfather of Sesostris- The Head of Amunopb— The Colossi of the Plain— 
 Memnonian Music— The Statue of Eemeses— The Memnonium— Beauty of Egyp- 
 tian Art— More Scrambles among the Tombs— The Bats of the Assasseef— Medee- 
 net Abou— Sculptured Histories— The Great Court of the Temple— We return to 
 Luxor, 118 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Dancing Girls of Egypt— A N%ht Scene in Luxor— The Orange-Blossom and th© 
 Apple-Blossom— The Beautiful Bemba— The Dance— Performance of the Apple- 
 Blossom— The Temple of Luxor — A Mohammedan School — Gallop to Karnak— 
 View of the Euins— The Great Hall of Pillars— Bedouin Diversions— A Night 
 Eide— Karnak under the Full Moon— Farewell to Thebes, .... 181 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Temple of Hermontis— Esneli and its Temple— The Governor— El Kab by Torch- 
 light—The Temple of Edfou— The Quarries of Djebel Silsileh—Ombos— Approach 
 to Nubia— Change in the Scenery and Inhabitants— A Mirage -Arrival at As- 
 souan, 146 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 An Ofllcial Visit— Achmet's Dexterity— The Island of Elephantine— Nubian Ohildrea-- 
 TriptoPhll8&—Linant Bey —The Island of Phil»— Sculptures— The Negro Bace- 
 
CONTENTS. 1 
 
 Breakfast in a Ptolemaic Temple -The Island of Biggeh— Backoheesh— The Cataract 
 —The Granite Quarries of Assouan— The Travellers separate, ... 152 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Solitary Travel— Scenery of the Nubian Nile— Agriculture— The Inhabitants— Arrival 
 at Korosko— The Governor— The Tent Pitched— Shekh Abou-Mohammed— Bar- 
 gaining for Camels— A Drove of Giraffes— Visits— Preparations for the Desert— My 
 Last Evening on the Nile, 162 
 
 CHAPTER XrV. 
 
 The Curve of the Nile— Routes across the Desert— Our Caravan starts— Biding on a 
 Dromedary— The Guide and Camel-drivers— Hair-dressing— El Biban— Scenery- 
 Dead Camels— An Unexpected Visit— The Guide makes my Grave— The Eiver 
 without Water— Characteristics of the Mirage— Desert Life— The Sun— The Desert 
 Air — Infernal Scenery— The Wells of Murr-hat— Christmas — Moimtain Chains- 
 Meeting Caravans— Plains of Gravel — The Story of Joseph — Djebel Mokr&t — The 
 Last Day in the Desert— We see the Nile again, 171 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A Draught of Water— Abou-Hammed— The Island of Mokr&t — Ethiopian Scenery — 
 The People— An Ababdeh Apollo— Encampment on the Nile— Tomb of an English- 
 man— Eesa's Wedding— A White Arab — The Last Day of the Year— Abou-Hashym 
 —Incidents— Loss of my Thermometer— The Valley of Wild Asses— The Eleventh 
 Cataract— Approach to Berber— Vultures— Eyonb Outwitted— We reach El Mek- 
 heyref— The Caravan Broken up, 198 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 A Wedding— My Reception by the Military Governor— Achmet— The Bridegroom — A 
 Guard- 1 am an American Bey— K6ff— The Bey's Visit- The Civil Governor — 
 About the Navy— The Priest's Visit— Biding in State— The Dongolese Stallion— A 
 Merchant's House— The Town — Dinner at the Governor's— The Pains of Royalty — 
 A Salute to the American Flag— Departure, SOt 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Fortunate Travel— The America— Ethiopian Scenery — The Atbara River — Darner — A 
 Melon Patch— Agriculture— The Inhabitants— Change of Scenery— The First Hip- 
 popotamus — Crocodiles — Effect of My Map — The Rais and Sailors— Arabs in Ethio- 
 pia—Ornamental Scars— Beshir— The Slave Bakhita— We Approach Meroe, 21» 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Arrival at Bedjerowiyeh— The Ruins of Meroe- Walk Across the Plain — The Pyra- 
 mids-Character of their Masonry — The Tower and Vault— Finding of the Trea- 
 sure—The Second Group— More Ruins -Site of the City— Number of the Pyramids 
 —The Antiquity of Mero6— Ethiopian and Egyptian Civilization— The Caucasian 
 Race— EefleeUons, SSH 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Landscapes of Ethiopia— M7 Evenings beside the Nile—Experiences of the Ara- 
 bian Nights— The Story of the Sultana Zobeido ard the Wood-cutter- Character 
 of the Arabian Tales— Religion. 288 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Arrival at Shendy- Appearance of the Town-Shendy in Former Days— We Touch at 
 El Metemma— The Nile beyond Shendy— Flesh Diet vs. Vegetables— We Escape 
 Shipwreck— A Walk on Shore— The Rapids of Derreira— Djebel Gerri— The 
 Twelfth Cataract— Night in the Mountain Gorge— Crocodiles— A Drink of Mareesa 
 —My Birth-Day — Fair Wind— Approach to Khartoum— The Junction of the Two 
 Niles— Appearance of the City — We Drop Anchor, . , , , , 263 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The American Flag— A Rencontre— Search for a House— The Austrian Consular Agent 
 — Description of his Residence- The Garden— The Menagerie— Barbaric Pomp 
 and State— Picturesque Character of the Society of Khartoum— Foundation and 
 Growth of the City— Its Appearance— The Population— Unhealthlness of the Cli- 
 mate—Assembly of Ethiopian Chieftains— Visit of Two Shekhs— Dinner and Fire- 
 works, 270 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Visit to the Catholic Mission— Dr. Knoblecher, the Apostolic Vicar— Moussa Bey — 
 Visit to Lattif Pasha— Reception— The Pasha's Palace— Lions— We Dine with the 
 Pasha— Ceremonies upon the Occasion— Music — The Guests — ^The Franks in Khar- 
 toum— Dr. Peney — Visit to the Sultana Nasra— An Ethiopian Dinner — Character 
 of the Sultana, 280 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Eecent Explorations of Soudan- Limit of the Tropical Rains— The Conquest of Ethio- 
 pia—Countries Tributary to Egypt— The District of Takka— Expedition of Moussa 
 Bey— The Atbara River— The Abyssinian Frontier — Christian Ruins of Abou- 
 Har&sfl— The Kingdom of Sennaar— Kordofan— Dar-Far— The Princess of Dar- 
 Fiir in Kliartoum— Her Visit to Dr. Reitz— Tho Unknown Countries of Central 
 AfWca,- 2y7 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Bxourslons around Khartoum— A Race into the Desert— Euphorbia Forest— Tho 
 Banks of tho Blue Nile— A Saint's Grave— The Confluence of the Two Niles— Mag- 
 nitude of the Nile— Comparative Size of the Rivers— Their Names— Desire to pene- 
 trate further into Africa — Attraction8 of the White Nile— Engage the Boat John 
 Ledyard — Former Restrictions against exploring the River— Visit to the Pasha— 
 Despotic Hospitality— Achmet's Misgivings— We set sail 809 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Departnre from Khartoinn — We enter th« White Nile— Mirage and Landscape— Tlie 
 Consul returns- Progress — ^Loss of the Flag -Scenery of the Shores — Territory of 
 the Hassaniyebs — Curious Conjugal Custom— Multitudes of Water Fowls— Increas- 
 ed Kichnessof Vegetation— Apes — Sunset on the White Nile — We reach the King- 
 dom of tho Shillook Negroes, 320 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 Morning — Magnificence of the Island Scenery — Birds and Hippopotami- Flight of the 
 Natives— The Island of Aba— Signs of Population- A Band of Warriors— Tho Shekh 
 and the Sultan— A Treaty of Peace— The Eobe of Honor— Suspicions— We walk to 
 the Village — Appearance of the Sliillooks- The Village — ^The Sultan gives Audience 
 — Women and Children— Ornaments of the Natives— My Watch— A Jar of Honey — 
 Suspicion and Alarm — ^The Shillook and the Sultan's Black Wife— Character of the 
 Shillooks— The J^nd of the Lotus— Population of the Shillook Kingdom— The Turn 
 ing Point— A View from the Mast-Head, 829 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Explorations of the White Nile— Dr. Knobleeher's Voyage in 1849-50— The Lands 
 of the Shillooks and Dinkas- Intercourse with the Natives— Wild Elephants and 
 Giraffes— The Sobat Eiver— The Country of Marshes— The Gazelle Lake— The 
 Nuehrs— Interview with the Chief of the Kyks— The Zhir Country— Land of the 
 Baris— Tho Eapids Surmounted — Arrival at Logwek, in L«^ 4P lO' North— Panora- 
 ma from Mt Logwek— Sources of the White Nile— Character of the Bari Nation— 
 Eeturn<^theExpedition— Fascination of the Nile, 846 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 We leave the Islands of the Shillooks— Tropical Jungles— A Whim and its Conseqnen- 
 oes— Lairs of Wild Beasts— Arrival among the Hassaniyebs- A Vill^e— The Wo- 
 man and the Sultan— A Dance of Salutation— My Arab Sailor— A Swarthy Cleopa- 
 tra — Salutation of the Saint— Miraculous Fishing— Night View of a Hassaniyeh Vil- 
 lage—Wad Shdllayeh- A Shekh's Eesidence— An Ebony Cherub — The Cook At- 
 tempts Suicide— Evening Landscape-ZThe Natives and their Cattle— A Boyish 
 Governor— We reach Khartoum at Midnight, . ^ . . . . 856 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 The Departnre of Abd-el Kader Bey— An Illuminated Picture— The Breakfast on the 
 Island— Horsemanship— The Pasha's Stories— Departure of Lattif Effendi's Expedi- 
 tion—A Night on the Sand— Abou-Sin, and his Shukoree Warriors— Change In the 
 Climate— Intense Heat and its Effects— Preparations for Eetuming— A Money 
 Transaction— Farewell Visits— A Dinner with Eoyal Guests— Jplly King Dyaab— 
 A Shillook Dance— Eeconciliation— Taking I^ave of my Pets, . . . 8T2 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 The Commerce of Soudftn— Avenues of Trade— The Merchants— Character of the Im 
 ports— Speculation— The Gum Trade of Kordofan— The Ivoiy Trade— Abuses of th« 
 Government— The Traffic in Slaves— Prices of Slaves— Their Treatment, . 884 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Farewell Breakfast— Departure from Khartoum— Parting with Dr. Eeltz— A Predic- 
 tion and its Fuliilment — Dreary Appearance of the Country — Lions— Burying- 
 Grounds— The Natives— My Kababish Guide, Mohammed— Character of the Arabs 
 — Habits of Deception — My Dromedary — Mutton and Mareesa — A Soudfin Ditty — 
 The Eowyan— Akaba Gerri— Heat and Scenery— An Altercation with the Guide— 
 A Mishap— A Landscape— Tedious Approach to El Metemma— Appearance o{ the 
 Town— Preparations for the Desert— Meeting Old Acquaintances, . . 892 
 
 CHAPTER XXXn. 
 
 Entering the Desert— Character of the Scenery— Wells— Fear of the Arabs— The La- 
 loom Tree — ^Effect of the Hot Wind — Mohammed overtakes us — Arab Endurance — 
 An unpleasant Bedfellow— Comedy of the Crows— Gazelles — We encounter a Sand- 
 storm—The Mountain of Thirst— The Wells of Djeekdud— A Mountain Pass- 
 Desert Intoxication— Scenery of the Table-land— Bir Khannik— The Kababish 
 Arabs— Gazelles again— Euins of an Ancient Coptic Monastery— Distant View of the 
 Nile Valley— Djebel Berkel— We come into Port, 406 
 
 CHAPTER XXXra. 
 
 Our whereabouts— Shekh Mohammed Abd e'-Djebal— My residence at Abddm — Cross- 
 ing the River— A Superb Landscape— The Town of Merawe— Eido to Djebel Berkel 
 — ^The Temples of Napata— Ascent of the Mountain— Ethiopian Panorama— Lost 
 and Found— The Pyramids— The Governor of Merawe— A Scene In the Divan— 
 The Shekh and I— The Governor Dines with me— Euins of the City of Napata— 
 A Talk about Eeligions— Engaging Camels for Wadi-Halfa— The Shekh's Parting 
 Blessing, . . 421 
 
 CHAPTER XXXiV. 
 
 Appearance of the Country— Korti — The Town of Ambukol— The Caravan reorgan 
 Ized — A Fiery Eide— We reach Edabbe— An Illuminated Landscape— A Torment 
 —Nubian Agriculture— Old Dongola— The Palace-Mosque of the Nubian Kings — A 
 Panorama of Desolation— The Old City— Nubian Gratitude- Another Sand-Storm 
 — A Dreary Journey — The Approach to Handak — A House of Doubtful Character — 
 The Inmates— Journey toEl'Ordee (New Dongola)— Khoorshld Bey — ^Appearance 
 of the Town, 488 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 We start for Wadl-Halfa— The Plague of Black Gnats— Mohammed's Coffin— The 
 Wand of Argo- Market-Day— Scenery of the Nile— Entering Dar EI-Mihass— 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 Eulned Fortresses— The Camel-Men— A Eocky Chaos— Fakir Bender— The Akaba 
 of Mahass— Camp in the Wilderness— The Charm of Desolation— The Nile again— 
 Pilgrims from Dar-Fiir— The Straggle of the Nile— An Arcadian Landscape — The 
 Temple of Soleb— Dar Sukk6t— The Land of Dates— The Island of Sai— A Sea of 
 Sand— Camp by the Eivor— A Hyena Barbecue 457 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 The Batn El-Hadjar, or Belly of Stone— Ancient Granite Quarries— The Village of 
 Dal— A Euined Fortress— A Wilderness of Stones— The Hot Springs of Ukm6— A 
 Windy Night— A Dreary Day in the Desert— The Shekh's Camel Fails— Descent to 
 Samneh- The Temple and Cataract — Meersheh— The Sale of Abou-Sin-*-We 
 Emerge from the Belly of Stone— A Kababish Caravan— The Eock of Abou-Seer — 
 View of the Second Cataract— We reach Wadi-Halfa— Selling my Dromedaries — 
 Farewell to Abou-SIn— Thanksgiving on the Ferry-boat— Parting with the Camel- 
 men, 471 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Wadl Haifa— A Boat for Assouan— We Embark on the Nile Again — An Egyptian 
 Dream— The Temples of Abou-Simbel— The Smaller Temple— The Colossi of 
 Eemeses IL — Vulgarity of Travellers — Entering the Great Temple— My Impres- 
 sions—Character of Abou-Simbel— The Smaller Chambers— The Eaces of Men— 
 Bemeses and the Captive Kings— Departure, 486 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVni. 
 
 I Lose my Sunshine, and Eegain it— Nubian Scenery— Derr-The Temple of Amada 
 —Mysterious Eappings- Familiar Scenes— Halt at Korosko— Escape from Ship- 
 wreck— The Temple of Sebooa— Chasing other Boats— Temple of Djerf Hossayn— 
 A Backsheesh Experiment— Kalabshee— Temple of Dabdd— We reach the Egyp- 
 tian Frontier, 496 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Assouan— A Boat for Cairo— English Tourists— A Head-wind— Ophthalmia— Esneh — 
 A Mummied Princess— Ali Eflfendi's Stories— A Donkey Afrite— Arrival at Luxor 
 — The Egyptian Autumn— A Day at Thebes— Songs of the Sailors — Ali leaves 
 mo— Eide to Dendera— Head-winds again— Visit to Tahtah — The House of Eufaa 
 Bey, 506 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Biout in Harvest-time— A kind Englishwoman— A Slight Experience of Hasheesh— 
 The Calm— Eapid Progress down the Nile— The Last Day of the Voyage— Arri- 
 val at Cairo- Tourists preparing for the Desert— Parting with Achmet— Conclu 
 rion. 611 
 
<^*^ OP THR^^^ 
 
M O D E R 'N D R i E N T a L C S T U M E 
 

 JOUENEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO AFRICA. 
 
 Arrival at Alexandria— The Landing— My First Oriental Bath- The City— Prepara- 
 tions for Departure. 
 
 I LEFT Smyrna in the Lloyd steamer, Conte SturmeVj on the 
 first day of November, 1851. We passed the blue Sporadic 
 Isles — Cos, and Rhodes, and Karpathos — and crossing the 
 breadth of the Eastern Mediterranean, favored all the way by 
 unruffled seas, and skies of perfect azure, made the pharos of 
 Alexandria on the evening of the 3d. The entrance to the 
 harbor is a narrow and difficult passage through reefs, and no 
 vessel dares to attempt it at night, but with the first streak of 
 dawn we were boarded by an Egyptian pilot, and the rising 
 sun lighted up for us the white walls of the city, the windmills 
 of the Ras el-Tin, or Cape of Figs, and the low yellow sand- 
 hills in which I recognized Africa — ^for they were prophetic of 
 the desert behind them. 
 
 We entered the old harbor between the island of Pha- 
 ros and the main land (now connected by a peninsular strip. 
 on which the Frank quarter is built), soon after sunrise 
 
14 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 The water swarmed with boats before the anchor dropped, 
 and the Egyptian health officer had no sooner departed 
 than we were boarded by a crowd of dragomen, hotel run- 
 ners, and boatmen. A squinting Arab, who wore a white 
 dress and red sash, accosted me in Italian, offering to conduct 
 me to the Oriental Hotel. A German and a Smyrniote, 
 whose acquaintance I had made during the voyage, joined me 
 in accepting his services, and we were speedily boated ashore. 
 We landed on a pile of stones, not far from a mean-looking 
 edifice called the Custom-House. Many friends were there to 
 welcome us, and I shall never forget the eagerness with which 
 they dragged us ashore, and the zeal with which they pom- 
 melled one another in their generous efforts to take charge of 
 our effects. True, we could have wished that their faces had 
 been better washed, their baggy trousers less ragged and their 
 red caps less greasy, and we were perhaps ungrateful in allow- 
 ing our Arab to rate them soundly and cuff the ears of the 
 more obstreperous, before our trunks and carpet-bags could be 
 portioned among them. At the Custom-House we were visit- 
 ed by two dark gentlemen, in turbans and black flowing robes, 
 who passed our baggage without scrutiny, gently whispering 
 in our ears, " 'backsheesh,^'' — a word which we then heard for 
 the first time, but which was to be the key-note of much of our 
 future experience. The procession of porters was then set in 
 motion, and we passed through several streets of whitewashed 
 two story houses, to the great square of the Frank quarter, 
 which opened before us warm and brilliant in the morning sun- 
 shine. 
 
 The principal hotels and consulates front on this square 
 The architecture is Italian, with here and there a dash of Sar« 
 
ALEXANDRIA. 15 
 
 acenic, in the windows and doorways, especially in new build* 
 ings. A small obelisk of alabaster, a present from Mohammed 
 Ali, stands in the centre, on a pedestal which was meant for a 
 fountain, but has no water. All this I noted, 4s well as a 
 crowd of donkeys and donkey-boys, and a string of laden 
 camels, on our way to the hotel, which we found to be a long 
 and not particularly clean edifice, on the northern side of the 
 square. The English and French steamers had just arrived, 
 and no rooms were to be had until after the departure of the 
 afternoon boat for Cairo. Our dragoman, who called himself 
 Ibrahim, suggested a bath as the most agreeable means of 
 passing the intermediate time. 
 
 The clear sky, the temperature (like that of a mild July 
 day at home), and the novel interest of the groups in the 
 streets, were sufficient to compensate for any annoyance : but 
 when we reached the square of the French Church, and saw a 
 garden of palm-trees waving their coronals of glittering leaves, 
 every thing else was forgotten. My German friend, who had 
 never seen palms, except as starveling exotics in Sorrento and 
 Smyrna, lifted his hands in rapture, and even I, who had 
 heard tens of thousands rustle in the hot winds of the Tropics, 
 felt my heart leap as if their beauty were equally new to my 
 eyes. For no amount of experience can deprive the traveller 
 of that happy feeling of novelty which marks his first day on 
 the soil of a new continent. I gave myself up wholly to its 
 inebriation. Et ego in Africa^ was the sum of my thoughts, 
 and I neither saw nor cared to know the fact (which we dis- 
 covered in due time), that our friend Ibrahim was an arrant 
 knave. 
 
 The bath to which he conducted us was pronounced to b« 
 
16 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 the finest in Alexandria, the most superb in all the Orient, 
 but it did not at all accord with our ideas of Eastern luxury. 
 Moreover, the bath-keeper was his intimate friend, and would 
 bathe us as no Christians were ever bathed before. One fact 
 Ibrahim kept to himself, which was, that his intimate friend 
 and he shared the spoils of our inexperience. We were con- 
 ducted to a one-story building, of very unprepossessing exte- 
 rior. As we entered the low, vaulted entrance, my ears were 
 saluted with a dolorous, groaning sound, which I at first con- 
 jectured to proceed from the persons undergoing the opera- 
 tion, but which I afterward ascertained was made by a wheel 
 turned by a buffalo, employed in raising water from the well. 
 In a sort of basement hall, smelling of soap-suds, and with a 
 large tank of dirty water in the centre, we were received by 
 the bath-keeper, who showed us into a room containing three 
 low divans with pillows. Here we disrobed, and Ibrahim, 
 who had procm'cd a quantity of napkins, enveloped our heads 
 in turbans and swathed our loins in a simple Adamite gar- 
 ment. Heavy wooden clogs were attached to our feet, and an 
 animated bronze statue led the way through gloomy passages, 
 sometimes hot and steamy, sometimes cold and soapy, and 
 redolent of any thing but the spicy odors of Araby the Blest, 
 to a small vaulted chamber, lighted by a few apertures in the 
 ceiling. The moist heat was almost suffocating ; hot water 
 flowed over the stone floor, and the stone benches we sat upon 
 were somewhat cooler than kitchen stoves. The bronze indi- 
 vidual left us, and very soon, sweating at every pore, we began 
 to think of the three Hebrews in the furnace. Our comfort 
 was not increased by the groaning sound which we still heard 
 and by seeing, through a hole in the door, five or six naked 
 
MY FIRST ORIENTAL BATH. l7 
 
 figures lying motionless along tlie edge of a steaming vat, in 
 the outer room. 
 
 Presently our statue returned with a pair of coarse hair- 
 gloves on his hands. He snatched off our turbans, and then, 
 seizing one of my friends by the shoulder as if he had been a 
 sheep, began a sort of rasping operation upon his back. This 
 process, varied occasionally by a dash of scalding water, was 
 extended to each of our three bodies, and we were then suf- 
 fered to rest awhile. A course of soap-suds followed, which 
 was softer and more pleasant in its effect, except when he took 
 us by the hair, and holding back our heads, scrubbed our faces 
 most lustily, as if there were no such things as eyes, noses and 
 mouths. By this time we had reached such a salamandrine 
 temperature that the final operation of a dozen pailfuls of hot 
 water poured over the head, was really delightful After a 
 plunge in a seething tank, we were led back to our chamber 
 and enveloped in loose muslin robes. Turbans were bound on 
 our heads and we lay on the divans to recover from the lan- 
 guor of the bath. The change produced by our new costume 
 was astonishing. The stout German became a Turkish mol- 
 lah, the young Smyrniote a picturesque Persian, and I — I 
 scarcely know what, but, as my friends assured me, a much 
 better Moslem than Frank. Cups of black coffee, and pipes 
 of inferior tobacco completed the process, and in spite of the 
 lack of cleanliness and superabundance of fleas, we went forth 
 lighter in body, and filled with a calm content which nothing 
 seemed able to disturb. 
 
 After a late breakfast at the hotel, we sallied out for a sur* 
 vey of the city. The door was beleaguered by the donkeys 
 and their attendant drivers, who hailed us in all languages at 
 
18 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 once. ^^Vfnes^j Monsieur / ^^ "Take a ride, sir; here is a 
 good donkey!" ^^ Schcener Esel/^^ ^^ Prendete il mio hur- 
 rico I " — and you are made the vortex of a whirlpool of don- 
 keys. The one-eyed donkey-boys fight, the donkeys kick, and 
 there is no rest till you have bestridden one of the little 
 beasts. The driver then gives his tail a twist and his rump a 
 thwack, and you are carried off in triumph. The animal is so 
 small that you seem the more silly of the two, when you have 
 mounted, but after he has carried you for an hour in a rapid 
 gallop, you recover your dignity in your respect for him. 
 
 The spotless blue of the sky and the delicious elasticity of 
 the air were truly intoxicating, as we' galloped between gar- 
 dens of date-trees, laden with ripe fruit, to the city gate, and 
 through it into a broad road, fringed with acacias, leading to 
 the Mahmoudieh canal. But to the south, on a rise of dry, 
 sandy soil, stood the Pillar of Diocletian — not of Pompey, 
 whose name it bears. It is a simple column, ninety-eight feet 
 in height, but the shaft is a single block of red granite, and 
 stands superbly against the back-ground of such a sky and 
 such a sea. It is the only relic of the ancient Alexandria 
 worthy of its fame, but you could not wish for one more im- 
 posing and eloquent. The glowing white houses of the town, 
 the minarets, the palms and the acacias fill the landscape, but 
 it stands apart from them, in the sand, and looks only to the 
 sea and the desert. 
 
 In the evening we took donkeys again and rode out of the 
 town to a cafe on the banks of the canal. A sunset of burn- 
 ing rose and orange sank over the desert behind Pompey^s 
 Pillar, and the balmiest of breezes stole towards us from the 
 sea, through palm gardens. A Swiss gentleman, M. de Gon. 
 
THE DONKEY-BOY. 19. 
 
 zenbach, whose kindness I shall always gratefully remember 
 accompanied us. As we sat under the acacias, sipping the 
 black Turkish coffee, the steamer for Cairo passed, disturbing 
 the serenity of the air with its foul smoke, and marring the 
 delicious repose of the landscape in such wise, that we vowed 
 we would have nothing to do with steam so long as we voyaged 
 on the Nile. Our donkey-drivers patiently held the bridles 
 of our long-eared chargers till we were ready to return. It 
 was dark, and not seeing at first my attendant, a little one- 
 eyed imp, I called at random : " Abdallah ! " This, it hap- 
 pened, was actually his name, and he came trotting up, hold- 
 ing the stirrup ready for me to mount. The quickness with 
 which these young Arabs pick up languages, is truly astonish- 
 ing. " Gome vi chiamate ? " (what's your name ?) I asked 
 of Abdallah, as we rode homeward. The words were new to 
 him, but I finally made him understand their meaning, where- 
 upon he put his knowledge into practice by asking me : " Come 
 vi chiamate ? " " Abbas Pasha," I replied. " Oh, well," 
 was his prompt rejoinder, " if you are Abbas Pasha, then I am 
 Seyd Pasha." The next morning he was at the door with his 
 donkey, which I fully intended to mount, but became entan- 
 gled in a wilderness of donkeys, out of which Ibrahim extri- 
 cated me by hoisting me on another animal. As I rode away, 
 I caught a glimpse of the little fellow, crying lustily over his 
 disappointment. 
 
 We three chance companions fraternized so agreeably that 
 we determined to hire a boat for Cairo, in preference to waiting 
 for the next steamer. We accordingly rode over to the Mah- 
 moudieh Canal, accompanied by Ibrahim, to inspect the barks. 
 Like all dragomen, Ibrahim had his private preferences, and 
 
20 JOURNEY IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 conducted us on board a boat belonging to a friend of his, a 
 grizzly rais, or captain. The craft was a small kangia, with 
 a large lateen sail at the bow and a little one at the stern. It 
 was not very new, but looked clean, and the rais demanded 
 three hundred piastres for the voyage. The piastre is the cur- 
 rent coin of the East. Its value is fluctuating, and always 
 higher in Egypt than in Syria and Turkey, but may be assum- 
 ed at about five cents, or twenty to the American dollar. Be- 
 fore closing the bargain, we asked the advice of M. de Gon- 
 zenbach, who immediately despatched his Egyptian servant 
 and engaged a boat at two hundred and twenty-five piastres. 
 Every thing was to be in readiness for our departure on the 
 following evening. 
 
TIBST VOYAGB OV THE NILK. 81 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 FIRST VOYAGB ON THE NILE, 
 
 D«partnre— The Eangla — The Egyptian Climate— The Mabmondieh Canal — ^I 
 
 into the Nile— Pleasures of the Jonmey— Studying Arabic— Sight of the Pyramids 
 — The Barrage— Approach to Cairo. 
 
 We paid a most exorbitant bill at the Oriental Hotel, and 
 started on donkeyback for our boat, at sunset. Our preparer 
 tions for tbe voyage consisted of bread, rice, coffee, sugar, but- 
 ter and a few other comestibles ; an earthen furnace and char- 
 coal; pots and stew-pans, plates, knives and forks, wooden 
 spoons, coffee-cups and water-jars ; three large mats of cane- 
 leaves, for bedding ; and for luxuries, a few bottles of claret, 
 and a gazelle-skin stuffed with choice Latakieh tobacco. We 
 were prudent enough to take a supper with us from the hotel, 
 and not trust to our own cooking the first night on board. 
 
 We waited till dark on the banks of the Canal before our 
 baggage appeared. There is a Custom-House on all sides of 
 Alexandria, and goods going out must pay as well as goods com- 
 ing in. The gate was closed, and nothing less than the silver 
 oil of a dollar greased its hinges sufficiently for our cart to pass 
 through. But what was our surprise on reaching the boat, to 
 find the same kangia and the same grizzly rais, who had pre- 
 viously demanded three hundred piastres. He seemed no less 
 
22 JOURNEY IN CENTKAL AFRICA. 
 
 astonished than we, for the bargain had been made by a third 
 party, and I believe he bore us a grudge during the rest of the 
 voyage. The contract placed the boat at our disposition ; so 
 we went on board immediately, bade adieu to the kind friends 
 who had accompanied us, and were rowed down the Canal in 
 the full glow of African moonlight. 
 
 Some account of our vessel and crew will not be out of 
 place here. The boat was about thirty-five feet in length, with 
 a short upright mast in the bow, supporting a lateen sail fifty 
 feet long. Against the mast stood a square wooden box, lined 
 with clay, which served as a fireplace for cooking. The mid- 
 dle boards of the deck were loose and allowed entrance to the 
 hold, where our baggage was stowed. The sailors also lifted 
 them and sat on the cross-beams, with their feet on the shal- 
 low keel, when they used the oars. The cabin, which occu 
 pied the stern of the boat, was built above and below the deck. 
 BO that after stepping down into It we could stand upright 
 The first compartment contained two broad benches, with i» 
 smaller chamber in the rear, allowing just enough room, in all, 
 for three persons to sleep. We spread our mats on the 
 boards, placed carpet-bags for pillows (first taking out the 
 books), and our beds were made. Ibrahim slept on the deck, 
 against the cabin-door. 
 
 Our rais, or captain, was an old Arab, with a black, wrink- 
 led face, a grizzly beard and a tattered blue robe. There were 
 five sailors — one with crooked eyes, one with a moustache, two 
 copper-colored Fellahs, and one tall Nubian, black as the 
 Egyptian darkness. The three latter were our favorites, and 
 more cheerful and faithful creatures I never saw. One of the 
 Fellahs sang nasal love-songs the whole day long, and was al* 
 
EVENING ON THE CANAL. 23 
 
 ways foremost in the everlasting refrain of " haylee-sah ! " and 
 "i/a salaam!'''' with which the Egyptian sailors row and tow 
 and pole their boats against the current. Before we left the 
 boat we had acquired a kind of affection for these three men, 
 while the rais, with his grim face and croaking voice, grew more 
 repulsive every day. 
 
 We spread a mat on the deck, lighted our lantern and sat 
 down to supper, while a gentle north wind slowly carried our 
 boat along through shadows of palms and clear spaces of moon- 
 light. Ibrahim filled the shebooks, and for four hours we sat 
 in the open air, which seemed to grow sweeter and purer with 
 every breath we inhaled. We were a triad — the sacred num- 
 ber — and it would have been diflficult to find another triad so 
 harmonious md yet differing so strongly in its parts. One 
 was a Landwirtli from Saxe-Coburg, a man of forty-five, tall, 
 yet portly in person, and accustomed to the most comfortable 
 living and the best society in Germany. Another was a Smyr- 
 niote merchant, a young man of thirty, to whom all parts of 
 Europe were familiar, who spoke eight languages, and who 
 within four months had visited Ispahan and the Caucasus. Of 
 the third it behooves me not to speak, save that he was from 
 the New World, and that he differed entirely from his friends 
 in stature, features, station in life, and every thing else but mu- 
 tual goodfellowship. " Ah," said the German in the fulness 
 of his heart, as we basked in the moonlight, '• what a heavenly 
 air ! what beautiful palms ! and this wonderful repose in all 
 Nature, which I never felt before !" " It is better than the 
 gardens of Ispahan," added the Smyrniote. Nor did I deceive 
 them when I said that for many months past I had known no 
 mood of mind so peaceful and grateful. 
 
24 JOURNEY IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 ^ "We rose somewhat stiff from our hard beds, but a cup of 
 coffee and the fresh morning air restored the amenity of the 
 voyage. The banks of the Canal are flat and dull, and the 
 country through which we passed, after leaving the marshy 
 brink of Lake Mareotis, was in many places still too wet from 
 the recent inundation to be ploughed for the winter crops. It is 
 a dead level of rich black loam, and produces rice, maize, sugarr 
 cane and millet. Here and there the sand has blown over it, 
 and large spaces are given up to a sort of coarse, wiry grass. 
 The villages are miserable collections of mud huts, but the 
 date-palms which shadow them and the strings of camels that 
 slowly pass to and fro, render even their unsightliness pictu 
 resque. In two or three places we passed mud machines, driven 
 by steam, for the purpose of cleaning the Canal. Kopes were 
 stretched across the channel on both sides, and a large number 
 of trading boats were obliged to halt, although the wind was 
 very favorable. The barrier was withdrawn for us Franks, and 
 the courteous engineer touched his tarboosh in reply to our 
 salutations, as we shot through. 
 
 Towards noon we stopped at a village, and the Asian went 
 ashore with Ibrahim to buy provisions, while the European 
 walked ahead with his fowling-piece, to shoot wild ducks for 
 dinner. The American stayed on board and studied an Arabic 
 vocabulary. Presently Ibrahim appeared with two fowls, two 
 pigeons, a pot of milk and a dozen eggs. The Asian set about 
 preparing breakfast, and showed himself so skilful that our 
 bark soon exhaled the most savory odors. When we picked 
 up our European he had only two hawks to offer us, but we 
 gave him in return a breakfast which he declared perfect. We 
 ate on deck, seated on a mat ; a pleasant wind filled our sails. 
 
ATFEH. 26 
 
 and myriads of swallows circled and twittered over our heads 
 in the cloudless air. The calm, contemplative state produced 
 by the coffee and pipes which Ibrahim brought us, lasted the 
 whole afternoon, and the villages, the cane-fields, the Moslem 
 oratories, the wide level of the Delta and the distant mounds 
 of forgotten cities, passed before our eyes like the pictures of 
 a dream. Only one of these pictures marred the serenity of 
 our minds. It was an Arab burying-ground, on the banks of 
 the Canal — a. collection of heaps of mud, baked in the sun. 
 At the head and foot of one of the most recent, sat two wo- 
 men — ^paid mourners — who howled and sobbed, in long, piteous, 
 despairing cries, which were most painful to hear. I should 
 never have imagined that any thing but the keenest grief could 
 teach such heart-breaking sounds. 
 
 When I climbed the bank at sunset, for a walk, the minarets 
 of Atfeh, on the Nile, were visible. Two rows of acacias, 
 planted along the Canal, formed a pleasant arcade, through 
 which we sailed, to the muddy excrescences of the town. The 
 locks were closed for the night, and we were obliged to halt, 
 which gave us an opportunity of witnessing an Arabic marriage 
 procession. The noise of two wooden drums and a sort of fife 
 announced the approach of the bride, who, attended by her 
 relatives, came down the bank from the mud-ovens above. She 
 was closely veiled, but the Arabs crowded around to get a peep 
 at her face. No sooner had the three Franks approached, than 
 she was doubly guarded and hurried off to the house of her in- 
 tended husband. Some time afterwards I ascended the bank 
 to have a nearer view of the miserable hovels, but was received 
 with such outcries and menacing gestures, that I made a slow 
 and dignified retreat. We visited, however, the house of the 
 2 
 
26 JOURNEY IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 bridegroom's father, where twenty or thirty Arabs, seated on 
 the ground, were singing an epithalainium, to which they kept 
 time by clapping their hands. 
 
 Next morning, while our rais was getting his permit to pass 
 the locks (for which four official signatures and a fee of thirty 
 piastres are necessary), we visited the bazaar, and purchased 
 long tubes of jasmine-wood for our pipes, and vegetables for 
 our kitchen. On all such occasions we detailed Seyd, the tall 
 Nubian, whose ebony face shone resplendent under a snow-white 
 turban, to be our attendant. The stately gravity with which 
 he walked behind us, carrying bread and vegetables, was wor- 
 thy the pipe-bearer of a Sultan. By this time we had installed 
 the Asian as cook, and he very cheerfully undertook the service. 
 We soon discovered that the skill of Ibrahim extended no fur- 
 ther than to the making of 2i pilaff and the preparation of coffee. 
 Moreover his habits and appearance were not calculated to make 
 us relish his handiwork. The naivete with which he took the 
 wash-basin to make soup in, and wiped our knives and forks on 
 his own baggy pantaloons, would have been very amusing if we 
 had not been interested parties. The Asian was one day 
 crumbling some loaf sugar with a hammer, when Ibrahim, who 
 had been watching him, suddenly exclaimed in a tone of min- 
 gled pity and contempt, " that's not the way ! " Thereupon he 
 took up some of the lumps, and wrapped them in one corner of 
 his long white shirt, which he thrust into his mouth, and after 
 srushing the sugar between his teeth, emptied it into the bowl 
 with an air of triumph. 
 
 A whole squadron of boats was waiting at the locks, but 
 with Frankish impudence, we pushed through them, and took 
 »up place in the front rank. The sun was intensely hot, and 
 
ENTRANCE INTO THE NILE. 2? 
 
 we sweated and broiled for a full hour, in the midst of a hor- 
 rible tumult of Arabs, before the clumsy officers closed the last 
 gate on us and let us float forth on the Nile. It is the west- 
 em, or Canopic branch of the river which flows past Atfeh. It 
 is not broader than the Hudson at Albany, but was more mud- 
 dy and slimy from its recent overflow than the Mississippi at 
 New Orleans. Its water is no less sweet and wholesome than 
 that of the latter river. After leaving the monotonous banks 
 of the Canal, the aspect of its shores, fringed with groves of 
 palm, was unspeakably cheerful and inspiring. On the opposite 
 side, the slender white minarets of Fooah, once a rich manu- 
 facturing town, sparkled in the noonday sun. A fresh north 
 wind from the Mediterranean slowly pressed our boat against 
 the strong current, while the heavily-laden merchant vessels 
 followed in our wake, their two immense lateen sails expanded 
 like the wings of the Arabian roc. We drank to the glory of 
 old Father Nile in a cup of his own brown current, and then 
 called Ibrahim to replenish the empty shebooks. Those who 
 object to tobacco under the form of cigars, or are nauseated by 
 the fumes of a German meerschaum, should be told that the 
 Turkish pipe, filled with Latakieh, is quite another thing. The 
 aroma, which you inhale through a long jasmine tube, topped 
 with a soft amber mouth-piece, is as fragrant as roses and re- 
 freshing as ripe dates. I have no doubt that the atmosphere 
 of celestial musk and amber which surrounded Mahomet, ac- 
 cording to the Persian Chronicles, was none other than genuine 
 Latakieh, at twenty piastres the oka. One thing is certain, 
 that without the capacity to smoke a shebook, no one can taste 
 the true flavor of the Orient. 
 
 An hour or two after sunset the wind fell, and for the rest 
 
28 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRIC I. 
 
 of the night our men tracked the boat slowly forward, smging 
 cheerily as they tugged at the long tow-rope. The Asian 
 spread on the deck his Albanian capote, the European his am- 
 ple travelling cloak, and the representatives of three Conti- 
 nents, travelling in the fourth, lay on their backs enjoying the 
 moonlight, the palms, and more than all, the perfect silence and 
 repose. With every day of our journey I felt more deeply and 
 gratefully this sense of rest. Under such a glorious sky, no 
 disturbance seemed possible. It was of little consequence 
 whether the boat went forward or backward, whether we struck 
 on a sand-bar or ploughed the water under a full head of wind; 
 every thing was right. My conscience made me no reproach for 
 such a lazy life. In America we live too fast and work too 
 hard, I thought : shall I not know what Rest is, once before I 
 die ? The European said to me naively, one day : " I am a 
 little surprised, but very glad, that no one of us has yet spoken 
 of European politics." Europe ! I had forgotten that such a 
 land existed : and as for America, it seemed very dim and 
 distant. 
 
 Sometimes I varied this repose by trying to pick up the 
 language. "Wilkinson's Vocabulary and Capt. Hayes's Gram- 
 mar did me great service, and after I had tried a number of 
 words with Ibrahim, to get the pronunciation, I made bolder 
 essays. One day when the sailors were engaged in a most 
 vociferous discussion, I broke upon them with : " What is all 
 this noise about ? stop instantly ! " The effect was instantane- 
 ous ; the men were silent, and Seyd, turning up his eyes in 
 wonder, cried out : ^^ Wallah ! the Howadji talks Arabic!" 
 The two copper-faced Fellahs thought it very amusing, and 
 every new word I learned sufficed to set them laughing for half 
 
SCENERY OF THE DELTA. 29 
 
 an hour, I called out to a fisherman, seated on the bank: " 
 Fisherman, have you any fish ? " and he held up a string of 
 them and made answer : " Howadji, I have." This solemn 
 form of address, which is universal in Arabic, makes the lan- 
 guage very piquant to a student. 
 
 During our second night on the river, we passed the site 
 of ancient Sais, one of the most renowned of Egyptian cities, 
 which has left nothing but a few shapeless mounds. The coun- 
 try was in many places still wet from the inundation, which 
 was the largest that had occurred for many years. The Fel- 
 vahs were ploughing for wheat, with a single bufialo geared to a 
 sharp pole, which scratched up the soil to the depth of three 
 inches. Fields of maize and sugar-cane were frequent, and I 
 noticed also some plantations of tobacco, millet, and a species 
 of lupin, which is cultivated for its beans. The only vegetables 
 we found for sale in the villages, were onions, leeks and toma- 
 toes. Milk, butter and eggs are abundant and very good, but 
 the cheese of the country is detestable. The habitations resem- 
 ble ant-hills, rather than human dwellings, and the villages are 
 depots of tilth and vermin, on the most magnificent scale. Our 
 boat was fortunately free from the latter, except a few cock- 
 roaches. Except the palm and acacia, without which a Nile 
 journey would lose half its attractions, I saw few trees. Here 
 and there stood a group of superb plane-trees, and the banana 
 sometimes appeared in the gardens, but there is nothing of that 
 marvellous luxuriance and variety of vegetation which is else- 
 where exhibited in the neighborhood of the Tropics. 
 
 On the evening of the third day we reached the town of 
 Nadir, and, as there was no wind, went ashore for an hour oi 
 two. There was a cafe on the bank — a mud house, with two 
 
30 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 windows, adorned with wooden frames, carved in the Moorish 
 Style. A divan, huilt of clay and whitewashed, extended along 
 one side of the room, and on this we seated ourselves cross-leg- 
 ged, while the host prepared the little coffee-cups and filled the 
 pipes. Through the open door we saw the Nile, gleaming 
 broadly under the full moon, and in the distance, two tall palm- 
 trees stood clearly against the sky. Our boatmen, whom we 
 had treated to hooza, the Egyptian beer, sat before us, and 
 joined in the chorus of a song, which was sung to entertain us. 
 The performers were three women, and a man who played a 
 3oarse reed flute. One of the women had a tambourine, another 
 I small wooden drum, and the third kept time by slapping the 
 closed fingers of the right hand on the palm of the left. The 
 song, which had a wild, rude harmony that pleased me, was 
 followed by a dance, executed by one of the women. It was 
 very similar to the fandango, as danced by the natives of the 
 Isthmus of Panama, and was more lascivious than graceful. 
 The women, however, were of the lowest class, and their per- 
 formances were adapted to the taste of the boatmen and camel- 
 drivers, by whom they are patronized. 
 
 The next day the yellow hills of the Libyan Desert, which 
 in some places press the arable land of the Delta even to the 
 brink of the Nile, appeared in the west. The sand appeared 
 to be steadily advancing towards the river, and near Werdan 
 had already buried a grove of acacias as high as their first 
 branches. The tops were green and flourishing above the 
 deluge, but another year or two would overwhelm them com- 
 pletely. We had a thick fog during the night, and the follow- 
 ing day was exceedingly hot though the air was transparent as 
 crystal. Our three faces were already of the color of new 
 
m 
 
 THE BARRAGE. 31 
 
 bronze, which was burned into the skin by the reflection from 
 the water. While my friends were enjoying their usual after- 
 noon repose, a secret presentiment made me climb to the roof 
 of our cabin. I had not sat there long, before I descried two 
 faint blue triangles on the horizon, far to the south. I rudely 
 broke in upon their indolence with a shout of "the Pyra- 
 mids I " which Seyd echoed with " El-hdram Faraoon I " I 
 was as much impressed with the view as I expected to be, but 
 I completely nullified the European's emotion by translating 
 to him Thackeray's description of his first sight of those re- 
 nowned monuments. 
 
 The same evening we reached the northern point of the 
 Delta, where we were obliged to remain all night, as the wind 
 was not sufficiently strong to allow us to pass the Barrage 
 Singularly enough, this immense work, which is among the 
 greatest undertakings of modem times, is scarcely heard of out 
 of Egypt. It is nothing less than a damming of the Nile, 
 which is to have the effect of producing two inundations a 
 year, and doubling the crops throughout the Delta. Here, 
 where the flood divides itself into two main branches, which 
 find separate mouths at Damietta and Rosetta, an immense 
 dam has not only been projected, but is far advanced toward 
 completion. Each branch will be spanned by sixty-two arches, 
 besides a central gateway ninety feet in breadth, and flanked 
 by lofty stone towers. The point of the Delta, between the 
 two dams, is protected by a curtain of solid masonry, and the 
 abutments which it joins are fortified by towers sixty or seven- 
 ■y feet in height. The piers have curved breakwaters on the 
 upper side, while the opposite parapet of the arches rises high 
 above them, so that the dam consists of three successive ter- 
 
82 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 races, and presents itself like a wedge, against the force oi 
 such an immense body of water. The material is brick, faced 
 with ^tone. When complete, it is intended to close the side- 
 arches during low water, leaving only the central gateway 
 open, . By this means sufficient water will be gained to fill all 
 the irrigating canals, while a new channel, cut through the 
 centre of the Delta, will render productive a vast tract of fer- 
 tile land. The project is a grand one, and the only obstacle 
 to its success is the light, porous character of the alluvial 
 soil on which the piers are founded. The undertaking was 
 planned and commenced by M. Linant, and has since been 
 continued by other engineers. 
 
 The Egyptian boatmen have reason to complain of the 
 Barrage. The main force of the river is poured through the 
 narrow space wherein the piers have not yet been sunk, which 
 cannot be passed without a strong north wind. Forty or fifty 
 boats were lying along the shore, waiting the favorable mo- 
 ment. We obtained permission from the engineer to attach 
 our boat to a large government barge, which was to be drawn 
 up by a stationary windlass. As we put off, the wind freshen- 
 ed, and we were slowly urged against the current to the main 
 rapid, where we were obliged to hold on to our big friend. 
 Behind us the river was white with sails — craft of all kinds, 
 pushed up by the wind, dragged down by the water, striking 
 against each other, entangling their long sails and crowding 
 into the narrow passage, amid shouts, cries and a bewildering 
 profusion of Arabic gutturals. For half an hour, the scene was 
 most exciting, but thanks to the windlass, we reached smoother 
 water, and sailed off gayly for Cairo. 
 
 The true Nile expanded before us, nearly two miles in 
 
"VTE REACH BOULAK. 33 
 
 width. To the south, the three Pyramids of Gizeh loomed 
 up like isolated mountain-peaks on the verge of the Desert. 
 On the right hand the Mokattam Hills lay red and bare in 
 the sunshine, and ere long, over the distant gardens of Shoo- 
 bra, we caught sight of the Citadel of Cairo, and the minarets 
 of the mosque of Sultan Hassan. The north wind was faith- 
 ful : at three o'clock we were anchored in Boulak, paid our 
 rais, gave the crew a backsheesh, for which they kissed our 
 hands with many exclamations of " taih I '' (good I) and set 
 oat for Cairo. 
 
34 JOUHNET TO CENTRAL AFRICX. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PICTURES OFCAIRO. 
 
 Entrance— The Ezbeklyeh— Saracenic Ilouses— Donkeys— The Bazaars— The Streets 
 — Processions — ^Yiew from the Citadel — Mosque of Mohammed All— The Eoad to 
 Suez— The Island of Rhoda. 
 
 Our approach to and entrance into Cairo was the illuminated 
 frontispiece to the volume of my Eastern life. From the Nile 
 we had already seen the mosque of Sultan Hassan, the white 
 domes, and long, pencil-like minarets of the new mosque of 
 Mohammed Ali, and the massive masonry of the Citadel^ 
 crowning a projecting spur of the Mokattam Hills, which 
 touches the city on the eastern side. But when, mounted 
 on ambling donkeys, we followed the laden baggage-horses 
 through the streets of Boulak, and entered the broad, shaded 
 highway leading through gardens, grain-fields and groves of 
 palm and banana, to the gate of the Ezhehiyeh — the great 
 square of Cairo — the scene, which, at a distance, had been 
 dimmed and softened by the filmy screen of the Egyptian air, 
 now became so gay, picturesque and animated, so full of life 
 and motion and color, that my dreams of the East were at 
 once displaced by the vivid reality. The donkey-riding multi- 
 tudes who passed continually to and fro, were wholly unlike 
 
THE GREAT SQUARE OF CAIRO. 2t 
 
 fcbe crowds of Smyrna and Alexandria, where the growing in- 
 fluence of European dress and customs is already visible. 
 Here, every thing still exhaled the rich aroma of the Orient, 
 as it had been wafted to me from the Thousand and One 
 Nights, the Persian poets and the Arab chroniclers. I forgot 
 that I still wore a Frank dress, and found myself wondering at 
 the temerity of the few Europeans we met. I looked without 
 surprise on the long processions of donkeys carrying water- 
 skins, the heavily-laden camels, the women with white masks 
 on their faces and black bags around their bodies, the stolid 
 Nubian slares, the grave Abyssinians, and all the other va- 
 rious characters that passed and repassed us. But because 
 they were so familiar, they were none the less interesting, for 
 all had been acquaintances, when, like Tennyson, " true Mus- 
 sulman was I, and sworn," under the reign of the good Haroun 
 Al-Raschid. 
 
 We entered the Ezbekiyeh, which is wholly overgrown with 
 majestic acacias and plane-trees, and thickets of aromatic flow- 
 ering shrubs. It is in the Frank quarter of the city, and was 
 first laid out and planted by order of Mohammed All All the 
 principal hotels front upon it, and light, thatched cafes fill the 
 space under the plane-trees, where the beau monde of Cairo 
 promenade every Sunday evening. Nothing of the old City of 
 the Caliphs, except a few tall minarets, can be seen from this 
 quarter, but the bowery luxuriance of the foliage is all that the 
 eye demands, and over the plain white walls, on every side, 
 the palms — single, or in friendly groups — ^lift their feathery 
 crowns. After installing our household gods in the chambers 
 of the quiet and comfortable Hotel d'Europe, we went out to 
 enjoy the sweet evening air in front of one of the cafes. I 
 
86 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 tried foi the first time the narghileh, or Persian water-pipe 
 The soft, velvety leaves of the tobacco of Shiraz are burned in 
 a small cup, the tube of which enters a glass vase, half filled 
 with rose-scented water. From the top of this vase issues a 
 fiexible tube, several feet in length, with a mouth-piece of wood 
 or amber. At each inspiration, the smoke is drawn downward 
 and rises through the water with a pleasant bubbling sound. It 
 is deprived of all the essential oil of the weed, and is exceed 
 ingly mild, cool and fragrant. But instead of being puflfed out 
 of the mouth in whiffs, it is breathed full into the lungs and 
 out again, like the common air. This is not so difl&cult a mat- 
 ter as might be supposed ; the sensation is pleasant and slight- 
 ly exhilarating, and is not injurious to the lungs when moder- 
 ately iixdulged in. , 
 
 The Turkish quarter of Cairo still retains the picturesque 
 Saracenic architecture of the times of the Caliphs. The 
 houses are mostly three stories in height, each story projecting 
 over the other, and the plain stone walls are either whitewash- 
 ed or striped with horizontal red bars, in a manner which TYOuld 
 be absurd under a northern sky, but which is here singularly 
 harmonious and agreeable. The only signs of sculpture are 
 occasional door-ways with richly carved arches, or the light 
 marble gallery surrounding a foimtained court. I saw a few 
 of these in retired parts of the city. The traveller, however, 
 has an exhaustless source of delight in the wooden balconies 
 inclosing the upper windows. The extraordinary lightness, 
 grace and delicate fragility of their workmanship, rendered still 
 more striking by contrast with the naked solidity of the walls 
 to which they cling, gave me a new idea of the skill and fancy 
 of the Saracenic architects, The wood seems rather woven in 
 
DONKEYS AND DONKEY-BOYS. 87 
 
 the loom, than cut with the saw and chisel Through these 
 lattices of fine network, with borders worked in lace-like pat- 
 terns, and sometimes topped with slender turrets and pinnacles, 
 the wives of the Cairene merchants sit and watch the crowds 
 passing softly to and fro in the twilight of the bazaars, them- 
 selves unseen. It needed no effort of the imagination to people 
 the fairy watch-towers under which we rode daily, with forms 
 as beautiful as those which live in the voluptuous melodies of 
 Hafiz. 
 
 To see Cairo thoroughly, one must first accustom himself 
 to the ways of those long-eared cabs, without the use of which 
 I would advise no one to trust himself in the bazaars. Don- 
 key-riding is universal, and no one thinks of going beyond the 
 Frank quarter on foot. If he does, he must submit to be fol- 
 lowed by not less than six donkeys with their drivers. A 
 friend of mine, who was attended by such a cavalcade for two 
 hours, was obliged to yield at last, and made no second attempt. 
 When we first appeared in the gateway of our hotel, equipped 
 for an excursion, the rush of men and animals was so great, 
 that we were forced to retreat until our servant and the porter 
 whipped as a path through the yelling and braying mob. Af- 
 ter one or two trials, I found an intelligent Arab boy, named 
 Kish, who, for five piastres a day, furnished strong and ambi- 
 tious donkeys, which he kept ready at the door from morning 
 till night. The other drivers respected Kish's privilege, and 
 thenceforth I had no trouble. The donkeys are so small that 
 my feet nearly touched the ground, but there is no end to their 
 strength and endurance. Their gait, whether a pace or a gal- 
 lop, is so easy and light that fatigue is impossible. The dri- 
 vers take great pride in having high-cushioned red saddles, and 
 
88 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 in hanging bits of jingling brass to the bridles. They keep 
 their donkeys close shorn, and frequently beautify them by 
 painting them various colors. The first animal I rode had legs 
 barred like a zebra's, and my friend's rejoiced in purple flanks 
 and a yellow belly. The drivers run behind them with a short 
 stick, punching them from time to time, or giving them a sharp 
 pinch on the rump. Yery few of them own their donkeys, and 
 I understood their pertinacity when I learned that they fre- 
 quently received a beating on returning home in the evening 
 empty-handed. 
 
 The passage of the bazaars seems at first quite as hazardous 
 on donkey-back as on foot, but it is the difference between knock- 
 ing somebody down and being knocked down yourself, and one 
 naturally prefers the former alternative. There is no use in 
 attempting to guide the donkey, for he won't be guided. The 
 driver shouts behind, and you are dashed at full speed into a 
 confusion of other donkeys, camels, horses, carts, water-car- 
 riers and footmen. In vain you cry out : " Bess /" (enough !) 
 " Piano ! " and other desperate adjurations ; the driver's only 
 reply is : " Let the bridle hang loose ! " You dodge your 
 head under a camel-load of planks ; your leg brushes the wheel 
 of a dust-cart ; you strike a fat Turk plump in the back ; you 
 miraculously escape upsetting a fruit-stand ; you scatter a com- 
 pany of spectral, white-masked women, and at last reach some 
 more quiet street, with the sensation of a man who has stormed 
 a battery. At first this sort of riding made me very nervous, 
 but finally I let the donkey go his own way, and took a curious 
 interest in seeing how near a chance I ram of striking or being 
 struck. Sometimes there seemed no hope of avoiding a violent 
 collision, but by a series of the most remarkable dodges he gen- 
 
THE POPULACE OF CAIRO. 89 
 
 erally carried me through in safety. The cries of the driver 
 running behind, gave me no little amusement : " The Howadji 
 comes ! Take care on the right hand ! take care on the left 
 hand ! man, take care ! maiden, take care ! boy, get 
 out of the way ! The Howadji comes ! " Kish had strong lungs 
 and his donkey would let nothing pass him, and so, wherever 
 we went, we contributed our full share to the universal noise 
 and confusion. 
 
 Cairo is the cleanest of all oriental cities. The regulations 
 established by Mohammed Ali are strictly carried out. Each 
 man is obliged to sweep before his own door, and the dirt is 
 carried away in carts every morning. Besides this, the streets 
 are watered several times a day, and are nearly always cool 
 and free from dust. The constant evaporation of the water, 
 however, is said to be injurious to the eyes of the inhabitants, 
 though in other respects the city is healthy. The quantity of 
 sore-eyed, cross-eyed, one-eyed, and totally blind persons one 
 meets every where, is surprising. There are some beggars, 
 mostly old or deformed, but by no means so abundant or imper^ 
 tinent as in the Italian cities. A number of shabby police- 
 men, in blue frock-coats and white pantaloons, parade the prin 
 cipal thoroughfares, but I never saw their services called into 
 requisition. The soldiers, who wear a European dress of white 
 cotton, are by far the most awkward and unpicturesque class. 
 Even the Fellah, whose single brown garment hangs loose from 
 his shoulders to his knees, has an air of dignity compared with 
 these Frankish caricatures. The genuine Eg3^tian costume, 
 which bears considerable resemblance to the Grreek, and espe 
 cially the Hydriote, is simple and graceful. The colors are 
 dark — ^principally brown, blue, green and violet — relieved by a 
 
*0 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 heavy silk sash of some gay pattern, and by the red slippers 
 and tarboosh. But, as in Turkey, the Pashas and Beys, and 
 many of the minor officers of the civil departments have adopt- 
 ed the Frank dress, retaining only the tarboosh, — a change 
 which is by no means becoming to them. I went into an Egyp- 
 tian barber-shop one day, to have my hair shorn, and en- 
 joyed the preparatory pipe and coffee in company with two in- 
 dividuals, whom I supposed to be French or Italians of the 
 vulgar order, until the barber combed out the long locks on the 
 top of their head, by which Mussulmen expect to be lifted up 
 into Paradise. When they had gone, the man informed me 
 that one was Khalim Pasha, one of the grandsons of Moham- 
 med Ali, and the other a Bey, of considerable notoriety. The 
 Egyptians certainly do not gain any thing by adopting a costume 
 which, in this climate, is neither so convenient nor so agreeable 
 as their own. 
 
 Besides the animated life of the bazaars, which I had an 
 opportunity of seeing, in making my outfit for the winter's 
 journey, I rarely went out without witnessing some incident or 
 ceremony illustrative of Egyptian character and customs. One 
 morning I encountered a stately procession, with music and 
 banners, accompanying a venerable personage, with a green tur- 
 ban on his head and a long white beard flowing over his breast. 
 This, as Kish assured me, was the Shereef of Mecca. He was 
 attended by officers in the richest Turkish and Egyptian cos- 
 tumes, mounted on splendid Arabian steeds, who were almost 
 hidden under their broad housings of green and crimson velvet, 
 embroidered with gold. The people on all sides, as he passed, 
 laid their hands on their breasts and bowed low, which he an- 
 swered by slowly lifting his hand. It was a simple motion, but 
 nothing could have been more calm and majestic. 
 
FESTIVR PROCESSIONS. 41 
 
 On another occasion, I met a bridal procession in the streets 
 of Boulak. Three musicians, playing on piercing flutes, head- 
 ed the inarch, followed by the parents of the bride, who, sur- 
 rounded by her maids, walked under a crimson canopy. She 
 was shrouded from head to foot in a red robe, over which a 
 gilded diadem was fastened around her head. A large crowd 
 vf friends and relatives closed the procession, close behind 
 (vhich followed another, of very different character. The chief 
 actors were four boys, of five w six years old, on their way to 
 be circumcised. Each was mounted on a handsome horse, and 
 wore the gala garments of a full-grown man, in which their little 
 bodies were entirely lost. The proud parents marched by their 
 sides, supporting them, and occasionally holding to their lips 
 bottles of milk and sherbet. One was a jet black Nubian, who 
 seemed particularly delighted with his situation, and grinned on 
 all sides as he passed along. This procession was headed by 
 a buffoon, who carried a laugh with him which opened a ready 
 passage through the crowd. A man followed balancing on his 
 chin a long pole crowned with a bunch of flowers. He came to 
 me for backsheesh. His success brought me two swordsmen 
 out of the procession, who cut at each other with scimitars and 
 caught the blows on their shields. The coolness, swiftness and 
 skill with which they parried the strokes was really admirable, 
 and the concluding flourish was a masterpiece. One of them, 
 striking with the full sweep of his arm, aimed directly at the 
 face of the other, as if to divide his head into two parts ; but, 
 without making a pause, the glittering weapon turned, and 
 sliced the air within half an inch of his eyes. The man neither 
 winked nor moved a muscle of his face, but after the scimitai 
 had passed, dashed it up with his shield, which he then reversed, 
 
42 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 and dropping on one knee, held to me for backsheesh. After 
 these came a camel, with a tuft of ostrich feathers on his head 
 and a boy on his back, who pounded vigorously on two wooden 
 drums with one hand, while he stretched the other down to me 
 for backsheesh. Luckily the little candidates for circumci- 
 sion were too busily engaged with their milk bottles and sugar- 
 plums, to join in the universal cry. 
 
 I had little time to devote to the sights of Cairo, and was 
 obliged to omit the excursions to the Petrified Forest, to Helio- 
 polis and Old Cairo, until my return. Besides the city itself, 
 which was always full of interest, I saw little else except the 
 Citadel and the Island of Rhoda. We took the early morning 
 for our ride to the former place, and were fortunate enough to 
 find our view of the Nile-plain unobscured by the mists cus- 
 tomary at this season. The morning light is most favorable to 
 the landscape, which lies wholly to the westward. The shad- 
 ows of the Citadel and the crests of the Mokattam Hills then 
 lie broad and cool over the city, but do not touch its minarets, 
 which glitter in the air like shafts of white and rosy flame. 
 The populace is up and stirring, and you can hear the cries of 
 the donkeymen and water-carriers from under the sycamores and 
 acacias that shade the road to Boulak. Over the rich palm- 
 gardens, the blue streak of the river and the plain beyond, you 
 see the phantoms of two pyramids in the haze which still cu 
 tains the Libyan Desert. Northward, beyond the parks and 
 palaces of Shoobra, the Nile stretches his two great arms to- 
 ward the sea, dotted, far into the distance, with sails that flash 
 in the sun. From no other point, and at no other time, is 
 Cairo so grand and beautiful. 
 
 Within the walls of the Citadel is the Bir Youssef — Jo« 
 
THE CITADEL. 43 
 
 Beph's Well — as it is called by the Arabs, not from the vir- 
 tuous Hebrew, but from Sultan Saladin, who dug it out and 
 put it in operation. The well itself dates from the old Egyp 
 tian time, but was filled with sand and entirely lost for many 
 centuries. It consists of an upper and lower shaft, cut through 
 the solid rock, to the depth of two hundred and sixty feet. A 
 winding gallery, lighted from the shaft, extends to the bottom 
 of the first division, where, in a chamber cut in the rock, a 
 mule turns the large wheel which brings up a continual string 
 of buckets from the fountain below. The water is poured into 
 a spacious basin, and carried thence to the top by another 
 string of buckets set in motion at the surface. Attended by 
 two Arabs with torches, we made the descent of the first shaft 
 and took a drink of the fresh, cool fluid. This well, and the 
 spot where the Mameluke Emin Bey jumped his horse over 
 the wall and escaped the massacre of his comrades, are the 
 only interesting historical points about the Citadel ; and th« 
 new mosque of Mohammed Ali, which overlooks the city from 
 the most projecting platform of the fortifications, is the only 
 part which has any claim to architectural beauty. Although 
 it has been in process of erection for many years, this mosqu6 
 is not nearly completed internally. The exterior is finished, 
 and its large, white, depressed dome, flanked by minarets so 
 tall and reed-like that they seem ready to bend with every 
 breeze, is the first signal of Cairo to travellers coming up or 
 down the Nile. The interior walls are lined throughout with 
 oriental alabaster, stained with the orange fiush of Egyptian 
 sunsets, and the three domes blaze with elaborate arabesques 
 of green, blue, crimson and gold. In a temporary chamber, 
 fitted up in one corner, rests the coffin of Mohammed Ali, cov- 
 
44 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 ered with a heavy velvet pall, and under the marble arches be* 
 fore it, a company of priests, squatted on the green carpet cov- 
 ering the floor, bow their heads continually and recite prayers 
 or fragments of the Koran. 
 
 Before descending into the city, I rode a little way into 
 the Desert to the tombs of the Caliphs, on the road to Suez. 
 They consist mostly of stone canopies raised on pillars, with 
 mosques or oratories attached to them, exhibiting considerable 
 variety in their design, but are more curious than impressive. 
 The track in the sand made by the pilgrims to Mecca and the 
 overland passengers to Suez, had far more real interest in my 
 eyes. The pilgrims are fewer, and the passengers more nu- 
 merous, with each successive year. English-built omnibuses, 
 whirled along by galloping post-horses, scatter the sand, and 
 in the midst of the herbless Desert, the travellers regale them- 
 selves with beefsteak and ale, and growl if the accustomed 
 Cheshire is fo'iad wanting. At this rate, how long will it be 
 before there is a telegraph-station in Mecca, and the operator 
 explodes with his wire a cannon on the Citadel of Cairo, to 
 announce that the prayers on Mount Arafat have commenced ? 
 
 The Island of Rhoda, which I visited on a soft, golden 
 afternoon, is but a reminiscence of what it was a few years 
 ago. Since Ibrahim Pasha's death it has been wholly neglect- 
 ed, and though we found a few gardeners at work, digging up 
 the sodden flower-beds and clipping the rank myrtle hedges, 
 they only served to make the neglect more palpable. During 
 the recent inundation, the Nile had risen to within a few 
 inches of covering the whole island, and the soil was still soft 
 and clammy. Nearly all the growths of the tropics are nur- 
 tured here ; the coffee, the Indian fig, the mango, and other 
 
RECORDS OF SILLINESS. 45 
 
 trees alternate with the palm, orange, acacia, and the yellow 
 mimosa, whose blossoms make the isle fragrant. I gathered 
 a bunch of roses and jasmine-flowers from the unpruned vines. 
 In the centre of the garden is an artificial grotto lined with 
 shells, many of which have been broken off and carried away 
 by ridiculous tourists. There is no limit to human silliness, 
 as I have wisely concluded, after seeing Pompey's Pillar dis- 
 figured by " Isaac Jones " (or some equally classic name), in 
 capitals of black paint, a yard long, and finding " Jenny Lind ' 
 equally prominent on the topmost stone of the great Pyramid. 
 (Of course, the enthusiastic artist chiselled his own name be- 
 side hers.) A mallet and chisel are often to be found in the 
 outfits of English and American travellers, and to judge from' 
 the frequency of certain names, and the pains bestowed upon 
 their inscription, the owners must have spent the most of their 
 time in Upper Egypt, in leaving records of their vulgar vanity. 
 
46 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 *. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY INTO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Necessity of Leaving Immediately— Engaging a Boat— Tho Dragomen— Achm^t el 
 Saidi— Funds— Information— Procuring an Outfit— Preparing for the Desert—Tim 
 Lucky Day— Exertions to Leave — OS ! 
 
 I DEVOTED but little time to seeing Cairo, for the travelling 
 season had arrived, and a speedy departure from Cairo was 
 absolutely necessary. The trip to Khartoum occupies at least 
 two months and it is not safe to remain there later than the 
 first of March, on account of the heat and the rainy season, 
 which is very unhealthy for strangers. Dr. Knoblecher, the 
 Catholic Apostolic Vicar for Central Africa, had left about a 
 month previous, on his expedition to the sources of the White 
 Nile. I therefore went zealously to work, and in five days my 
 preparations were nearly completed. I prevailed upon the 
 European of our triad, who had intended proceeding no further 
 than Cairo, to join me for the voyage to Assouan, on the Nubi- 
 an frontier, and our first care was to engage a good dahabiyeh, 
 or Nile-boat. This arrangement gave me great joy, for no- 
 where is a congenial comrade so desirable as on the Nile. My 
 friend appreciated the river, and without the prospect of seeing 
 Thebes, Ombos and Philae, would have cheerfully borne all 
 the inconveniences and delays of the journey, for the Nile's 
 
ENGAGING A BOAT. 47 
 
 sake alone. Commend me to such a man, for of the hundreds 
 of tourists who visit the East, there are few such I On my ar- 
 rival, I had found that the rumors I had heard on the road 
 respecting the number of travellers and the rise in the price of 
 boats, were partially true. Not more than a dozen boats had 
 left for Upper Egypt, but the price had been raised in antici- 
 pation. The ship carpenters and painters were busily employ- 
 ed all along the shore at Boulak, in renovating the old barks 
 or building new ones, and the Beys and Pashas who owned the 
 craft were anticipating a good harvest. Some travellers paid 
 forty-five pounds a month for their vessels, but I found little 
 difficulty in getting a large and convenient boat, for two per- 
 sons, at twenty pounds a month. This price, it should be un- 
 derstood, includes the services often men, who find their own 
 provisions, and only receive a gratuity in case of good behavior. 
 The American Consul, Mr. Kahil, had kindly obtained for me 
 the promise of a bark from Ismail Pasha, before our arrival — 
 a superb vessel, furnished with beds, tables, chairs and divans, 
 in a very handsome style — ^which was offered at thirty pounds 
 a month, but it was much larger than we needed. In the 
 course of my inspection of the fleet of barks at Boulak, I found 
 several which might be had at fifteen, and seventeen pounds 
 a month, but they were old, inconvenient, and full of vermin. 
 Our boat, which I named the Cleopatra, had been newly cleansed 
 and painted, and contained, besides a spacious cabin, with 
 beds and divans, a sort of portico on the outside, with cush- 
 ioned seats, where we proposed to sit during the balmy twi- 
 lights, and smoke our shebooks. 
 
 Without a tolerable knowledge of Arabic, a dragoman is 
 indispensable. The few phrases I had picked up, on the way 
 
48 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 from Alexandria, availed me little, and wonld have been use- 
 less in Nubia, where either the Berber! language, or a different 
 Arabic dialect is spoken ; and I therefore engaged a dragoman 
 for the journey. This class of persons always swarm in Cairo, 
 and I had not been there a day before I was visited by half a 
 dozen, who were anxious to make the trip to Khartoum. How 
 they knew I was going there, I cannot imagine ; but I found 
 that they knew the plans of every traveller in Cairo as well. 
 I endeavored to find one who had already made the journey, 
 but of all who presented themselves, only two had been farther 
 than the second Cataract. One of these was a Nubian, who 
 had made a trip with the Sennaar merchants, as far as Shendy, 
 in Ethiopia ; but he had a sinister, treacherous face, and I re- 
 fused him at once. The other was an old man, named Suley- 
 man Ali, who had been for three years a servant of Champol- 
 lion, whose certificate of his faithfulness and honesty he pro- 
 duced. 
 
 He had been three years in Sennaar, and in addition to 
 Italian, (the only Frank tongue he knew), spoke several 
 Ethiopian dialects. He was a fine, venerable figure, with an 
 honest face, and I had almost decided to take him, when I 
 learned that he was in feeble health and would scarcely be able 
 to endure the hardships of the journey. I finally made choice 
 of a dark Egyptian, born in the valley of Thebes. He was call- 
 ed Achmet el Saidi, or Achmet of Upper Egypt, and when a boy 
 had been for several years a servant in the house of the Eng- 
 lish Consul at Alexandria. He spoke English fluently, as well 
 as a little Italian and Turkish. I was first attracted to him by 
 his bold, manly face, and finding that his recommendations were 
 excellent, and that he had sufficient spirit, courage and address 
 
OUTFIT FUNDS. 49 
 
 to serve us both in case of peril, I engaged him, notwithstand- 
 ing he had never travelled beyond Wadi Haifa (the Second 
 Cataract). I judged, however, that I was quite as familiar 
 with the geography of Central Africa as any dragoman I could 
 procure, and that, in any case, I should find it best to form my 
 own plans and choose my own paths. How far I was justified 
 in my choice, will appear in the course of the narrative. 
 
 The next step was to procure a double outfit — ^for the Nile 
 and the Desert — and herein Achmet, who had twice made the 
 journey to Mount Sinai and Petra, rendered me good service. 
 I had some general knowledge of what was necessary, but with- 
 out the advantage of his practical experience, should have been 
 very imperfectly prepared. As it was, many things were for- 
 gotten in the haste of departure, the need of which I felt when 
 it was too late to procure them. I had been prudent enough, 
 when in Vienna, to provide myself with Berghaus's great map 
 of Arabia and the Yalley of the Nile, which, with a stray vol- 
 ume of Russegger, were my only guides. In Khartoum, after- 
 wards, I stumbled upon a copy of Hoskins's Ethiopia. The 
 greater part of my funds I changed into Egyptian silver med- 
 jidsy colonnati, or Spanish pillar-dollars, and the Austrian 
 dollar of Maria Theresa, all of which are current as far as Sen- 
 naar and Abyssinia. I also procured five hundred piastres in 
 copper pieces of five pards (about half a cent) each, which were 
 contained in a large palm-basket, and made nearly an ass's 
 load. In addition to these supplies, I obtained from an Arme- 
 nian merchant a letter of credit on his brother in Khartoum, for 
 two thousand piastres, on which, he gave me to understand, I 
 should be obliged to pay a discount of twenty per cent. I en- 
 deavored, but in vain, to procure some information relative to 
 3 
 
60 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 tie cost of travelling in Nubia and the countries beyond. The 
 Frank merchants knew nothing, except that the expenses were 
 vast, and predicted that the sum I took would prove insufficient 
 and that I should certainly become involved in great difficul- 
 ties and embarrassments. The native merchants who had made 
 the journey were all jealous of a foreign traveller attempting 
 to penetrate into their peculiar domain, and gave me no satis- 
 factory information, while to the imagination of the Cairenes, 
 Sennaar is the utmost verge of the world, and he who has been 
 there and returned in safety, enjoys the special protection of 
 Allah. Even Achmet, although he showed no signs of fear, 
 and did not hesitate to accompany me, informed his family and 
 friends that we were going no further than Wadi Haifa, for he 
 said they would certainly detain him by force, should they 
 learn the truth. 
 
 I did not think it necessary to obtain a firman from Abbas 
 Pasha, which might readily have been procured. The Ameri- 
 can, English and Austrian Consuls kindly gave me letters tc 
 the principal Consular agents and merchants in Khartoum, be 
 sides which, Achmet professed to have some acquaintance witl 
 Lattif Pasha, who was then Pasha of Soudan. To the Hon. 
 Mr. Murray, the English Consul-General, and Mr. Constantino 
 Kahil, the American Vice-Consul at Cairo, I was especially 
 indebted for favors. The former intrusted me with despatches 
 for Khartoum and Obeid, in Kordofan, and the latter furnished 
 me with letters to the Governors of Thebes, Assouan and Ko- 
 rosko, asking the latter to insure my safety on the journey 
 through the Nubian Desert. Thus prepared, I anticipated no 
 further trouble on the road than from hard-trotting camels, 
 Band, brackish water, and the like privations, which are easilj 
 borne 
 
OUTFIT FOR THE BOAT. 51 
 
 The furnishing of a Nile-boat requires considerable know- 
 ledge of housekeeping. The number of small articles required 
 for this floating speck of civilization in a country of barbarians, 
 is amazing to a bachelor. I had no idea that the art of cook- 
 ing needed such a variety of tools and appliances, and for the 
 first time in my life, conceived some respect for the fame of Tide 
 and Soyer. There are frying-pans and stew-pans ; coffee-pots 
 and tea-pots; knives, forks, spoons, towels, cups, ladles and 
 boxes; butter, lard, flour, rice, macaroni, oil, vinegar, mus- 
 tard and pepper ; and no end to the groceries. We must have 
 a table and chairs, quilts and pillows, mats, carpets and nap- 
 kins, and many other articles which I should never have 
 thought of without the help of Achmet and of M. Pini, who 
 keeps a general depot of supplies. His printed lists, in four 
 languages, lighten the traveller's labor very greatly. His ex- 
 perience in regard to the quantity required, is also of much 
 service; otherwise an inexperienced person would not know 
 whether to take twelve or fifty pounds of rice, nor how much 
 sugar belonged to so much coffee. The expense of our outfit, 
 including bread, fowls, mutton, charcoal, and every other 
 requisite, was about two thousand piastres — a little more than 
 one hundred dollars. The calculation was made for one 
 month's provisions for two persons. 
 
 For my further journey after leaving the Nile, I was 
 recommended to take a large supply, on account of the scarcity 
 and expense of many articles in Upper Nubia and Sennaar. I 
 therefore purchased sufficient tea, coffee, flour, rice, biscuits, 
 sugar, macaroni and dried fruit to last me two months, beside 
 a complete canteen, or supply of articles necessary for life in 
 the desert. I took an extra quantity of gunpowder, tobacco 
 
52 JOURNBY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 and coffee, for presents to the Arab shekhs. The entire cost 
 of this outfit was about nine hundred piastres. In addition, I 
 procured a good Turkish tent for two hundred and fifty pias- 
 tres, to which I added a supply of tent-pins, lantern-poles, wa- 
 ter-skins, and leathern water-flasks, all these articles being pro- 
 cured to better advantage in Cairo. I did not propose adopt- 
 ing the Egyptian costume until I had made some progress in 
 the language, and therefore contented myself with purchasing 
 a hornous of camel's hair, a sabre, a broad shawl of Tripoli 
 silk, for the waist, and shoes of white leather, which are very 
 cool and comfortable. I also followed the custom of the Euro- 
 pean residents, in having my hair shorn close to the head, and 
 wearing a white cotton skull-cap. Over this was drawn the 
 red tarboosh, or fez, and as a protection against the sun, I 
 bound a large white shawl around it, which was my first les- 
 son in turban-making. 
 
 Achmet, influenced by a superstition which is not peculiar 
 to the East, begged me to hasten our preparations, in order 
 that we might leave Boulak on Monday, which day, he averred, 
 was the luckiest in the week, and would render our Journey 
 prosperous from beginning to end. Knowing from experience 
 that half the success of the journey is in the start, and believ- 
 ing that it is better to have superstition with you than against 
 you, I determined to gratify him. He was as zealous as I 
 could wish, and we rested not from morning to night, until at 
 last, from the spirit with which we labored, it seemed almost a 
 matter of life and death, that the boat should leave on Mon- 
 day. I had a clause inserted in our written contract with the 
 captain, that he should forfeit a day's rent, in case he was not 
 ready at the appointed hour ; but, in spite of this precaution, 
 
THE LUCKY DAT. 63 
 
 Achmet, who well knew the indifference of the Arab nature, 
 was constantly on his track. Two or three times a day he 
 galloped to Boulak, to hasten the enlistment of the men, the 
 baking of bread for the voyage, the furbishing of the cabin, 
 and the overhauling of the sails, oars and rigging. My Euro- 
 pean friends in Cairo smiled at our display of activity, saying 
 that such a thing had never been known, as a boat sailing at 
 the appointed time, and that I was fatiguing myself to no 
 purpose. 
 
 Monday (Nov. 17th) came, and the Egyptian cook, Sa- 
 lame, whom we had engaged for the Nile voyage, was de- 
 spatched to the markets to lay in a supply of fowls, eggs, but- 
 ter and vegetables. My letters home — the last I expected 
 to send, for months to come — ^were committed to the Post 
 Office, and after an early dinner, we saw our baggage and 
 stores laden upon carts and started for Boulak, under Ach- 
 met's guidance. We took leave of the few friends we had 
 made in Cairo, and followed. The Cleopatra was still lying 
 in the midst of a crowd of dahaliyehsy but the American flag, 
 hoisted at the peak of her little mizzenmast, was our " cornet," 
 proclaiming departure. We found Achmet unjacketed and 
 unturbaned, stowing away the stores, with one eye on the 
 rais, and another (as it seemed to me) on each of the tardy 
 sailors. There was still charcoal to be bought, and hois gras 
 for kindling fires, and clubs for the men, to prevent invasions 
 from the shore, with many more of those wants which are 
 never remembered until the last moment. The afternoon wore 
 away; the shadows of the feathery date-trees on the island 
 of Rhoda stretched long and cool across the Nile ; but before 
 the sun had touched the tops of the Pyramids, we had squeezed 
 
64 JOURNET TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 out from the shipping of Boulak, and were slowly working up 
 the Nile before a light wind, while our boatmen thumped the 
 ta'rahooJca, and sang their wild Arab songs of departure. The 
 rais came up to know whether he had not fulfilled his contract, 
 and Achmet with a cheerful face, turned to me and said • 
 " Praised be Allah, master 1 we shall have a lucky journey." 
 
Achmet 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PYRAMID" AND MEMPHIS. 
 
 Howlteg Dervlahfts— A Chi<Aen Factory— Ricte to the fyramida— Quarrel with the 
 Arabs — The Ascent— View from the Summit— Backsheesh — Effect of Pyramid 
 cUnibing-The Sphinx— Playing the Cadi— We obtain Justice- Yisit to Sakkara 
 and the Mummy Pits — The Exhumation of Memphis— Interview with M. Marietta 
 -Account of his Discoveries— Statue of Eemeses II.— Return to the Nile. 
 
 "And Morning opes in haste her lida, 
 To gaze upon ttio Pyramids." — Emeesow. 
 
 We went no further than the village of Gizeh, three or four 
 miles above Cairo, on the first evening, having engaged our 
 donkeys and their drivers to meet us there and convey us to 
 the Pyramids on the following morning. About dusk, the rais 
 moored our boat to the bank, beside a College of dervishes, 
 "whose unearthly chants, choruses and clapping of hands, were 
 
 prolonged far into the night. Their wild cries, and deep, mo- 
 
56 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRI0 4. 
 
 notonous bass howlings so filled our ears that we could not 
 choose but listen, and, in spite of our fatigue, sleep was impos- 
 sible. After performing for several hours, they gradually 
 ceased, through sheer exhaustion, though there was one tough 
 old dervish, who continued to gasp out, ^^ Allah! Allah /^^ 
 with such a spasmodic energy, that I suspected it was pro- 
 duced by the involuntary action of his larynx, and that he 
 could not have stopped, even had he been so minded. 
 
 When we threw open the latticed blinds of our cabin, be- 
 fore sunrise, the next morning, the extraordinary purity of the 
 air gave rise to an amusing optical delusion on the part of my 
 friend. "See that wall!" said he, pointing to a space be- 
 tween two white houses ; " what a brilliant color it is painted, 
 and how tKose palms and these white houses are relieved 
 against it 1 " He was obliged to look twice before he per- 
 ceived that what he had taken for a wall close at hand, was 
 really the sky, and rested upon a far-off horizon. Our don- 
 keys were in readiness on the bank, and I bestrode the same 
 faithful little gray who had for three days carried me through 
 the bazaars of Cairo. We left orders for the rais to go on to 
 Bedracheyn^ a village near the supposed site of Memphis, and 
 taking Achmet with us, rode off gayly among the mud hovels 
 and under the date-trees of Gizeh, on our way to the Pyramids. 
 Near the extremity of the village, we entered one of the large 
 chicken-hatching establishments for which the place is famed, 
 but found it empty. We disturbed a numerous family of Fel- 
 lahs, couched together on the clay floor, crept on our hands 
 and knees through two small holes and inspected sundry ovens 
 covered with a layer of chaff, and redolent of a mild, moist 
 heat and a feathery smell. The owner informed us that foi 
 
RIDE TO THE PYRAMIDS. 5^ 
 
 the first four or five days the eggs were exposed to smoke as 
 well as heat, and that when the birds began to pick the shell, 
 which generally took place in fifteen days, they were placed in 
 another oven and carefully accouched. ♦ 
 
 The rising sun shone redly on the Pyramids, as we rode 
 out on the broad harvest land of the Nile. The black, 
 unctuous loain was still too moist from the inundation to be 
 ploughed, except in spots, here and there, but even where the 
 water had scarce evaporated, millions of germs were pushing 
 their slender blades up to the sunshine. In that prolific soil, 
 the growth of grain is visible from day to day. The Fellahs 
 were at work on all sides, preparing for planting, and the un- 
 gainly buffaloes drew their long ploughs slowly through the soil. 
 Where freshly turned, the earth had a rich, soft lustre, like 
 dark-brown velvet, beside which the fields of young wheat, 
 beans and lentils, glittered with the most brilliant green. 
 The larks sang in the air and flocks of white pigeons clustered 
 like blossoms on the tops of the sycamores. There, in Novem- 
 ber, it was the freshest and most animating picture of Spring. 
 The direct road to the Pyramids was impassable, on account 
 of the water, and we rode along the top of a dyke, intersected 
 by canals, to the edge of the Libyan Desert — a distance of 
 nearly ten miles. The ruptures in the dyke obliged us occa- 
 sionally to dismount, and at the last canal, which cuts off the 
 advancing sands from the bounteous plain on the other side, 
 our donkeys were made to swim, while we were carried across 
 on the shoulderb of two naked Arabs. They had run out in 
 advance to meet us, hailing us with many English and French 
 phrases, while half a dozen boys, with earthen bottles which 
 they had just filled from the slimy canal, crowded after them, 
 3* 
 
58 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 insisting, in very good English, that we should drink at onc€ 
 and take them with us to the Pyramids. 
 
 Our donkeys' hoofs now sank deep in the Libyan sands 
 an€ we looked up to the great stone-piles of Cheops, Ce« 
 phrenes and Mycerinus, not more than half a mile distant. 
 Our sunrise view of the Pyramids on leaving Gizeh, was suffi- 
 cient, had I gone no further, and I approached them, without 
 the violent emotion which sentimental travellers experience, 
 but with a quiet feeling of the most perfect satisfaction. The 
 form of the pyramid is so simple and complete, that nothing is 
 left to the imagination. Those vast, yellowish-gray masses, 
 whose feet are wrapped in the silent sand, and whose tops lean 
 against the serene blue heaven, enter the mind and remain in 
 the memory with no shock of surprise, no stir of unexpected 
 admiration. The impression they give and leave, is calm, 
 grand and enduring as themselves. 
 
 The sun glared hot on the sand as we toiled up the ascent 
 to the base of Cheops, whose sharp corners were now broken 
 into zigzags by the layers of stone. As we dismounted in his 
 shadow, at the foot of the path which leads up to the entrance, 
 on the northern side, a dozen Arabs beset us. They belonged 
 to the regular herd who have the Pyramids in charge, and are 
 BO renowned for their impudence that it is customary to employ 
 the janissary of some Consulate in Cairo, as a protection. Be- 
 fore leaving Gizeh I gave Achmet my sabre, which I thought 
 would be a sufficient show to secure us from their importuni- 
 ties. However, when we had mounted to the entrance and 
 were preparing to climb to the summit, they demanded a dollar 
 from each for their company on the way. This was just four 
 times the usual fee, and we flatly refused the demand. My 
 
A QUAimEL. 59 
 
 friend had in the mean time become so giddy from the few steps 
 he had mounted, that he decided to return, and I ordered Ach- 
 met, who knew the way, to go on with me and leave the Arabs 
 to their bowlings. Their leader instantly sprang before hijn, 
 and attempted U force him back. This was too much for 
 Achmet, who thrust the man aside, whereupon he was instantly 
 beset by three or four, and received several hard blows. The 
 struggle took place just on the verge of the stones, and he was 
 prudent enough to drag his assailants into the open space before 
 the entrance of the Pyramid. My friend sprang towards the 
 group with his cane, and I called to the donkey-driver to bring 
 up my sabre, but by this time Achmet had released himself, 
 with the loss of his turban. 
 
 The Arabs, who had threatened to treat us in the same 
 manner, then reduced their demand to the regular fee of five 
 piastres for each. I took three of them and commenced the 
 ascent, leaving Achmet and my friend below. Two boys fol- 
 lowed us, with bottles of water. At first, the way seemed 
 hazardous, for the stones were covered with sand and fragments 
 which had fallen from above, but after we had mounted twenty 
 courses, the hard, smooth blocks of granite formed broader and 
 more secure steps. Two Arabs went before, one holding each 
 of my hands, while *lhe third shoved me up from the rear. 
 The assistance thus rendered was not slight, for few of the 
 stones are less than four feet in height. The water-boys 
 scampered up beside us with the agility of cats. We stopped 
 a moment to take breath, at a sort of resting-place half-way 
 up^an opening in the Pyramid, communicating with the 
 uppermost of the interior chambers. I had no sooner sat 
 down on the nearest stone, than the Arabs stretched themselves 
 
60 JOURNEY TO CEVTHAL AFRICA. 
 
 at my feet and entertained me with moat absurd mixture of 
 flattery and menace. One, patting the calves of my legs, cried 
 out; "Oh, what fine, strong legs! how fast they came up: 
 nobody ever went up the Pyramid so fast ! " while the others 
 added : " Here you must give us backsheesh : every body gives 
 us a dollar here." My only answer was, to get up and begin 
 climbing, and they did not cease pulling and pushing till they 
 left me breathless on the summit. The whole ascent did not 
 occupy more than ten minutes. 
 
 The view from Cheops has been often described. I cannot 
 say that it increased my impression of the majesty and gran- 
 deur of the Pyramid, for that was already complete. My eyes 
 wandered off from the courses of granite, broadening away 
 below my feet, to contemplate the glorious green of the Nile- 
 plain, barred with palm-trees and divided by the gleaming flood 
 of the ancient river ; the minarets of Cairo ; the purple walls 
 of the far Arabian mountains ; the Pyramid groups of Sakkara 
 and Dashoor, overlooking disinterred Memphis in the South ; 
 and the arid yellow waves of the Libyan Desert, which rolled 
 unbroken to the western sky. The clear, open heaven above, 
 which seemed to radiate light from its entire concave, clasped 
 in its embrace and harmonized the different features of this 
 wonderful landscape. There was too much warmth and bril- 
 liance for desolation. Every thing was alive and real; the 
 Pyramids were not ruins, and the dead Pharaohs, the worship- 
 pers of Athor and Apis, did not once enter my mind. 
 
 My wild attendants did not long allow me to enjoy the 
 view quietly. To escape from their importunities for back- 
 Bheesh, I gave them two piastres in copper coin, which instantly 
 turned their flatteries into th^ most bitter complaints, It was 
 
PHYSICAL EFFECT OF THE ASCENT. 61 
 
 insulting to give so little, and they preferred having none ; if 
 I would not give a dollar, I might take the money back. 1 
 took it without more ado, and put it into my pocket. This 
 rather surprised them, and first one, and then another came 
 to me and begged to have it again, on his own private account. 
 I threw the coins high into the air, and as they clattered down 
 on the stones, there ensued such a scramble as would have sent 
 any but Arabs over the edge of the Pyramid. We then com- 
 menced the descent, two seizing my hands as before, and drag- 
 ging me headlong after them. "We went straight down the 
 side, sliding and leaping from stone to stone without stopping 
 to take breath, and reached the base in five or six minutes. I 
 was so excited from the previous aggression of the Arabs, that 
 I neither felt fatigue nor giddiness on the way up and down, 
 and was not aware how violent had been my exertions. But 
 when I touched the level sand, all my strength vanished in an 
 instant. A black mist came over my eyes, and I sank down 
 helpless and nearly insensible. I was scarcely able to speak, 
 and it was an hour before I could sit upright on my donkey. 
 I felt the Pyramid in all my bones, and for two or three days 
 afterwards moved my joints with as much difficulty as a rheu- 
 matic patient. 
 
 The Arabs, who at first had threatened to kill Achmet, 
 now came forward and kissed his hands, humbly entreating 
 pardon. But his pride had been too severely touched by the 
 blows he had received, and he repulsed them, spitting upon 
 the ground, as the strongest mark of contempt. We consider- 
 ed it due to him, to ourselves, and to other travellers after us, 
 to represent the matter to the Shekh of the Pyramids, who 
 lives in a village called Kinnayseh, a mile distant, and ordered 
 
62 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Aohmet to conduct us thither. We first rode along the base 
 of the Pyramid of Cephrenes, and down the sand drifts to the 
 majestic head of the Sphinx. I shall not attempt to describe 
 this enormous relic of Egyptian art. There is nothing like it 
 in the world. Those travellers who pronounce its features to 
 be negro in their character, are certainly very hasty in their 
 conclusions. That it is an Egyptian head is plainly evident, 
 notwithstanding its mutilation. The type, however, is rather 
 fuller and broader than is usual in Egyptian statues. 
 
 On reaching the village we found that the shekh was ab- 
 sent in Cairo, but were received by his son, who, after spelling 
 out a few words of my Arabic passport and hearing Achmet's 
 relation of the affair, courteously invited us to his house. We 
 rode between the mud huts to a small court-yard, where we 
 dismounted. A carpet was spread on the ground, under a 
 canopy of palm-leaves, and the place of honor was given to us, 
 the young shekh seating himself on the edge, while our don- 
 key-drivers, water-boys and a number of villagers, stood res- 
 pectfully around. A messenger was instantly despatched to 
 the Pyramids, and in the mean time we lighted the pipe of 
 leace. The shekh promised to judge the guilty parties and 
 ounish them in our presence. Coffee was ordered, but as the 
 unlucky youth returned and indiscreetly cried out, "iUfa 
 feesh J " (there is none !) the shekh took him by the neck, 
 and run him out of the court-yard, threatening him with all 
 manner of penalties unless he brought it. 
 
 We found ourselves considered in the light of judges, and 
 I thought involuntarily of the children playing Cadi, in the 
 Arabian tale. But to play our Cadi with the necessary gravi- 
 ty of countenance was a difficult matter. It wag rather em 
 
PLAYING THE CADI. 63 
 
 barrassing to sit cross-legged so long, and to look so severe. 
 My face was of the color of a boiled lobster, from the sun, and 
 in order to protect my eyes, I had taken off my cravat and 
 bound it around the red tarboosh. My friend had swathed his 
 felt hat in like manner, and when the shekh looked at us from 
 time to time, while Achmet spoke of our friendship with all 
 the Consuls in Cairo, it was almost too much to enjoy quietly. 
 However, the shekh, who wore a red cap and a single cotton 
 garment, treated us with much respect. His serene, impar- 
 tial demeanor, as he heard the testimony of the various wit- 
 nesses who were called up, was most admirable. After half 
 an hour's delay, the messenger returned, and the guilty par- 
 ties were brought into court, looking somewhat alarmed and 
 very submissive. We identified the two ringleaders, and after 
 considering the matter thoroughly, the shekh ordered that 
 they should be instantly bastinadoed. We decided between 
 ourselves to let the punishment commence, lest the matter 
 should not be considered sufficiently serious, and then to show 
 our mercy by pardoning the culprits. 
 
 One of the men was then thrown on the ground and held 
 by the head and feet, while the shekh took a stout rod and 
 began administering the blows. The victim had prepared 
 himself by giving his bornous a double turn over his back, and 
 as the end of the rod struck the ground each time, there was 
 much sound with the veriest farce of punishment. After half 
 a dozen strokes, he cried out, " ya salaam ! " whereupon the 
 crowd laughed heartily, and my friend ordered the shekh to 
 stop. The latter cast the rod at our feet, and asked us to 
 continue the infliction ourselves, until we were satisfied. We 
 told him and the company in general, through Achmet, that 
 
64 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA, 
 
 we were convinced of his readiness to punish imposition ; that 
 we wished to show the Arabs that they must in future treat 
 travellers with respect ; that we should send word of the affair 
 to Cairo, and they might rest assured that a second assault 
 would be more severely dealt with. Since this had been 
 demonstrated, we were willing that the punishment should now 
 cease, and in conclusion returned our thanks to the shekh, for 
 his readiness to do us justice. This decision was received 
 with great favor ; the two culprits came forward and kissed 
 our hands and those of Achmet, and the villagers pronounced 
 a unanimous sentence of " ta'ib I " (good !) The indiscreet 
 youth again appeared, and this time with coffee, of which we 
 partook with much relish, for this playing the Cadi was rather 
 fatiguing. The shekh raised our hands to his forehead, and 
 accompanied us to the end of the village, where we gave the 
 coffee-bearer a backsheesh, dismissed our water-boys, and 
 turned our donkeys' heads toward Abousir. 
 
 Achmet's dark skin was pale from his wounded pride, and I 
 was faint from pyramid-climbing, but a cold fowl, eaten as we 
 sat in the sun, on the border of the glowing Desert, comforted 
 us. The dominion of the sand has here as distinct a bound 
 as that of the sea ; there is not thirty yards from the black, 
 pregnant loam, to the fiery plain, where no spear of grass 
 grows. Our path lay sometimes on one side of this border, 
 sometimes on the other, for more than an hour and a half, till 
 we reached the ruined pyramids of Abousir, where it turned 
 southward into the Desert. After seeing Cheops and Ce- 
 phrenes, these pyramids are only interesting on account of 
 their dilapidated state and the peculiarity of their forms, some 
 of their sides taking a more obtuse angle at half their height 
 
SAKKARA AND MEMPHIS. 66 
 
 They are buried deep in the sand, which has so drifted toward 
 the plain, that from the broad hollow lying between them and 
 the group of Sakkara, more than a mile distant, every sign of 
 vegetation is shut out. Vast, sloping causeways of masonry 
 lead up to two of them, and a large mound, occupying the 
 space between, suggests the idea that a temple formerly stood 
 there- The whole of the desert promontory, which seemed to 
 have been gradually blown out on the plain, from the hills in 
 the rear, exhibits traces here and there of ruins beneath the 
 surface. My friend and I, as we walked over the hot sand, 
 before our panting donkeys, came instinctively to the same 
 conclusion — ^that a large city must have once occupied the 
 space between, and to the southward of, the two groups of 
 pyramids. It is not often that amateur antiquarians find such 
 sudden and triumphant confirmation of their conjectures, as 
 we did. 
 
 On the way, Achmet had told us of a Frenchman who had 
 been all summer digging in the sand, near Sakkara. After we 
 had crawled into the subterranean dep6t of mummied ibises, 
 and nearly choked ourselves with dust in trying to find a pot 
 not broken open ; and after one of our donkeymen went into a 
 human mummy pit and brought out the feet and legs of some 
 withered old Egyptian, we saw before us the residence of this 
 Frenchman ; a mud hut on a high sand-bank. It was an un- 
 fortunate building, for nearly all the front wall had tumbled 
 down, revealing the contents of his kitchen. One or two 
 Arabs loitered about, but a large number were employed at 
 the end of a long trench which extended to the hills. 
 
 Before reaching the house a number of deep pits barred 
 our path, and the loose sand, stirred by our ftiet, slid back into 
 
 ■M 
 
66 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 the bottom, as if eager to hide the wonders they disclosed. 
 Pavements, fresh as when first laid ; basement-walls of white 
 marble, steps, doorways, pedestals and fragments of pillars 
 glittered in the sun, which, after the lapse of more than two 
 thousand years, beheld them again. I slid down the side of 
 the pit and walked in the streets of Memphis. The pavement 
 of bitumen, which once covered the stone blocks, apparently to 
 protect them and deaden the noise of horses and chariots, was 
 entire in many places. Here a marble sphinx sat at the base 
 of a temple, and stared abstractedly before her ; there a sculp- 
 tured cornice, with heavy mouldings, leaned against the walls 
 of the chamber into which it had fallen, and over all were 
 scattered fragments of glazed and painted tiles and sculptured 
 alabaster. The principal street was narrow, and was appa- 
 rently occupied by private dwellings, but at its extremity were 
 the basement-walls of a spacious edifice. All the pits opened 
 on pavements and walls, so fresh and cleanly cut, that they 
 seemed rather the foundations of a new city, laid yesterday, 
 than the remains of one of the oldest capitals of the world. 
 
 We approached the workmen, where we met the discoverer 
 of Memphis, Mr. Auguste Mariette. On finding we were not 
 Englishmen (of whose visits he appeared to be rather shy), he 
 became very courteous and communicative. He apologized 
 for the little he had to show us, since on account of the Van- 
 dalism of the Arabs, he was obliged to cover up all his discov- 
 eries, after making his drawings and measurements. The 
 Egyptian authorities are worse than apathetic, for they would 
 not hesitate to burn the sphinxes for lime, and build barracks 
 for filthy soldiers with the marble blocks. Besides this, the 
 French influence at Cairo was then entirely overshadowed hj 
 
M. MARIETTE AND HIS LABORS. 67 
 
 that of England, and although M. Mariette was supported in 
 his labors by the French Academy, and a subscription headed 
 by Louis Napoleon's name, he was forced to be content with 
 the simple permission to dig out these remarkable ruins and 
 describe them. He could neither protect them nor remove 
 the portable sculptures and inscriptions, and therefore prefer- 
 red giving them again into the safe keeping of the sand 
 Here they will be secure from injury, until some more fortu- 
 nate period, when, possibly, the lost Memphis may be entirely 
 given to the world, as fresh as Pompeii, and far more grand 
 and imposing. 
 
 I asked M. Mariette what first induced him to dig for Mem- 
 phis in that spot, since antiquarians had fixed upon the mounds 
 near Mitrahenny (a village in the plain below, and about four 
 miles distant), as the former site of the city. He said that 
 the tenor of an inscription which he found on one of the blocks 
 quarried out of these mounds, induced him to believe that the 
 principal part of the city lay to the westward, and therefore 
 he commenced excavating in the nearest sand-hill in that di- 
 rection. After sinking pits in various places he struck on an 
 avenue of sphinxes, the clue to all his after discoveries. Fol- 
 lowing this, he came upon the remains of a temple (probably 
 the Serapeum, or Temple of Serapis, mentioned by Strabo), 
 and afterward upon streets, colonnades, public and private edi < 
 fices, and all other signs of a great city. The number of 
 sphinxes alone, buried under these high sand-drifts, amounted 
 to two thousand, and he had frequently uncovered twenty or 
 thirty in a day. He estimated the entire number of statues, 
 inscriptions and reliefs, at between four and five thousand. 
 The most remarkable discovery was that of eight colossa] 
 
68 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Statues, which were evidently the product of Grecian art 
 During thirteen months of assiduous labor, with but one a* 
 sistant, he had made drawings of all these objects and forward* 
 ed them to Paris. In order to be near at hand, he had built 
 an Arab house of unburnt bricks, the walls of which had just 
 tumbled down for the third time. His workmen were then 
 engaged in clearing away the sand from the dwelling of some 
 old Memphian, and he intended spreading his roof over the 
 massive walls, and making his residence in the exhumed city. 
 
 The man's appearance showed what he had undergone, and 
 gave me an idea of the extraordinary zeal and patience requir- 
 ed to make a successful antiquarian. His face was as brown 
 as an Arab's, his eyes severely inflamed, and his hands as 
 rough as a bricklayer's. His manner with the native work- 
 men was admirable, and they labored with a hearty good-will 
 which almost supplied the want of the needful implements. 
 All they had v^ere straw baskets, which they filled with a sort 
 of rude shovel, and then handed up to be carried off on the 
 heads of others. One of the principal workmen was deaf and 
 dumb, but the funniest Arab I ever saw. He was constantly 
 playing off his jokes on those who were too slow Of too negli- 
 gent. An unlucky girl, stooping down at the wrong time to 
 lift a basket of sand, received the contents of another on her 
 head, and her indignant outcry was hailed by the rest with 
 screams of laughter. I saw the same man pick out of the sand 
 a glazed tile containing hieroglyphic characters. The gravity 
 with which he held it before him, feigning to peruse it, occa- 
 sionally nodding his head, as if to say, " Well done for old 
 Pharaoh !" could not have been excelled by Burton himself. 
 
 Strabo states that Memphis had a circumference of seven 
 
M. MARIETTE AND HIS LABORS. 69 
 
 teen miles, and therefore both M. Mariette and the antiqua- 
 rians are right. The mounds of Mitrahenny probably mark 
 the eastern portion of the city, while its western limit extend- 
 ed beyond the Pyramids of Sakkara, and included in its sub- 
 urbs those of Abousir and Dashoor. The space explored by 
 M. Mariette is about a mile and a half in length, and some- 
 what more than half a mile in breadth. He was then continu- 
 ing his excavations westward, and had almost reached the first 
 ridge of the Libyan Hills, without finding the termination of 
 the ruins. The magnitude of his discovery will be best known 
 when his drawings and descriptions are given to the world. 
 A few months after my visit, his labors were further re- 
 warded by finding thirteen colossal sarcophagi of black marble, 
 and he has recently added to his renown by discovering an en- 
 trance to the Sphinx. Yet at that time, the exhumation of 
 the lost Memphis — second only in importance to that of Nine- 
 veh — ^was unknown in Europe, except to a few savans in Paris, 
 and the first intimation which some of my friends in Cairo and 
 Alexandria had of it, was my own account of my visit, in the 
 aerwspapers they received from America. But M. Mariette is 
 a young man, and will yet see his name inscribed beside those 
 of Burckhardt, Belzoni and Layard. 
 
 We had still a long ride before us, and I took leave of 
 Memphis and its discoverer, promising to revisit him on my 
 return from Khartoum. As we passed the brick Pyramid of 
 Sakkara, which is bmlt in four terraces of equal height, the 
 dark, grateful green of the palms and harvest-fields of the Nile 
 appeared between two sand-hills — a genuine balm to our heat- 
 ed eyes. We rode through groves of the fragrant mimosa to 
 a broad dike, the windings of which we were obliged to follow 
 
10 
 
 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 across the plain, as the soil was still wet and adhesive. It waa 
 too late to visit the beautiful Pyramids of Dashoor, the first of 
 which is more than three hundred feet in height, and from a 
 distance has almost as grand an effect as those of Gizeh. Our 
 tired donkeys lagged slowly along to the palm-groves of Mitra- 
 henny, where we saw mounds of earth, a few blocks of red 
 granite and a colossal statue of Remeses II. (Sesostris) — which 
 until now were supposed to be the only remains of Memphis. 
 The statue lies on its face in a hole filled with water. The 
 countenance is said to be very beautiful, but I could only see 
 the top of Sesostris's back, which bore a faint resemblance to 
 a crocodile. 
 
 Through fields of cotton in pod and beans in blossom, we 
 rode to the Nile, dismissed our donkeys and their attendants, 
 and lay down on some bundles of corn-stalks to wait the arri- 
 val of our boat. But there had been a south wind all day, 
 and we had ridden much faster than our men could tow. We 
 eat till long after sunset before the stars and stripes, floating 
 from the mizzen of the Cleopatra^ turned the corner below 
 Bedrasheyn. When, at last, we sat at our cabin-table, weary 
 and hungry, we were ready to confess that the works of art 
 produced by our cook, Salame, were more marvellous and in- 
 teresting than Memphis and the Pyramids. 
 
 m.. 
 
L£4V£ THE PTRAMIOS. 7] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PROM MEMPHIS TO S I O U T. 
 
 Leaving the PTramids— A Calm and a Breeze — A Coptic Visit— Minyeh — The Grotto*)! 
 of Beni-Hassan— Doum Palms and Crocodilea— Djebel Aboufayda— Entrance into 
 Upper Egypt— Diversions of the Boatmen — Siout-Its Tombs— A Landscape— A 
 Bath. 
 
 " It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands, 
 * Like some grave, mighty thought threading a dream." 
 
 Leigh Hunt's Sonnbt to the Nilk. 
 
 The extent of my journey into Africa led me to reverse the 
 usual plan pursued by travellers on the Nile, who sail to As- 
 souan or Wadi-Halfa without pause, and visit the antiquities 
 on their return. I have never been able to discern the phi- 
 losophy of this plan. The voyage up is always longer, and 
 more tedious (to those heathens who call the Nile tedious), 
 than the return ; besides which, two visits, though brief, with 
 an interval between, leave a more complete and enduring 
 image, than a single one. The mind has time to analyze and 
 contrast, and can afterwards confirm or correct the first im- 
 pressions. How any one can sail from Cairo to Siout, a voy- 
 age of two hundred and sixty miles, with but one or two points 
 of interest, without taking the Pyramids with him in memory, 
 I cannot imagine. Were it not for that recollection, I should 
 have pronounced Modern Egypt more interesting than the 
 
12 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. I omitted seeing 
 none of the important remains on my upward journey, so that 
 I might be left free to choose another route homeward, if pos- 
 sible. It seemed like slighting Fortune to pass Dendera, and 
 Karnak and Ombos, without notice. Opportunity is rare, and 
 a wise man will never let it go by him. . I knew not what dan- 
 gers I might have to encounter, but I knew that it would be a 
 satisfaction to me, even if speared by the Bedouins of the Ly- 
 bian Desert, to think : " You rascals, you have killed me, but 
 r have seen Thebes ! " 
 
 The Pyramids of Dashoor followed us all the next day 
 after leaving Memphis. Our sailors tugged us slowly along 
 shore, against a mild south wind, but could not bring us out of 
 the horizon of those red sandstone piles. Our patience was 
 tried, that day and the next, by our slow and toilsome progress, 
 hindered still more by running aground on sand-banks, but we 
 were pledged to patience, and had our reward. On the morn- 
 ing of the fourth day, as we descried before us the minarets of 
 Benisouef, the first large town after leaving Cairo, a timid 
 breeze came rustling over the dourra-fields to the north, and 
 pufied out the Cleopatra's languid sails. The tow-rope was 
 ■ hauled in, our Arabs jumped on board and produced the drum 
 and tambourine, singing lustily as we moved out into the 
 middle of the stream. The wind increased; the flag lifted itself 
 from the mast and streamed toward Thebes, and Benisouef 
 went by, almost before we had counted its minarets. I tried 
 in vain to distinguish the Pyramid of Illahoon, which stands 
 inland, at the base of the Libyan Hills and the entrance of the 
 pass leading to the Lake of Fyoom, the ancient Moeris. Near 
 the Pvramid are the foundations of the famous Labyrinth. 
 
A COPTIC VISIT. tS 
 
 lately excavated by Dr. Lepsius. The Province of Fyoom, 
 surrounding the lake, is, with the exception of the Oases in 
 the Libyan Desert, the only productive land west of the moun- 
 tains bordering the Nile. 
 
 All afternoon, with both sails full and our vessel leaning 
 against the current, we flew before the wind. At dusk, the 
 town of Feshn appeared on our left ; at midnight, we passed 
 Abou-Girgeh and the Mounds of Behnesa, the ancient Oxyrin- 
 chus ; and when the wind left us, at simrise, we were seventy 
 miles from Benisouef. The Arabian Mountains here approach 
 the river, and at two points terminate in abrupt precipices of 
 yellow calcareous rock. The bare cliffs of Djebel el Tayr (the 
 Mountain of Birds), are crowned with the " Convent of the 
 Pulley," so called from its inaccessible situation, and the fact 
 that visitors are frequently drawn to the summit by a rope and 
 windlass. While passing this convent, a cry came up from 
 the muddy waters of the river : " We are Christians, How- 
 adji ! " and presently two naked Coptic monks wriggled over 
 the gunwale, and sat down, panting and dripping, on the deck. 
 We gave them backsheesh, which they instantly clapped into 
 their mouths, but their souls likewise devoutly yearned for 
 brandy, which they did not get. They were large, lusty fellows, 
 and whatever perfection of spirit they might have attained, 
 their flesh certainly had never been unnecessarily mortified. 
 After a breathing spell, they jumped into the river again, and 
 we soon saw them straddling from point to point, as they 
 crawled up the almost perpendicular cliff. At Djebel el Tayr, 
 the birds of Egypt (according to an Arabic legend) assemble 
 annually and choose one of their number to remain there for a 
 year. My friend complained that the wild geese and ducks 
 4 
 
Y4 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 were not represented, and out of revenge fired at a company of 
 huge pelicans, who were seated on a sand-bank. 
 
 The drum and tambourine kept lively time to the voices of 
 our sailors, as we approached Minyeh, the second large town 
 on the river, and the capital of a Province. But the song this 
 time had a peculiar significance. After the long-drawn sound, 
 something between a howl and a groan, which terminated it, we 
 were waited upon by a deputation, who formally welcomed us 
 to the city. We responded by a backsheesh of twenty-five 
 piastres, and the drum rang louder than ever. We stayed in 
 Minyeh long enough to buy a leg of mutton, and then sailed 
 for the tombs of Beni-Hassan. The wind left us as we reached 
 a superb palm-grove, which for several miles skirts the foot of 
 Djebel Shekh Timay. The inhabitants are in bad odor, and in 
 addition to our own guard, we were obliged to take two men 
 from the village, who came armed with long sticks and built a 
 fire on the bank, beside our vessel. This is a regulation of 
 the Government, to which travellers usually conform, b|jt I 
 never saw much reason for it. We rose at dawn and wandered 
 for hours through the palms, to the verge of the Desert. When 
 within two or three miles of the mountain of Beni-Hassan, we 
 provided ourselves with candles, water-flasks and weapons, and 
 set oflf in advance of our boat. The Desert here reached the 
 Nile, terminating in a bluff thirty to forty feet in height, which 
 is composed of layers of pebbles and shelly sand, apparently 
 the deposit of many successive floods. I should have attri- 
 buted this to the action of the river, cutting a deeper channel 
 from year to year, but I believe it is now acknowledged that the 
 bed of the Nile is gradually rising, and that the yearly inun 
 dation covers a much wider space than in the time of the Phs^ 
 
THE GROTTOES OF BENI-HASSAN. t^ 
 
 raohs. It is difficult to reconcile this fact with the very per 
 ceptible encroachments which the sand is making on the Libyan 
 shore ; but we may at least be satisfied that the glorious harvest- 
 valley through which the river wanders can never be wholly 
 effaced thereby. 
 
 We climbed to the glaring level of the Desert, carrying 
 with us the plumes of a beautiful gray heron which my friend 
 brought down. A solitary Arab horseman was slowly moving 
 along the base of the arid hills, and we descried in the dis- 
 tance a light-footed gazelle, which leisurely kept aloof and 
 mocked our efforts to surround it. At .the foot of the moun- 
 tain we passed two ruined villages, destroyed several years ago 
 by Ibrahim Pasha, on account of the marauding propensities of 
 the inhabitants. It has a cruel sound, when you are told that 
 the people were driven away, and their dwellings razed to the 
 ground, but the reality is a trifling matter. The Arabs take 
 their water-skins and pottery, jump into the Nile, swim across 
 to a safer place, and in three or four days their palaces of mud 
 are drying in the sun. "We came upon them the next morning, 
 as thievishly inclined as ever, and this was the only place 
 where I found the people otherwise than friendly. 
 
 A steep path, up a slope covered with rounded boulders of 
 hard black rock, leads to the grottoes of Beni-Hassan. They 
 are among the oldest in Egypt, dating from the reign of Osir- 
 tasen I, about 1750 years before the Christian Era, and are 
 interesting from their encaustic paintings, representing Egjrp- 
 tian life and customs at that early date. The rock chambers 
 extend for nearly half a mile along the side of the mountain. 
 The most of them are plain and without particular interest^ 
 and they have all suflered from the great spoilers of Egypt— 
 
76 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 the Persian, the Copt and the Saracen. Four only retain their 
 hieroglyphics and paintings, and are adorned with* columns 
 hewn from the solid rock. The first we entered contained four 
 plain, fluted columns, one of which had been shivered in the 
 centre, leaving the architrave and capital suspended from the 
 ceiling. The walls were covered with paintings, greatly faded 
 and defaced, representing the culture and manufacture of flax, 
 the sowing and reaping of grain, and the making of bread, 
 besides a number of spirited hunting and fishing scenes. The 
 occupant of the tomb appears to have been a severe master, 
 for his servants are shown in many places, undergoing the pun- 
 ishment of the bastinado, which is even inflicted upon women. 
 He was also wealthy, for we still see his stewards presenting 
 him with tablets showing the revenues of his property. He 
 was a great man in Joseph's day, but the pit in which he lay 
 is now empty, and the Arabs have long since burned his 
 mummy to boil their rice. 
 
 The second tomb is interesting, from a painting represent- 
 ing thirty men, of a foreign nation, who are brought before the 
 deceased occupant. Some antiquarians suppose them to be the 
 brethren of Joseph, but the tomb is that of a person named 
 Nehophth, and the number of men does not correspond 
 with the Bible account. Two of the southern tombs, which 
 are supported by pillars formed of four budding locust-stalky 
 bound together, are covered with paintings representing differ- 
 ent trades and professions. The rear walls are entirely devot- 
 ed to illustrations of gymnastic exercises, and the figures are 
 drawn with remarkable freedom and skill. There are never 
 more than two persons in a group, one being painted red and 
 the other black, in order the better to show the position of 
 
ANTINOB. *Jl 
 
 each. In at least five hundred different groupings the saiae 
 exercise is not repeated, showing a wonderful fertility of inven- 
 tion, either on the part of the artist or the wrestlers. The 
 execution of these figures fully reached my ideas of Egyptian 
 pictorial art, but the colors were much less vivid than some 
 travellers represent. The tombs are not large, though numer- 
 ous, and what is rather singular, there is not the least trace of 
 a city in the neighborhood, to which they could have belonged. 
 
 The next day at noon we passed between the mounds of 
 Antinoe and Hermopolis Magna, lying on opposite banks of the 
 Nile, Antinoe, built by the Emperor Adrian in honor of his 
 favorite, the glorious Antinous, who was here drowned in the 
 river, has entirely disappeared, with the exception of its foun- 
 dations. Twenty-five years ago, many interesting monuments 
 were still standing, but as they were, unfortunately, of the 
 white calcareous stone of the Arabian Hills, they have been 
 long since burnt for lime. Before reaching Antinoe we had 
 just come on board, after a long walk on the western bank, and 
 the light wind which bore us toward the mountain of Shekh 
 Abaddeh was too pleasant to be slighted ; so we saw nothing 
 of Adrian's city except some heaps of dirt. The splendid 
 evening, however, which bathed the naked cliffs of the moun- 
 tain in rosy flame, was worth more to us than any amount of 
 marble blocks. 
 
 The guide book says, " hereabouts appears the doum palm, 
 and crocodiles begin to be more frequently seen." The next 
 morning we found one of the trees, but day after day we vainly 
 sought a crocodile. My friend recalled a song of Geibel's, con- 
 cerning a German musician who played his violin by the Nile 
 till the crocodiles came out and danced around the Pyramids, 
 
78 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 and in his despair would also have purchased a violin, if any 
 could have been found in Siout. I had seen alligators on the 
 Mississippi, and took the disappointment more complacently. 
 The doum palm differs from the columnar date-palm in the 
 form of its leaves, which are fan-like, and in having a branching 
 trunk. The main stem divides a few feet from the root, each 
 of the branches again forming two, and each of these two more, 
 till the tree receives a broad, rounded top. The fruit hangs 
 below in clusters, resembling small coooa-nuts, and has a sort 
 of gingerbread flavor, which is not disagreeable. When fully 
 dry and hard, it takes a polish like ivory, and is manufactured 
 by the Arabs into beads, pipe bowls and other small articles. 
 We approached the mountain of Aboufayda with a strong 
 and favorable wind. Here the Nile, for upward of ten miles, 
 washes the foot of lofty precipices, whose many deep fissures 
 and sharp angles give them the appearance of mountains in 
 ruin. The afternoon sun shone full on the yellow rocks, and 
 their jagged pinnacles were cut with wonderful distinctness 
 against the perfect blue of the sky. This mountain is con- 
 Bidered the most dangerous point on the Nile for boats, and the 
 sailors always approach it with fear. Owing to its deep side- 
 gorges, the wind sometimes shifts about without a moment's 
 warning, and if the large lateen sail is caught aback, the vessel 
 is instantly overturned. During the passage of this and other 
 similar straits, two sailors sit on deck, holding the sail rope, 
 ready to let it fly in the wind on the slightest appearance of 
 danger. The shifting of the sail is a delicate business, at such 
 times, but I found it better to trust to our men, awkward as 
 they were, than to confuse by attempting to direct them. At 
 Djebel Shekh Said, the sailors have a custom of throwing two 
 
APPRO A.CH TO UPPER EGYPT. 7|^ 
 
 or three loaves of bread on the water, believing that it will be 
 taken up by two large white birds and deposited on the tomb 
 of the Shekh. The wind favored us in passing Aboufayda; 
 the Cleopatra dashed the foam from the rough waves, and in 
 two or three hours the southern corner of the mountain lay 
 behind us, leaning away from the Nile like the shattered pylon 
 of a temple. 
 
 Before sunset we passed the city of Manfalout, whose 
 houses year by year topple into the mining flood. The side 
 next the river shows only halves of buildings, the rest of 
 which have been washed away. In a few years the tall and 
 airy minarets will follow, and unless the inhabitants continue 
 to shift their dwellings to the inland side, the city will entirely 
 disappear. From this point, the plain of Siout, the garden of 
 Upper Egypt, opened wide and far before us. The spur of 
 the Libyan hills, at the foot of which the city is built, shot 
 out in advance, not more than ten or twelve miles distant, but 
 the Nile, loth to leave these beautiful fields and groves, winds 
 hither and thither in such & devious, lingering track, that you 
 must sail twenty-five miles to reach El Hamra, the port of 
 Siout. The landscape, broader and more majestic than those 
 of Lower Egypt, is even richer and more blooming. The 
 Desert is kept within its proper bounds ; it is no longer visible 
 from the river, and the hills, whose long, level lines frame the 
 view on either side, enhance by their terrible sterility the. 
 luxury of vegetation which covers the plain. It is a boun- 
 teous land, visited only by healthy airs, and free from the pes- 
 tilence which sometimes scourges Cairo. 
 
 The wind fell at midnight, but came to us again the next 
 morning at sunrise, and brought us to El Hamra before noon. 
 
so JOUENEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Our men were in high spirits at having a day of rest be« 
 fore them, the contracts for boats always stipulating for a halt 
 of twenty-four hours at Siout and Esneh, in order that they 
 may procure their supplies of provisions. They buy wheat 
 and dourra, have it ground in one of the rude mills worked by 
 buffaloes, and bake a sufficient quantity of loaves to last two 
 or three weeks. Our men had also the inspiration of back- 
 sheesh in their song, and their dolorous love-melodies rang 
 from shore to shore. The correctness with which these people 
 sing is absolutely surprising. Wild and harsh as are their 
 songs, their choruses are in perfect accord, and even when at 
 the same time exerting all their strength at the poles and oars, 
 they never fail in a note. The melodies are simple, but not 
 without expression, and all are pervaded with a mournful mo- 
 notony which seems to have been caught from the Desert. 
 There is generally an improvisatore in each boat's crew, who 
 supplies an endless number of lines to the regular chorus of 
 " hay-hayUe sah ! " So far as I could understand our poet, 
 there was not the least meaning or connection in his poetry, 
 but he never failed in the rhythm. He sang, for instance : 
 " O Alexandrian ! " — then followed the chorus : " Hasten, 
 three of you ! " — chorus again : " Hail, Sidi Ibrahim 1 " and 
 so on, for an hour at a time. On particular occasions, he add- 
 ed pantomime, and the scene on our forward deck resembled a 
 war-dance of the Blackfeet. The favorite pantomime is that 
 of a man running into a homet^s nest. He stamps and cries, 
 improvising all the while, the chorus seeking to drown his 
 voice. He then throws off his mantle, cap, and sometimes his 
 last garment, slapping his body to drive off the hornets, and 
 howling with pain. The song winds up with a prolonged cry, 
 
8I0UT. 81 
 
 which only ceases when every lung is emptied. Even when 
 most mirthfully inclined, and roaring in ecstasy over some sil- 
 ly joke, our men always laughed in accord. So sound and 
 hearty were their cachinnatory choruses, that we involuntarily 
 laughed with them. 
 
 A crowd of donkeys, ready saddled, awaited us on the bank, 
 and the boys began to fight before our boat was moored. We 
 chose three unpainted animals, so large that our feet were at 
 least three inches from the ground, and set off on a gallop for 
 Siout, which is about a mile and a half from the river. Its 
 fifteen tall, white minarets rose before us, against the back- 
 ground of the mountain, and the handsome front of the palace 
 of Ismail Pasha shone through the dark green of its embosom- 
 ing acacias. The road follows the course of a dam, built to 
 retain the waters of the inundation, and is shaded with palms, 
 sycamores and mimosas. On either side we looked down upon 
 fields of clover, so green, juicy and June-like that I was 
 tempted to jump from my donkey and take a roll therein. 
 Where the ground was still damp the Arabs were ploughing 
 with camels, and sowing wheat on the moist, fat loam. We 
 crossed a bridge and entered the court of justice, one of the 
 most charmingly clean and shady spots in Egypt. The town, 
 which is built of sun-dried bricks, whose muddy hue is some- 
 what relieved by the whitewashed mosques and minarets, is 
 astonishingly clean in every part. The people themselves ap- 
 peared to be orderly, intelligent and amiable. 
 
 The tombs of the City of Wolves, the ancient Lycopolis, 
 
 are in the eastern front of the mountain overhanging the city. 
 
 We rode to the Stall Antar, the principal one, and then 
 
 climbed to the summit. The tombs are much larger that 
 
 4# 
 
82 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 those of Beni-Hassan, but have been almost ruined by the 
 modern Egyptians. The enormous square pillars which filled 
 their halls have been shattered down for lime, and only frag- 
 ments of the capitals still hang from the ceilings of solid rock. 
 The sculptures and hieroglyphics, which are here not painted 
 but sculptured in intaglio, are also greatly defaced. The 
 second tomb called by the Arabs Stall Hamam (Pigeon Sta- 
 ble), retains its grand doorway, which has on each side the co- 
 lossal figure of an ancient king. The sand around its mouth 
 is filled with fragments of mummied wolves, and on our way 
 up the mountain we scared one of their descendants from his 
 lair in a solitary tomb. The Stall Hamam is about sixty 
 feet square by forty in height, and in its rough and ruined as- 
 pect is more impressive than the more chaste and elegant 
 chambers of Beni-Hassan. The view of the plain of Siout, 
 seen through its entrance, has a truly magical eflfect. From 
 the gray twilight of the hall in which you stand, the green of 
 the fields, the purple of the distant mountains, and the blue 
 of the sky, dazzle your eye as if tinged with the broken rays 
 of a prism. 
 
 From the summit of the mountain, which we reached by 
 scaling a crevice in its white cliffs, we overlooked a more beau- 
 tiful landscape than that seen from the Pyramid. In the 
 north, beyond the spires of Manfalout and the crags of Abou- 
 fayda, we counted the long palm-groves, receding behind one 
 another to the yellow shore of the Desert ; in front, the wind- 
 ing Nile and the Arabian Mountains ; southward, a sea of 
 wheat and clover here deepening into dark emerald, there pal- 
 ing into gold, according to the degree of moisture in the soil, 
 and ceasing only because the eye refused to follow ; whilo be- 
 
6IOUT A BATH. Q$ 
 
 hind us, over the desert hills, wound the track of the yearly 
 caravan from Dar-Fur and Kordofan. Our Arab guide point- 
 ed out a sandy plain, behind the cemetery of the Mamelukes, 
 which lay at our feet, as the camping-ground of the caravan, 
 and tried to tell us how many thousand camels were assembled 
 there. As we looked upon the superb plain, teeming with its 
 glory of vegetable life and enlivened by the songs of the Arab 
 ploughmen, a funeral procession came from the city and passed 
 slowly to the burying-ground, accompanied by the dismal 
 howling of a band of women. We went below and rode be- 
 tween the whitewashed domes covering the graves of the 
 Mamelukes. The place was bright, clean and cheerful, in 
 comparison with the other Arab burying-grounds we had seen. 
 The grove which shades its northern wall stretches for more 
 than a mile along the edge of the Desert — a picturesque ave- 
 nue of palms, sycamores, fragrant acacias, mimosas and acan- 
 thus. The air around Siout is pregnant with the rich odor of 
 the yellow mimosa-flowers, and one becomes exhilarated by 
 breathing it. 
 
 The city has handsome bazaars and a large bath, built by 
 Mohammed Bey Defterdar, the savage son-in-law of Mohammed 
 Ali. The halls are spacious, supported by granite columns, 
 and paved with marble. Little threads of water, scarcely visi- 
 ble in the dim, steamy atmosphere, shoot upward from the 
 stone tanks, around which a dozen brown figures lie stretched 
 in the lazy beatitude of the bath. I was given over to two 
 Arabs, who scrubbed me to desperation, plunged me twice ovei 
 head and ears in a tank of scalding water, and then placed me 
 under a cold douche. When the whole process, which occupied 
 more than half an hour, was over, a cup of coffee and a pipe 
 
84 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL ArRIC'A. 
 
 were brought to me as I lay stretched out on the divan, whilo 
 another attendant commenced a course of dislocation, twisting 
 and cracking all my joints and pressing violently with both 
 hands on my breast. Singularly enough, this removed the lan- 
 guor occasioned by so much hot water, and gave a wonderful 
 elasticity to the frame. I walked out as if shod with the wings 
 of Mercury, and as I rode back to our boat, congratulated my 
 donkey on the airy lightness of his load. 
 
The Cleopatra. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LIFE ON THE NILE. 
 
 Independence of Nile Life— The Dahabiyeh — Onr Servants— Our Residence — Our Man- 
 ner of Living— The Climate— The Native*— Costume— Our Sunset Eepose— My 
 Friend— A Sensuous Life Defended. 
 
 "The life thou seek'st 
 
 Thou'lt find beside the Eternal Nile."— Moore's Alciphbon. 
 
 We hear much said by tourists who have visited Egypt, 
 concerning the comparative pains and pleasures of life on the 
 Nile, and their decisions are as various as their individual 
 characters. Four out of every five complain of the monotony 
 and tedium of the voyage, and pour forth touching lamenta- 
 tions over the annoyance of rats and cockroaches, the impossi- 
 bility of procuring beef-steak, or the difficulty of shooting 
 crocodiles. Some of them are wholly impermeable to the influ- 
 
86 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 ences of the climate, scenery and ruins of Egypt, and carry to 
 the Nubian frontier the airs of Broadway or Bond-street. I 
 have heard such a one say : " This seeing the Nile is a nice 
 thing to have gotten over, but it is a great bore while you are 
 about it." Such is the spirit of those travelling snobs (of all 
 nations), by some of whom sacred Egypt is profaned every 
 winter. They are unworthy to behold the glories of the Nile, 
 and if I had the management of Society, they never should. 
 A palm-tree is to them a good post to shoot a pigeon from ; 
 Dendera is a " rum old concern," and a crocodile is better than 
 Karnak. 
 
 There are a few, however, who will acknowledge the truth 
 of the picture which follows, and which was written in the cabin 
 of the Cleopatra, immediately after our arrival in Upper Egypt. 
 As it is a faithful transcript of my Nilotic life, I have devi- 
 ated from the regular course of my narrative, in order to give 
 it without change : — 
 
 The Nile is the Paradise of Travel. I thought I had 
 already fathomed all the depths of enjoyment which the travel- 
 ler's restless life could reach-— enjoyment more varied and 
 exciting, but far less serene and enduring than that of a quiet 
 home — ^but here I have reached a fountain too pure and power- 
 ful to be exhausted. I never before experienced such a 
 thorough deliverance from all the petty annoyances of travel in 
 other lands, such perfect contentment of spirit, such entire 
 abandonment to the best influences of nature. Every day opens 
 with a jubilate, and closes with a thanksgiving. If such a 
 balm and blessing as this life has been to me, thus far, can be 
 felt twice in one's existence, there must be another Nile some- 
 where in the world. 
 
INDEPENDENCE OF NILE LIFE. 87 
 
 Other travellers undoubtedly make other experiences and 
 take away other impressions. I can even conceive circumstan- 
 ces which would almost destroy the pleasure of the journey. 
 The same exquisitely sensitive temperament which in our case 
 has not been disturbed by a single untoward incident, might 
 easily be kept in a state of constant derangement by an unsym- 
 pathetic companion, a cheating dragoman, or a fractious crew. 
 There are also many trifling desagremens, inseparable from 
 life in Egypt, which some would consider a source of annoy- 
 ance ; but as we find fewer than we were prepared to meet, we 
 are not troubled thereby. Our enjoyment springs from causes 
 so few and simple, that I scarcely know how to make them 
 suffice for the effect, to those who have never visited the Nile. 
 It may be interesting to such to be made acquainted with our 
 manner of living, in detail 
 
 In the first place, we are as independent of all organized 
 Governments as a ship on the open sea. (The Arabs call the 
 Nile El hahr, " the sea.") We are on board our own char- 
 tered vessel, which must go where we list, the captain and 
 sailors being strictly bound to obey us. We sail under nation- 
 al colors, make our own laws for the time being, are ourselves 
 the only censors over our speech and conduct, and shall have 
 no communication with the authorities on shore, unless our 
 subjects rebel. Of this we have no fear, for we commenced 
 by maintaining strict discipline, and as we make no unreason- 
 able demands, are always cheerfully obeyed. Indeed, the 
 most complete harmony exists between the rulers and the ruled, 
 and though our government is the purest form of despotism, 
 we flatter ourselves that it is better managed than that of the 
 Model Republic. 
 
88 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Our territory, to be sure, is not very extensive. The Cleo* 
 patra is a dahahiyehj seventy feet long by ten broad. She 
 has two short masts in the bow and stern, the first upholding 
 the irin/ceet, a lateen sail nearly seventy feet in length. The 
 latter carries the helikon^ a small sail, and the American col- 
 ors. The narrow space around the foremast belongs to the crew, 
 who cook their meals in a small brick furnace, and sit on the 
 gunwale, beating a drum and tambourine and singing for hours 
 in interminable choruses, when the wind blows fair. If there 
 is no wind, half of them are on shore, tugging us slowly along 
 the banks with a long tow-rope, and singing all day long : '-'• Aya 
 kamdm — ay a hamdm / " If we strike on a sand-bank, they 
 jump into the river and put their shoulders against the hull, 
 singing : " hay-haylee sah ! " If the current is slow, they ship 
 the oars and pull us up stream, singing so complicated a refrain 
 that it is impossible to write it with other than Arabic charac- 
 ters. There are eight men and a boy, besides our stately rais, 
 Hassan Abd el-Sadek, and the swarthy pilot, who greets ua 
 every morning with a whole round of Arabic salutations. 
 
 Against an upright pole which occupies the place of a main- 
 mast, stands our kitchen, a high wooden box, with three fur- 
 naces. Here our cook, Salame, may be seen at all times, with 
 the cowl of a blue capote drawn over his turban, preparing the 
 marvellous dishes, wherein his delight is not less than ours. 
 Salame, like a skilful artist, as he is, husbands his resources, 
 and each day astonishes us with new preparations, so that, out 
 of few materials, he has attained the grand climax of all art — 
 variety in unity. Achmet, my faithful dragoman, has his sta- 
 tion here, and keeps one eye on the vessel and one on the kitchen, 
 while between tlie two he does not relax his protecting care for 
 
THE CABIN. 89 
 
 US. The approach to the cabin is flanked by our provision chests, 
 which will also serve as a breastwork in case of foreign aggres- 
 sion. A huge filter-jar of porous earthenware stands against 
 the back of the kitchen. We keep our fresh butter and vege- 
 tables in a box under it, where the sweet Nile-water drips cool 
 and clear into an earthen basin. Our bread and vegetables, in 
 an open basket of palm-blades, are suspended beside it, and the 
 roof of the cabin supports our poultry-yard and pigeon-house. 
 Sometimes (but not often) a leg of mutton may be seen hang- 
 ing from the ridge-pole, which extends over the deck as a sup- 
 port to the awning. 
 
 The cabin, or Mansion of the Executive Powers, is about 
 twenty-five feet long. Its floor is two feet below the deck, and 
 its ceiling five feet above, so that we are not cramped or crowd- 
 ed in any particular. Before the entrance is a sort of portico, 
 with a broad, cushioned seat on each side, and side-awnings to 
 shut out the sun. This place is devoted to pipes and medita- 
 tion. We throw up the awnings, let the light pour in on all 
 sides, and look out on the desert mountains while we inhale the 
 incense of the East. Our own main cabin is about ten feet 
 long, and newly painted of a brilliant blue color. A broad 
 divan, with cushions, extends along each side, serving as a sofa 
 by day, and a bed by night. There are windows, blinds, and 
 a canvas cover at the sides, so that we can regulate our light 
 and air as we choose. In the middle of the cabin is our table 
 and two camp stools, while shawls, capotes, pistols, sabre and 
 gun are suspended from the walls. A little door at the further 
 end opens into a wash-room, beyond which is a smaller cabin 
 with beds, which we have alloted to Achmet's use. Our cook 
 Bleeps on deck, with his head against the provision chest The 
 
90 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 rais and pilot sleep on the roof of our cabin, -where the lattei 
 sits all day, holding the long arm of the rudder, which projects 
 forward over the cabin from the high end of the stern. 
 
 Our manner of life is simple, and might even be called 
 monotonous, but we have never found the greatest variety of 
 landscape and incident so thoroughly enjoyable. The scenery 
 of the Nile, thus far, scarcely changes from day to day, in its 
 forms and colors, but only in their disposition with regard to 
 each other. The shores are either palm-groves, fields of cane 
 and dourra, young wheat, or patches of bare sand, blown out 
 from the desert. The villages are all the same agglomerations 
 of mud-walls, the tombs of the Moslem saints are the same 
 white ovens, and every individual camel and buffalo resembles 
 its neighbor in picturesque ugliness. The Arabian and Libyan 
 Mountains, now sweeping so far into the foreground that their 
 yellow cliflfs overhang the Nile, now receding into the violet 
 haze of the horizon, exhibit little difference of height, hue, 
 or geological formation. Every new scene is the turn of 
 a kaleidoscope, in which the same objects are grouped in 
 other relations, yet always characterized by the most perfect 
 harmony. These slight, yet ever-renewing changes, are to us 
 a source of endless delight. Either from the pure atmosphere, 
 the healthy life we lead, or the accordant tone of our spirits, 
 we find ourselves unusually sensitive to all the slightest touches, 
 the most minute rays of that grace and harmony which bathes 
 every landscape in cloudless sunshine. The various groupings 
 of the palms, the shifting of the blue evening shadows on the 
 rose-hued mountain walls, the green of the wheat and sugar- 
 cane, the windings of the great river, the alternations of wind and 
 calm — each of these is enough to content us, and to give every 
 
MANNER OF LIVING. 91 
 
 day a diflferent charm from that which went before. We meet 
 contrary winds, calms and sand-banks without losing our 
 patience, and even our excitement in the swiftness and grace 
 with which our vessel scuds before the north-wind is mingled 
 with a regret that our journey is drawing so much the more 
 swiftly to its close. A portion of the old Egyptian repose 
 seems to be infused into our natures, and lately, when I saw 
 my face in a mirror, I thought I perceived in its features some- 
 thing of the patience and resignation of the Sphinx. 
 
 Although, in order to enjoy this life as much as possible, 
 we subject ourselves to no arbitrary rules, there is sufficient 
 regularity in our manner of living. We rise before the sun, 
 and after breathing the cool morning air half an hour, drink a 
 cup of coffee and go ashore for a walk, unless the wind is very 
 strong in our favor. My friend, who is an enthusiastic sports- 
 man and an admirable shot, takes his fowling-piece, and I my 
 sketch-book and pistols. We wander inland among the fields 
 of wheat and dourra, course among the palms and acacias for 
 game, or visit the villages of the Fellahs. The temperature, 
 which is about 60° in the morning, rarely rises above 75°, so 
 that we have every day three or four hours exercise in the mild 
 and pure air. My friend always brings back from one to two 
 dozen pigeons, while I, who practise with my pistol on such 
 ignoble game as hawks and vultures, which are here hardly shy 
 enough to shoot, can at the best but furnish a few wing fea 
 thers to clean our pipes. 
 
 It is advisable to go armed on these excursions, though 
 there is no danger of open hostility on the part of the people. 
 Certain neighborhoods, as that of Beni Hassan, are in bad 
 repute, but the depredations of the inhabitants, who have been 
 disarmed by the Government, are principally confined to thiev- 
 
92 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 ing and other petty offences. On one occasion I fell in with a 
 company of these people, who demanded my tarboosh, shoea 
 and shawl, and would have taken them had I not been armed. 
 In general, we have found the Fellahs very friendly and well 
 disposed. They greet us on our morning walks with " Sala^ 
 mat ! " and " Sdhah el Kheyr ! " and frequently accompany us 
 for miles. My friend's fowling-piece often brings around him 
 all the men and boys of a village, who follow him as long as a 
 pigeon is to be found on the palm-trees. The certainty of his 
 shot excites their wonder. " Wallah ! " they cry ; " every 
 time the Howadji fires, the bird drops." The fact of my wear- 
 ing a tarboosh and white turban brings upon me much Arabic 
 conversation, which is somewhat embarrassing, with my imper- 
 fect knowledge of the language ; but a few words go a great 
 way. The first day I adopted this head-dress (which is conve- 
 nient and agreeable in every respect), the people saluted mo 
 with " good morning, Sidi ! " (Sir, or Lord) instead of the 
 usual " good morning, Howadji ! " {i. e. merchant, as the 
 Franks are rather contemptuously designated by the Arabs). 
 
 For this climate and this way of life, the Egyptian costume 
 is undoubtedly much better than the European. It is light, 
 cool, and does not impede the motion of the limbs. The turban 
 thoroughly protects the head against the sun, and shades the 
 eyes, while it obstructs the vision much less than a hat-brim. 
 The broad silk shawl which holds up the baggy trowsers, shields 
 the abdomen against changes of temperature and tends to pre- 
 vent diarrhoea, which, besides ophthalmia, is the only ailment the 
 traveller need fear. The latter disease may be avoided by 
 bathing the face in cold water after walking or any exercise 
 which induces perspiration. I have followed this plan, and 
 though my eyes are exposed daily to the full blaze of the sou, 
 
PROGRAMME OF A DAy's LIFE. 99 
 
 find them growing stronger and clearer. In fact, since leaving 
 the invigorating camp-life of California, I have not felt the 
 sensation of health so purely as now. The other day, to the 
 great delight of our sailors and the inexhaustible merriment of 
 my friend, I donned one of Achmet's dresses. Though the 
 4hort Theban's flowing trowsers and embroidered jacket gave 
 me the appearance of a strapping Turk, who had grown too 
 fast for his garments, they were so easy and convenient in 
 every respect, that I have decided to un-Frank myself for the 
 remainder of the journey. 
 
 But our day is not yet at an end. We come on board 
 about eleven o'clock, and find our breakfast ready for the table 
 The dishes are few, but well cooked, and just what a hungry 
 man would desire-^fowls, pigeons, eggs, rice, vegetables, fruit, 
 the coarse but nourishing bread of the country, and the sweet 
 water of the Nile, brought to a blush by an infusion of claret 
 After breakfast we seat ourselves on the airy divans in front 
 of the cabin, and quietly indulge in the luxury of a shebook, 
 filled by Achmet's experienced hand, and a finjan of Turkish 
 coffee. Then comes an hour's exercise in Arabic, after whicn 
 we read guide-books, consult our maps, write letters, and occupy 
 ourselves with various mysteries of our household, till the 
 noonday heat is over. Dinner, which is served between four 
 and five o'clock, is of the same materials as our breakfast, but 
 differently arranged, and with the addition of soup. My friend 
 ftvers that he no longer wonders why Esau sold his birthright, 
 now that h^ has tasted our pottage of Egyptian lentils. Coffee 
 and pipes follow dinner, which is over with the first flush of 
 sunset and the first premonition of the coolness and quiet of 
 evening. 
 
94 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 We seat ourselves on deck, and drink to its fulness the 
 balm of this indescribable repose. The sun goes down behind 
 the Libyan Desert in a broad glory of purple and rosy lights ; 
 the Nile is calm and un^^'iffled, the palms stand as if sculptured 
 in jasper and malachite, and the torn and ragged sides of the 
 Arabian Mountains, pouring through a hundred fissures th*» 
 sand of the plains above, burn with a deep crimson lustre, ass 
 if smouldering from some inward fire. The splendor soon 
 passes off and they stand for some minutes in dead, ashy pale- 
 ness. The sunset has now deepened into orange, in the midst 
 of which a large planet shines whiter than the moon. A 
 second glow falls upon the mountains, and this time of a pale, 
 but intense yellow hue, which gives them the effect of a trans- 
 parent painting. The palm-groves are dark below and the sky 
 dark behind them ; they alone, the symbols of perpetual deso- 
 lation, are transfigured by the magical illumination. Scarcely 
 a sound disturbs the solemn magnificence of the hour. Even 
 our full-throated Arabs are silent, and if a wave gurgles 
 against the prow, it slides softly back into the river, as if re- 
 buked for the venture. We speak but little, and then mostly 
 in echoes of each other's thoughts. " This is more than mere 
 enjoyment of Nature," said my friend, on such an evening : 
 " it is worship." 
 
 Speaking of my friend, it is no more than just that I 
 should confess how much of the luck of this Nile voyage is 
 owing to him, and therein may be the secret of my complete 
 satisfaction and the secret of the disappointment of others. It 
 is more easy and yet more difficult for persons to harmonize 
 while travelling, than when at home. By this I mean, thai 
 men of kindred natures and aims find each other more readily 
 
MY COMRADE. 85 
 
 and confide in each other more freely, while the least jarring 
 element rapidly drives others further and further apart. No 
 confessional so completely reveals the whole man as the com- 
 panionship of travel. It is not possible to wear the conven- 
 tional masks of Society, and one repulsive feature is often 
 enough to neutralize many really good qualities. On Jbhe other 
 hand, a congeniality of soul and temperament speedily ripens 
 into the firmest friendship and doubles every pleasure which is 
 mutually enjoyed. My companion widely differs from me in 
 age, in station, and in his experiences of life ; but to one of 
 those open, honest and loving natures which are often found in 
 his native Saxony, he unites a most warm and thorough appre- 
 ciation of Beauty in Nature or Art. We harmonize to a mir- 
 acle, and the parting with him at Assouan will be the sorest 
 oang of my journey. 
 
 My friend, the Howadji, in whose "Nile-Notes" the 
 Egyptian atmosphere is so perfectly reproduced, says that 
 " Conscience falls asleep on the Nile." If by this he means 
 that artificial quality which bigots and sectarians call Con- 
 science, I quite agree with him, and do not blame the Nile for 
 its soporific powers. But that simple faculty of the soul, na- 
 tive to all men, which acts best when it acts unconsciously, 
 and leads our passions and desires into right paths without 
 seeming to lead them, is vastly strengthened by this quiet and 
 healthy life. There is a cathedral-like solemnity in the air of 
 Egypt ; one feels the presence of the altar, and is a better 
 man without his will. To those rendered misanthropic by 
 disappointed ambition — ^mistrustful by betrayed confidence — 
 despairing by unassuageable sorrow — ^let me repeat the motto 
 which heads this chapter. 
 
96 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 I have endeavored to picture our mode of life as faithfully 
 and minutely as possible, because it bears no resemblance to 
 travel in any other part of the world. Into the neart of a 
 barbarous continent and a barbarous land, we carry with us 
 every desirable comfort and luxury. In no part of Europe or 
 America could we be so thoroughly independent, without un- 
 dergoing considerable privations, and wholly losing that sense 
 of rest which is the greatest enjoyment of this journey. We 
 are cut off from all communication with the great world of 
 politics, merchandise and usury, and remember it only through 
 the heart, not through the brain. We go ashore in the deli- 
 cious mornings, breathe the elastic air, and wander through 
 the palm-groves, as happy and care-free as two Adams in a 
 Paradise without Eves. It is an episode which will flow for- 
 ward in the under-currents of our natures through the rest of 
 our lives, soothing and refreshing us whenever it rises to the 
 surface. I do not reproach myself for this passive and sensu- 
 ous existence. I give myself up to it unreservedly, and if 
 some angular-souled utilitarian should come along and recom 
 mend me to shake off my laziness, and learn the conjugations 
 of Coptic verbs or the hieroglyphs of Kneph and Thoth, I 
 should not take the pipe from my mouth to answer him. My 
 friend sometimes laughingly addresses me with two lines of 
 Hebel s quaint Allemanic poetry : 
 
 " Ei Bolch a Leben, junges Bluat, 
 Desh ish wohl fiir a Thierle guat." 
 
 (such a life, young blood, best befits an animal), but I tell him 
 that the wisdom of the Black Forest won't answer for the 
 Nile, If any one persists in forcing the application, I prefer 
 
OBSERVATION VS. DESCRIPTION. 
 
 m 
 
 being called an animal to changing my present Habits. An 
 entire life so spent would be wretchedly aimless, but a few 
 months are in truth " sore labor's bath " to every wrung heart 
 and overworked brain. 
 
 I could say much more, but it requires no little effort to 
 write three hours in a cabin, when the palms are rustling their 
 tops outside, the larks singing in the meadows, and the odor of 
 mimosa flowers breathing through the windows. To travel and 
 write, is like inhaling and exhaling one's breath at the same 
 moment. You take in impressions at every pore of the mind, 
 and the process is so pleasant, that you sweat them out again 
 most reluctantly. Lest I should overtake the remedy with 
 the disease, and make to-day Labor, which should he Rest, 1 
 shall throw down the pen, and mount yonder donkey, which 
 stands patiently on the bank, waiting to carry me to Siout 
 once more, before starting for Thebe". 
 
98 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 UPPEREGYPT. 
 A 
 
 Calm— Mountains and Tombs— A Night Adventure in Ekhmin— Cliaracter of ihi 
 Boatmen— Fair Wind— Pilgrims— Egyptian Agriculture— Sugar and Cotton— Groin 
 —Sheep — Arrival at Kenneh— A Landscape— The Temple of Dendera— First Im- 
 pressions of Egyptian Art— Portrait of Cleoi»atra— A Happy Meeting — We approach 
 Thebes. 
 
 Our men were ready at the appointed time, and precisely 
 twenty-four hours after reaching the port of Siout we spread 
 our sails for Kenneh, and exchanged a parting salute with the 
 boat of a New York physician, which arrived some hours after 
 us. The no&th wind, which had been blowing freshly during 
 the whole of our stay, failed us almost within sight of the port, 
 and was followed by three days of breathless calm, during 
 which time we made about twelve miles a day, by towing. 
 My friend and I spent half the time on shore, wandering in- 
 land through the fields and making acquaintances in the vil- 
 lages. We found such tours highly interesting and refreshing, 
 but nevertheless always returned to our floating Castle of In- 
 dolence, doubly delighted with its home-like cabin and lazy di- 
 vans. Many of the villages in this region are built among the 
 mounds of ancient cities, the names whereof are faithfully enu- 
 merated in the guide-book, but as the cities themselves have 
 
MOUNTAINS, TOMBS AND RUINS. 0ft 
 
 wholly disappeared, we were spared the necessity of seeking 
 for their ruins. 
 
 On the third night after leaving Siout, we passed the vil- 
 lage of Grow el-Kebir, the ancient Antaeopolis, whose beautiful 
 temple has been entirely destroyed during the last twenty-five 
 years, partly washed away by the Nile and partly pulled down 
 to furnish materials for the Pasha's palace at Siout. Near 
 this the famous battle between Hercules and Antaeus is re- 
 ported to have taken place. The fable of Antaeus drawing 
 strength from the earth appears quite natural, after one haa 
 seen the fatness of the soil of Upper Egypt. We ran the 
 gauntlet of Djebel Shekh Hereedee, a mountain similar to 
 Aboufayda in form, but much more lofty and imposing. It 
 has also its legend : A miraculous serpent, say the Arabs, has 
 lived for centuries in its caverns, and possesses the power of 
 healing diseases. All these mountains, on the eastern bank 
 of the Nile, are pierced with tombs, and the openings are 
 sometimes so frequent and so near to each other as to resem- 
 ble a colonnade along the rocky crests. They rarely contain 
 inscriptions, and many of them were inhabited by hermits and 
 holy men, during the early ages of Christianity. At the most 
 accessible points the Egyptians have commenced limestone 
 quarries, and as they are more concerned in preserving piastres 
 than tombs, their venerable ancestors are dislodged without 
 scruple. Whoever is interested in Egyptian antiquities, 
 should not postpone his visit longer. Not only Turks, but 
 Europeans are engaged in the work of demolition, and the very 
 antiquarians who profess the greatest enthusiasm for these 
 monuments, are ruthless Vandals towards them when they 
 have the power. 
 
100 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 We dashed past the mountain of Shekh Hereedee in gal- 
 lant style, and the same night, after dusk, reached Ekhmin, 
 the ancient Panopolis. This was one of the oldest cities in 
 Egypt, and dedicated to the Phallic worship, whose first sym* 
 bol, the obelisk, has now a purely monumental significance 
 A few remnants of this singular ancient faith appear to be re- 
 tained among the modern inhabitants of Ekhmin, but only in 
 the grossest superstitions, and without reference to the ab- 
 stract creative principle typified by the Phallic emblems. 
 The early Egyptians surrounded with mystery and honored 
 with all religious solemnity what they regarded as the highest 
 human miracle wrought by the power of their gods, and in a 
 philosophical point of view, there is no branch of their com- 
 plex faith more interesting than this. 
 
 As we sat on the bank in the moonlight, quietly smoking 
 our pipes, the howling of a company of dervishes sounded from 
 the town, whose walls are a few hundred paces distant from 
 the river. We inquired of the guard whether a Frank dare 
 visit them. He could not tell, but offered to accompany me 
 and try to procure an entrance. I took Achmet and two of 
 our sailors, donned a Bedouin capote, and set out in search of 
 the dervishes. The principal gate of the town was closed, and 
 my men battered it vainly with their clubs, to rouse the guard 
 We wandered for some time among the mounds of Panopolis, 
 stumbling over blocks of marble and granite, under palms 
 eighty feet high, standing clear and silvery in the moonlight. 
 At last, the clamor of the wolfish dogs we waked up on the 
 road, brought us one of the watchers outside of the walls, 
 whom we requested to admit us into the city. He replied 
 that this could not be done. " But," said Achmet, " here is 
 
A NIGHT ADVENTURE. ^ 101 
 
 Ml Eflfendi wlio has just arrived, and must visit the moUahs 
 to-night ; admit him and fear nothing." The men thereupon 
 conducted us to another gate and threw a few pebbles against 
 the window above it. A woman's voice replied, and presently 
 the bolts were undrawn and we entered. By this time the 
 dervishes had ceased their bowlings, and every thing was as 
 still as death. We walked for half an hour through the de- 
 serted streets, visited the mosques and public buildings, and 
 heard no sound but our own steps. It was a strangely inter- 
 esting promenade. The Arabs, armed with clubs, carried a 
 paper lantern, which flickered redly on the arches and courts 
 we passed through. My trusty Theban walked by my^ide, 
 and took all possible trouble to find the retreat of the der- 
 vishes — ^but in vain. We passed out through the gate, which 
 was instantly locked behind us, and had barely reached our 
 vessel, when the unearthly song of the Moslem priests, louder 
 and wilder than ever, came to our ears. 
 
 The prejudice of the Mohammedans against the Christians 
 is wearing away with their familiarity with the Frank dress 
 and their adoption of Frankish vices. The Prophet's injunc- 
 tion against wine is heeded by few of his followers, or avoided 
 by drinking arakee, a liquor distilled from dates and often fla- 
 vored with hemp. Their conscience is generally satisfied with 
 a pilgrimage to Mecca and the daily performance of the pre- 
 scribed prayers, though the latter is often neglected. All of 
 my sailors were very punctual in this respect, spreading their 
 carpets on the forward deck, and occupying an hour or two 
 every day with genuflexions, prostrations, and salutations to- 
 ward Mecca, the direction of which they never lost, notwith- 
 standing the windings of the Nile. In the cathedrals of Chrie* 
 
102 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 tian Europe I have often seen pantomimes quite as unnece* 
 sary, performed with less apparent reverence. The people of 
 Egypt are fully as honest and well-disposed as the greater 
 part of the Italian peasantry. They sometimes deceive in 
 small things, and are inclined to take trifling advantages, but 
 that is the natural result of living under a government whose 
 only rule is force, and which does not even hesitate to use 
 fraud. Their good humor is inexhaustible. A single friendly 
 word wins them, and even a little severity awakes no lasting 
 feeling of revenge. I should much rather trust myself alone 
 among the Egyptian Fellahs, than among the peasants of the 
 Campagna, or the boors of Carinthia. Notwithstanding our 
 men had daily opportunities of plundering us, we never missed 
 a single article. We frequently went ashore with our drago- 
 man, leaving every thing in the cabin exposed, and especially 
 such articles as tobacco, shot, dates, &c., which would most 
 tempt an Arab, yet our confidence was never betrayed. We 
 often heard complaints from travellers in other boats, but I 
 am satisfied that any one who will enforce obedience at the 
 start, and thereafter give none but just and reasonable com- 
 mands, need have no difficulty with his crew. 
 
 The next morning, the wind being light, we walked for- 
 ward to El Menschieh, a town about nine miles distant from 
 Ekhmin. It was market-day, and the bazaar was crowded 
 with the countrymen, who had brought their stock of grain, 
 sugar-cane and vegetables. The men were taller and more 
 muscular than in Lower Egypt, and were evidently descended 
 from a more intelligent and energetic stock. They looked at 
 us curiously, but with a sort of friendly interest, and cour- 
 teously made way for us as we passed through the narrow ba- 
 
EGYPTIAN AORICULTURK. 103 
 
 zaar. In the afternoon the wind increased to a small gale, and 
 bore us rapidly past Gebel Tookh to the city of Girgehj so 
 named in Coptic times from the Christian saint, George. 
 Like Manfalout, it has been half washed away by the Nile, 
 and two lofty minarets were hanging on the brink of the slip- 
 pery bank, awaiting their turn to fall. About twelve miles 
 from Girgeh, in the Libyan Desert, are the ruins of Abydus, 
 now covered by the sand, except the top of the portico and 
 roof of the temple-palace of Sesostris, and part of the temple 
 of Osiris. We held a council whether we should waste the 
 favorable wind or miss Abydus, and the testimony of Achmet, 
 who had visited the ruins, having been taken, we chose the 
 latter alternative. By this time Girgeh was nearly out of 
 sight, and we comforted ourselves with the hope of soon see- 
 ing Dendera. 
 
 The pilgrims to Mecca, by the Kenneh and Kosseir route, 
 were on their return, and we met a number of boats, crowded 
 with them, on their way to Cairo from the former place. 
 Most of the boats carried the red flag, with the star and cres- 
 cent. On the morning after leaving Girgeh, we took a long 
 stroll through the fields of Farshoot, which is, after Siout, the 
 richest agricultural district of Upper Egypt. An excellent 
 system of irrigation, by means of canals, is kept up, and the 
 result shows what might be made of Egypt, were its great nat- 
 ural resources rightly employed. The Nile offers a perpetual 
 fountain of plenty and prosperity, and its long valley, from 
 Nubia to the sea, would become, in other hands, the garden of 
 the world. So rich and pregnant a soil I have never seen. 
 Here, side by side, flourish wheat, maize, cotton, sugar-cane, 
 indigo, hemp, rice, dourra, tobacco, olives, dates, oranges, and 
 
104 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 the yegetablcs and fruits of nearly every climate. The wheat, 
 which, in November, we found young and green, would in 
 March be ripe for the sickle, and the people were cutting and 
 threshing fields of dourra, which they had planted towards the 
 end of summer. Except where the broad meadows are first re- 
 claimed from the rank, tufted grass which has taken posses- 
 sion of them, the wheat is sowed upon the ground, and then 
 ploughed in by a sort of crooked wooden beam, shod with iron, 
 and drawn by two camels or buffaloes. I saw no instance in 
 which the soil was manured. The yearly deposit made by the 
 bountiful river seems to be sufficient. The natives, it is true, 
 possess immense numbers of pigeons, and every village is 
 adorned with towers, rising above the mud huts like the py- 
 lons of temples, and inhabited by these birds. The manure 
 collected from them is said to be used, but probably only in 
 the culture of melons, cucumbers, and other like vegetables 
 with which the gardens are stocked. 
 
 The fields of sugar-cane about Farshoot were the richest I 
 saw in Egypt. Near the village, which is three miles from the 
 Nile, there is a steam sugar-refinery, established by Ibrahim 
 Pasha, who seems to have devoted much attention to the cul- 
 ture of cane, with a view to his own profit. There are several 
 of these manufactories along the Nile, and the most of them 
 were in full operation, as we passed. At Kadamoon, between 
 Minyeh and Siout, there is a large manufactory, where the 
 common coarse sugar made in the Fellah villages is refined and 
 sent to Cairo. We made use of this sugar in our household, 
 and found it to be of excellent quality, though coarser than 
 that of the American manufactories. The culture of cotton 
 has not been so successful. The large and handsome manufao- 
 
■m 
 
 VEGETABLES AND GRAIK 106 
 
 tory built at Kenneh, is no longer in operation, and the fields 
 which we saw there, had a forlorn, neglected appearance. The 
 plants grow luxuriantly, and the cotton is of fine quality, but 
 the pods are small and not very abundant. About Siout, and 
 in Middle and Lower Egypt, we saw many fields of indigo, 
 which is said to thrive well. Peas, beans and lentils are cul- 
 tivated to a great extent, and form an important item of the 
 food of the inhabitants. The only vegetables we could procure 
 for our kitchen, were onions, radishes, lettuce and spinage. 
 The Arabs are very fond of the tops of radishes, and eat them 
 with as much relish as their donkeys. 
 
 One of the principal staples of Egypt is the dourra {holcus 
 sorghum), which resembles the jzea (maize) in many respects 
 In appearance, it is very like broom-corn, but instead of 
 the long, loose panicle of red seeds, is topped by a compact cone 
 of grains, smaller than those of maize, but resembling them in 
 form and taste. The stalks are from ten to fifteen feet high, 
 and the heads frequently contain as much substance as two ears 
 of maize. It is planted in close rows, and when ripe is cut by 
 the hand with a short sickle, after which the heads are taken 
 off and threshed separately. The grain is fed to horses, don- 
 keys and fowls, and in Upper Egypt is used almost universally 
 for bread. It is of course very imperfectly ground, and unbolt- 
 ed, and the bread is coarse and dark, though nourishing. In 
 the Middle and Southern States of America this grain would 
 thrive well and might be introduced with advantage. 
 
 The plains of coarse, wiry grass (half eh), which in many 
 
 points on the Nile show plainly the neglect of the inhabitants, 
 
 who by a year's labor might convert them into blooming fields, 
 
 are devoted to the pasturage of large herds of sheep, and goats, 
 
 5* 
 
106 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 and sometimes droves of buffaloes. The sheep are all black oi 
 dark-brown, and their bushy heads remind one of terrors . 
 The wool is rather coarse, and when roughly spun and woven 
 by the Arabs, in its natural color, forms the mantle, something 
 like a Spanish poncho, which is usually the Fellah's only gar- 
 ment. The mutton, almost the only meat to be found, is gen- 
 erally lean, and brings a high price, considering the abundance 
 of sheep. The flesh of buffaloes is eaten by the Arabs, but is 
 too tough, and has too rank a flavor, for Christian stomachs. 
 The goats are beautiful animals, with heads as slender and 
 delicate as those of gazelles. They have short, black horns, 
 curving downward — long, silky ears, and a peculiarly mild and 
 friendly expression of countenance. We had no difficulty in 
 procuring milk in the villages, and sometimes fresh butter, 
 which was more agreeable to the taste than the sight. The mode 
 of churning is not calculated to excite one's appetite. The 
 milk is tied up in a goat's skin, and suspended by a rope to 
 the branch of a tree. One of the Arab housewives (who are 
 all astonishingly ugly and filthy) then stations herself on one 
 side, and propels it backward and forward till the process is 
 completed. The cheese of the country resembles a mixture of 
 sand and slacked lime, and has an abomirable flavor. 
 
 Leaving Farshoot, we swept rapidly past Haou, the ancient 
 Diospolis pawa, or Little Thebes, of which nothing is left but 
 some heaps of dirt, sculptured fragments, and the tomb of a 
 certain Dionysius, son of a certain Ptolemy. The course of 
 the mountains, which follow the Nile, is here nearly east and 
 west, as the river makes a long curve to the eastward on ap- 
 proaching Kenneh. The valley is inclosed within narrower 
 bounds, and the Arabian Mountains on the north, shooting out 
 
107 
 
 into bold promontories from the main chain, sometimes rise 
 from the water's edge in bluffs many hundred feet in height. 
 The good wind, which had so befriended us for three days, fol- 
 lowed us all night, and when we awoke on the morning of De- 
 cember 4th, our vessel lay at anchor in the port of Kenneh, 
 having beaten by four hours the boat of our American friend, 
 which was reputed to be one of the swiftest on the river. 
 
 Kenneh, which lies about a mile east of the river, is cele- 
 brated for the manufacture of porous water-jars, and is an infe- 
 rior mart of trade with Persia and India, by means of Kosseir, 
 on the Red Sea, one hundred and twenty miles distant. The 
 town is large, but mean in aspect, and does not offer a single 
 object of interest. It lies in the centre of a broad plain. We 
 rode through the bazaars, which were tolerably well stocked 
 and crowded with hadji^ or pilgrims of Mecca. My friend, 
 who wished to make a flag of the Saxe-Goburg colors, for his 
 return voyage, tried in vain to procure a piece of green cotton 
 cloth. Every other color was to be had but green, which, as 
 the sacred hue, worn only by the descendants of Mohammed, 
 was nowhere to be found. He was finally obliged to buy a 
 piece of white stuff and have it specially dyed. It came back 
 the same evening, precisely the color of the Shereef of Mecca^s 
 turban. 
 
 On the western bank of the Nile, opposite Kenneh, is the 
 site of the city of Tentyra, famed for its temple of Athor. 
 It is now called Dendera, from the modern Arab village. 
 After breakfast, we shipped ourselves and our donkeys across 
 the Nile, and rode off in high excitement, to make our first 
 acquaintance with Egyptian temples The path led through a 
 palm grove, which in richness and Deauty rivalle4 t-feose of th» 
 
108 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Mexican tierra caliente. The lofty shafts of the date and the 
 vaulted foliage of the doum-palm, blended in the most pictn- 
 resque groupage, contrasted with the lace-like texture of the 
 flowering mimosa, and the cloudy boughs of a kind of gray cy- 
 press. The turf under the trees was soft and green, and between 
 the slim trunks we looked over the plain, to the Libyan Moun- 
 tains — a long train of rosy lights and violet shadows. Out of 
 this lovely wood we passed between magnificent fields of dourra 
 and the castor-oil bean, fifteen feet in height, to a dyke which 
 crossed the meadows to Dendera. The leagues of rank grass on 
 our right rolled away to the Desert in shining billows, and the 
 fresh west- wind wrapped us in a bath of intoxicating odors. In 
 the midst of this green and peaceful plain rose the earthy 
 mounds of Tentyra, and the portico of the temple, almost buried 
 beneath them, stood like a beacon, marking the boundary of the 
 Desert. 
 
 We galloped our little animals along the dyke, over heaps 
 of dirt and broken bricks, among which a number of Arabs 
 were burrowing for nitrous earth, and dismounted at a small 
 pylon, which stands two or three hundred paces in front of the 
 temple. The huge jambs of sandstone, covered with sharply 
 cut hieroglyphics and figures of the Egyptian gods, and sur- 
 mounted by a single block, bearing the mysterious winged globe 
 and serpent, detained us but a moment, and we hurried down 
 what was once the dromos of the temple, now represented by a 
 double wall of unburnt bricks. The portico, more than a hundred 
 feet in length, and supported by six columns, united by screens 
 of masonry, no stone of which, or of the columns themselves, is 
 unsculptured, is massive and imposing, but struck me as be'ng 
 too depressed to produce a very grand effect. What was my 
 
THE TEMPLE OF DENDERA. 109 
 
 astonishment, on arriving at the entrance, to find that I had 
 approached the temple on a level with half its height, and that 
 the pavement of the portico was as far below as the scrolls of 
 its cornice were above me. The six columns I had seen cover- 
 ed three other rows, of six each, all adorned with the most 
 elaborate sculpture and exhibiting traces of the brilliant color- 
 ing which they once possessed. The entire temple, which is in 
 an excellent state of preservation, except where the hand of the 
 Coptic Christian has defaced its sculptures, was cleaned out by 
 order of Mohammed Ali, and as all its chambers, as well as 
 the roof of enormous sand-stone blocks, are entire, it is consid- 
 ered one of the most complete relics of Egyptian art. 
 
 I find my pen at fault, when I attempt to describe the im- 
 pression produced by the splendid portico. The twenty-four 
 columns, each of which is sixty feet in height, and eight feet in 
 diameter, crowded upon a surface of one hundred feet by 
 seventy, are oppressive in their grandeur. The dim light, 
 admitted through the half closed front, which faces the north, 
 spreads a mysterious gioum around these mighty shafts, crown- 
 ed with the fourfold visage of Athor, still rebuking the im- 
 pious hands that have marred her solemn beauty. On the 
 walls, between columns of hieroglyphics, and the cartouches of 
 the Caesars and the Ptolemies, appear the principal Egyptian 
 deities — the rigid Osiris, the stately Isis and the hawk-headed 
 Orus. Around the bases of the columns spring the leaves of 
 the sacred lotus, and the dark-blue ceiling is spangled with 
 stars, between the wings of the divine emblem. The sculptures 
 are all in raised relief, and there is no stone in the temple 
 without them. I cannot explain to myself the unusual emotion 
 r felt while contemplating this wonderful combination of a 
 
1X0 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Bimple and sublime architectural style with the utmost elabo- 
 ration of ornament. My blood pulsed fast and warm on my 
 first view of the Roman Forum, but in Dendera I was so sad- 
 dened and oppressed, that I scarcely dared speak for fear of 
 betraying an unmanly weakness. My friend walked silently 
 between the columns, with a face as rigidly sad as if he had 
 just looked on the coffin of his nearest relative. Though such 
 a mood was more painful than agreeable, it required some effort 
 to leave the place, and after a stay of two hours, we still lin- 
 gered in the portico and walked through the inner halls, under 
 the spell of a fascination which we had hardly power to break. 
 The portico opens into a hall, supported by six beautiful 
 columns, of smaller proportions, and lighted by a square aper- 
 ture in the solid roof. On either side are chambers connected 
 with dim and lofty passages, and beyond is the sanctuary and 
 various other apartments, which receive no light from without. 
 We examined their sculptures by the aid of torches, and our 
 Arab attendants kindled large fires of dry corn stalks, which 
 cast a strong red light on the walls. The temple is devoted to 
 Athor, the Egyptian Venus, and her image is everywhere seen, 
 receiving the homage of her worshippers. Even the dark stair 
 case, leading to the roof — ^up which we climbed over heaps of 
 sand and rubbish — is decorated throughout with processions of 
 symbolical figures. The drawing has little of that grotesque 
 stiffness which I expected to find in Egyptian sculptures, and 
 the execution is so admirable in its gradations of light and 
 shade, as to resemble, at a little distance, a monochromatic 
 painting. The antiquarians view these remains with little 
 interest, as they date from the comparatively recent era of the 
 Ptolomies, at which time sculpture and architecture were od 
 
THE PORTRAIT OF CLEOPATRA. Ill 
 
 the decline. We, who had seen nothing else of the kind, 
 were charmed with the grace and elegance of this sumptuous 
 mode of decoration. Part of the temple was built by Cleopatra, 
 whose portrait, with that of her son Caesarion, may still be 
 seen on the exterior wall. The face of the colossal figure has' 
 been nearly destroyed, but there is a smaller one, whose soft, 
 voluptuous outline is still sufficient evidence of the justness of 
 her renown. The profile is exquisitely beautiful. The fore- 
 head and nose approach the Greek standard, but the mouth is 
 more roundly and delicately curved, and the chin and cheek 
 are fuller. Were such an outline made plastic, were the blank 
 face colored with a pale olive hue, through which should blush a 
 faint, rosy tinge, lighted with bold black eyes and irradiated 
 with the lightning of a passionate nature, it would even now 
 ' move the mighty hearts of captains and of kings." 
 
 Around the temple and over the mounds of the ancient 
 city are scattered the ruins of an Arab village which the in- 
 habitants suddenly deserted, without any apparent reason, two 
 or three years previous to our visit. Behind it, stretches the 
 yellow sand of the Desert. The silence and aspect of deser- 
 tion harmonize well with the spirit of the place, which would 
 be much disturbed were one beset, as is usual in the Arab 
 towns, by a gang of naked beggars and barking wolf-dogs, 
 "besides the temple, there are also the remains of a chapel of 
 Isis, with a pylon, erected by Augustus Caesar, and a small 
 temple, nearly whelmed in the sand, supposed to be one of the 
 mammeisi, or lying-in houses of the goddess Athor, who was 
 honored in this form, on account of having given birth to the 
 third member of the divine Triad. 
 
 At sunset, we rode back from Dendera and set sail fn 
 
112 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Thebes. In the evening, as we were sweeping along by moon* 
 light, with a full wind, a large dahahiyeh came floating down 
 the stream. Achmet, who was on the look-out, saw the Amer- 
 ican flag, and we hailed her. My delight was unbounded, to 
 hear in reply the voice of my friend, Mr. Degen, of New York, 
 who, with his lady and two American and English gentlemen, 
 were returning from a voyage to Assouan. Both boats in- 
 stantly made for the shore, and for th6 first time since leaving 
 Germany I had the pleasure of seeing familiar faces. For tho 
 space of three hours I forgot Thebes and the north wind, but 
 towards midnight we exchanged a parting salute of four guns 
 and shook out the broad sails of the Cleopatra, who leaned her 
 cheek to the waves and shot off like a sea-gull. I am sure she 
 must have looked beautiful to my friends, as they stood on 
 deck in the moonlight. 
 
ARRIVAL AT THEBES. 118 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THEBES THE WESTERN BANK. 
 
 Arrival at Thebes—Ground-Plan of the Remains— "We Cross to the Western Bank- 
 Guides— The Temple of Goorneh— Valley of the Kings' Tombs— Belzoni's Tomb— 
 The Racca of Men — Vandalism of Antiquarians— Brace's Tomb — Memnon — ^The 
 Grandfather of Sesostris— The Head of Amunoph— The Colossi of the Plain— 
 Memnonian Music — The Statue of Remeses — The Memnonium — Beauty of Egyp- 
 tian Art^More Scrambles among the Tombs— The Bats of the Assassecf- Medee- 
 net Abou— Sculptured Histories— The Great Court of the Temple— We return to 
 Lnxor. 
 
 On the following evening, about nine o'clock, as my friend and 
 I were taking our customary evening pipe in the cabin, our 
 vessel suddenly stopped. The wind was still blowing, and I 
 called to Achmet to know what was the matter. "We have 
 reached Luxor," answered the Theban. "We dropped the she- 
 books, dashed out, up the bank, and saw, facing us in the 
 brilliant moonlight, the grand colonnade of the temple, the 
 solid wedges of the pylon, and the brother-obelisk of that 
 which stands in the Place de la Concorde, in Paris. Tho 
 wide plain of Thebes stretched away on either hand, and the 
 beautiful outlines of the three mountain ranges which inclose 
 it, rose in the distance against the stars. We looked on the 
 landscape a few moments, in silence. " Come," said my friend, 
 at length, " this is enough for to-night. Let us not be too 
 
114 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 hasty to exhaust what is in store for us." So we returned to 
 our cabin, closed the blinds, and arranged our plans for best 
 seeing, and best enjoying the wonders of the great Diospolis. 
 
 Before commencing my recital, let me attempt to give an 
 outline of the typography of Thebes. The course of the Nile 
 is here nearly north, dividing the site of the ancient city into 
 two almost equal parts. On approaching it from Kenneh, the 
 mountain of Goorneh, which abuts on the river, marks the 
 commencement of the western division. This mountain, a 
 range of naked limestone crags, terminating in a pyramidal 
 peak, gradually recedes to the distance of three miles from the 
 Nile, which it again approaches further south. Nearly the 
 whole of the curve, which might be called the westei-n wall of 
 the city, is pierced with tombs, among which are those of the 
 queens, and the grand priestly vaults of the Assasseef. The 
 Valley of the Kings' Tombs lies deep in the heart of the 
 range seven or eight miles from the river. After passing the 
 corner of the mountain, the first ruin on the western bank is 
 that of the temple-palace of Goorneh. More than a mile fur- 
 ther, at the base of the mountain, is the Memnonium, or tem- 
 ple of Remeses the Great, between which and the Nile the two 
 Memnonian colossi are seated on the plain. Nearly two miles 
 to the south of this is the great temple of Medeenet Abou, and 
 the fragments of other edifices are met with, still further be- 
 yond. On the eastern bank, nearly opposite Goorneh, stands 
 the temple of Karnak, about half a mile from the river. 
 Eight miles eastward, at the foot of the Arabian Mountains, is 
 the small temple of Medamot, which, however, does not appear 
 to have been included in the limits of Thebes. Luxor is di- 
 rectly on the bank of the Nile, a mile and a half south of 
 
THE WESTERN BANK. 116 
 
 Kamak, and the plain extends several miles beyond it, before 
 reaching the isolated range, whose three conical peaks are the 
 landmarks of Thebes to voyagers on the river. 
 
 These distances convey an idea of the extent of the ancient 
 city, but fail to represent the grand proportions of the land 
 scape, so well fitted, in its simple and majestic outlines, to in- 
 close the most wonderful structures the world has ever seen. 
 The green expanse of the plain ; the airy coloring of the moun- 
 tains ; the mild, solemn blue of the cloudless Egyptian sky ;— 
 these are a part of Thebes, and inseparable from the remem- 
 brance of its ruins. 
 
 At sunrise we crossed to the western bank and moored our 
 boat opposite Goorneh. It is advisable to commence with the 
 Tombs, and close the inspection of that side with Medeenet 
 Abou, reserving Kamak, the grandest of all, for the last. 
 The most unimportant objects in Thebes are full of interest 
 when seen first, whereas Karnak, once seen, fills one's thoughts 
 to the exclusion of every thing else. There are Arab guides 
 for each bank, who are quite familiar with all the principal 
 points, and who have a quiet and unobtrusive way of directing 
 the traveller, which I should be glad to see introduced into 
 England and Italy. Our guide, old Achmet Gourgar, was a 
 tall, lean gray-beard, who wore a white turban and long brown 
 robe, and was most conscientious in his endeavors to satisfy us. 
 We found several horses on the bank, ready saddled, and 
 choosing two of the most promising, set off on a stirring gal- 
 lop for the temple of Goorneh and the Valley of the Kings' 
 Tombs, leaving Achmet to follow with our breakfast, and the 
 Arab boys with their water bottles. 
 
 The temple of Goorneh was built for the worship of Amun, 
 
116 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 the Theban Jupiter, by Osirei and his son, Remeses the Great, 
 the supposed Sesostris, nearly fourteen hundred years before 
 the Christian era. It is small, compared with the other ruins, 
 but interesting from its rude and massive style, a remnant of 
 the early period of Egyptian architecture. The two pylons in 
 front of it are shattered down, and the dromos of sphinxes has 
 entirely disappeared. The portico is supported by a single 
 row of ten columns, which neither resemble each other, nor 
 are separated by equal spaces. What is most singular, is the 
 fact that notwithstanding this disproportion, which is also ob- 
 servable in the doorways, the general effect is harmonious. 
 We tried to fathom the secret of this, and found no other ex- 
 planation than in the lowness of the building, and the rough 
 granite blocks of which it is built. One seeks no proportion 
 in a natural temple of rock, or a cirque of Druid stones. All 
 that the eye requires is rude strength, with a certain approach 
 to order. Tho effect produced by this temple is of a similar 
 character, barring its historical interest. Its dimensions are 
 too small to be imposing, and I found, after passing it several 
 times, that I valued it more as a feature in the landscape, 
 than for its own sake. 
 
 The sand and pebbles clattered under the hoofs of our 
 horses, as we galloped up the gorge of Bihan el Molooh, the 
 " Gates of the Kings." The sides are perpendicular cliffs of 
 yellow rock, which increased in height, the further we advanc- 
 ed, and at last terminated in a sort of basin, shut in by preci- 
 pices several hundred feet in height and broken into fantastic 
 turrets, gables and pinnacles. The bottom is filled with huge 
 heaps of sand and broken stones, left from the excavation 
 of the tombs in the solid rock. There are twenty-one tombs 
 
BELZONl's TOMB. 117 
 
 in this valley, more than half of which are of great extent and 
 richly adorned with paintings and sculptures. Some have 
 been filled with sand or otherwise injured by the occasional 
 rains which visit this region, while a few are too small and 
 plain to need visiting. Sir Gardner Wilkinson has numbered 
 them all in red chalk at the entrances, which is very convenient 
 to those who use his work on Egypt as a guide. I visited ten 
 of the principal tombs, to the great delight of the old guide, 
 who complained that travellers are frequently satisfied with 
 four or five. The general arrangement is the same in all, but 
 they differ greatly in extent and in the character of their deco- 
 ration. 
 
 The first we entered was the celebrated tomb of Remeses 
 L, discovered by Belzoni. From the narrow entrance, a pre- 
 cipitous staircase, the walls of which are covered with columns 
 of hieroglyphics, descends to a depth of forty feet, where it 
 strikes a horizontal passage leading to an oblong chamber, in 
 which was formerly a deep pit, which Belzoni filled. This pit 
 protected the entrance to the royal chamber, which was also 
 carefully walled up. In the grace and freedom of the draw- 
 ings, and the richness of their coloring, this tomb surpasses 
 all others. The subjects represented are the victories of the 
 monarch, while in the sepulchral chamber he is received into 
 the presence of the gods. The limestone rock is covered with 
 a fine coating of plaster, on which the figures were first drawn 
 with red chalk, and afterwards carefully finished in colors. 
 The reds, yellows, greens and blues are very brilliant, but 
 seem to have been employed at random, the gods having faces 
 sometimes of one color, sometimes of another. In the furthest 
 chamber, which was left unfinished, the subjects are only 
 
118 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 sketched in red chalk. Some of them have the loose and un- 
 certain lines of a pupil's hand, over which one sees the bold 
 and rapid corrections of the master. Many of the figures are 
 remarkable for their strength and freedom of outline. I was 
 greatly interested in a procession of men, representing the dif- 
 ferent nations of the earth. The physical peculiarities of the 
 Persian, the Jew and the Ethiopian are therein as distinctly 
 marked as at the present day. The blacks are perfect coun- 
 terparts of those I saw daily upon the Nile, and the noses of 
 the Jews seem newly painted from originals in New York. 
 So little diversity in the distinguishing features of the race, 
 after the lapse of more than three thousand years, is a strong 
 argument in favor of the new ethnological theory of the sepa- 
 rate origin of different races. Whatever objections may be 
 urged against this theory, the fact that the races have not ma- 
 terially changed since the earliest historic times, is established 
 by these Egyptian records, and we must either place the first 
 appearance of Man upon the earth many thousands of years in 
 advance of Bishop Usher's chronology, or adopt the conclusion 
 of Morton and Agassiz. 
 
 The burial-vault, where Belzoni found the alabaster sarco- 
 phagus of the monarch, is a noble hall, thirty feet long by nearly 
 twenty in breadth and height, with four massive pillars form- 
 ing a corridor on one side. In addition to the light of oui 
 torches, the Arabs kindled a large bonfire in the centre, which 
 brought out in strong relief the sepulchral figures on the ceiling, 
 painted in white on a ground of dark indigo hue. The pillars 
 and walls of the vault glowed with the vivid variety of their 
 colors, and the general effect was unspeakably rich and gor- 
 geous. This tomb has already fallen a prey to worse plunderers 
 
bruce's tdmb. lU 
 
 than the Medes and Persians. Belzoni carried off the sarco- 
 phagus, Champollion cut away the splendid jambs and architrave 
 of the entrance to the lower chambers, and Lepsius has finished 
 by splitting the pillars and appropriating their beautiful paint- 
 ings for the Museum at Berlin. At one spot, where the latter 
 has totally ruined a fine doorway, some indignant Frenchman 
 has written in red chalk : '■'■Meurtre commispar Lepsiusy In 
 all the tombs of Thebes, wherever you see the most flagrant 
 and shameless spoliations, the guide says, " Lepsius." Who 
 can blame the Arabs for wantonly defacing these precious 
 monuments, when such an example is set them by the vanity 
 of European antiquarians ? 
 
 Bruee's Tomb, which extends for four hundred and twenty 
 feet into the rock, is larger than Belzoni's, but not so fresh and 
 brilliant. The main entrance slopes with a very gradual de- 
 scent, and has on each side a number of small chambers and 
 niches, apparently for mummies. The illustrations in these 
 chambers are somewhat defaced, but very curious, on account 
 of the light which they throw upon the domestic life of the 
 Ancient Egyptians. They represent the slaughtering of oxen, 
 the preparation of fowls for the table, the kneading and baking 
 of bread and cakes, as well as the implements and utensils of 
 the kitchen. In other places the field laborers are employed 
 in leading the water of the Nile into canals, cutting dourra, 
 threshing and carrying the grain into magazines. One room 
 is filled with furniture, and the row of chairs around the 
 base of the walls would not be out of place in the most elegant 
 modern drawing-room. The Illustrated Catalogue of the Lon- 
 don Exhibition contains few richer and more graceful patterns. 
 In a chamber nearer the royal vault, two old, blind minstrels 
 
120 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 are seen, playing the harp in tlie presence of the King, whence 
 this is sometimes called the Harper's Tomb. The pillars of 
 the grand hall, like those of all the other tombs we visited^ 
 represent the monarch, after death, received into the presence 
 of the gods — stately figures, with a calm and serious aspect, 
 and lips, which, like those of the Sphinx, seemed closed upon 
 some awful mystery. The absurdity of the coloring does not 
 destroy this effect, and a blue-faced Isis, whose hard, black eye- 
 ball stares from a brilliant white socket, is not less impressive 
 than the same figure, cut in sandstone or granite. 
 
 The delicacy and precision of the hieroglyphics, sculptured 
 in intaglio, filled me with astonishment. In the tomb of Amunoph 
 III., which I visited the next day, they resembled the ciphers 
 engraved upon seals in their exquisite sharpness and regularity. 
 Only the principal tombs, however, are thus beautified. In 
 others the figures are either simply painted, or apparently 
 sunken in the plaster, while it was yet fresh, by prepared pat- 
 terns. The latter method accounts for the exact resemblance 
 of long processions of figures, which would otherwise require a 
 most marvellous skill on the part of the artist. In some un- 
 finished chambers I detected plainly the traces of these pat- 
 terns, where the outlines of the figures were blunt and the grain 
 of the plaster bent, and not cut. The family likeness in the 
 faces of the monarchs is also too striking, unfortunately, for us 
 to accept them all as faithful portraits. They are all apparent- 
 ly of the same age, and their attributes do not materially differ. 
 This was probably a flattery on the part of the artists, or the 
 effect of a royal vanity, which required to be portrayed in the 
 freshness of youth and the full vigor of body and mind. The 
 first faces I learned to recognize were those of Remeses II., 
 the supposed Sesostris, and Amunoph III. 
 
AN ANCIENT TOMB. 121 
 
 The tomb of Memnon, as it was called by the Romans, is 
 the most elegant of all, in its proportions, and is as symmetri- 
 cal as a Grecian temple. On the walls of the entrance are 
 several inscriptions of Greek tourists, who visited it in the era 
 of the Ptolemies, and spent their time in carving their names, 
 like Americans nowadays. The huge granite sarcophagus in 
 which the monarch's mummy was deposited, is broken, as are 
 those of the other tombs, with a single exception. This is the 
 tomb of Osirei I., the grandfather of Sesostris, and the oldest 
 in the valley. I visited it by crawling through a hole barely 
 large enough to admit my body, after which I slid on my back 
 down a passage nearly choked with sand, to another hole, 
 opening into the burial chamber. Here no impious hand had 
 defaced the walls, but the figures were as perfect and the color- 
 ing as brilliant as when first executed. In the centre stood 
 an immense sarcophagus, of a single block of red granite, and 
 the massive lid, which had been thrown oflf, lay beside it. The 
 dust in the bottom gave out that peculiar mummy odor percep- 
 tible in all the tombs, and in fact lon^ after one has left them, 
 for the clothes become saturated with it. The guide, delighted 
 mth having dragged me into that chamber, buried deep in the 
 lumb heart of the mountain, said not a word, and from the 
 awful stillness of the place and the phantasmagoric gleam of 
 the wonderful figures on the walls, I could have imagined my* 
 self a neophyte, on the threshold of the Osirian mysteries. 
 
 We rode to the Western Valley, a still deeper and wider 
 glen, containing tombs of the kings of the foreign dynasty of 
 Atin-Re. We entered the two principal ones, but found the 
 paintings rude and insignificant. There are many lateral pas- 
 sages and chambers and \n some places deep pits, along the 
 6 
 
122 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 edge of which we were obliged to crawl. In the last tomb a 
 very long and steep staircase descends into the rock. As wo 
 were groping after the guide, I called to my friend to take care, 
 as there was but a single step, after making a slip. The words 
 were scarcely out of my mouth before I felt a tremendous 
 thump, followed by a number of smaller ones, and found myself 
 sitting in a heap of sand, at the bottom, some twenty or thirty 
 feet below. Fortunately, I came off with but a few slight 
 bruises. 
 
 Returning to the temple of Goorneh, we took a path over 
 the plain, through fields of wheat, lupins and lentils, to the two 
 colossi, which we had already seen from a distance. These 
 immense sitting figures, fifty-three feet above the plain, which 
 has buried their pedestals, overlook the site of vanished 
 Thebes and assert the grandeur of which they and Karnak are 
 the most striking remains. They were erected by Amunoph 
 III., and though the faces are totally disfigured, the full, round, 
 beautiful proportions of the colossal arms, shoulders and thighs 
 do not belie the marvellous sweetness of the features which we 
 still see in his tomb. Except the head of Antinous, I know 
 of no ancient portrait so beautiful as Amunoph. The long and 
 luxuriant hair, flowing in a hundred ringlets, the soft grace of 
 the forehead, the mild serenity of the eye, the fine thin lines 
 of the nostrils and the feminine tenderness of the full lips, 
 triumph over the cramped rigidity of Egyptian sculpture, and 
 charm you with the lightness and harmony of Greek art. In 
 looking on that head, I cannot help thinking that the subject 
 overpowered the artist, and led him to the threshold of a truer 
 art. Amunoph, or Memnon, was a poet in soul, and it was 
 meet that his statue should salute the rising sun with a sound 
 like that of a harp-string. 
 
THE MUSIC or MEMNON. 123 
 
 Modern research has wholly annihilated this beautiful fable 
 Memnon now sounds at all hours of the day, and at the com- 
 mand of all travellers who pay an Arab five piastres to climb 
 into his lap. We engaged a vender of modern scarabei, who 
 threw off his garments, hooked his fingers and toes into the 
 cracks of the polished granite, and soon hailed us with " Sa- 
 laam ! " from the knee of the statue. There is a certain stone 
 on Memnon's lap, which, when sharply struck, gives out a clear 
 metallic ring. Behind it is a small square aperture, invisible 
 from below, where one of the priests no doubt stationed him- 
 self to perform the daily miracle. Our Arab rapped on the 
 arms and body of the statue, which had the usual dead sound 
 of stone, and rendered the musical ring of the sun-smitten 
 block more striking. An avenue of sphinxes once led from the 
 colossi to a grand temple, the foundations of which we found 
 about a quarter of a mile distant. On the way are the frag- 
 ments of two other colossi, one of black granite. The enor- 
 mous substructions of the temple and the pedestals of its col- 
 umns have been sufficiently excavated to show what a superb 
 edifice has been lost to the world. A crowd of troublesome 
 Arabs, thrusting upon our attention newly baken cinerary urns, 
 newly roasted antique wheat, and images of all kinds fresh 
 from the maker's hand, disturbed our quiet examination of the 
 ruins, and in order to escape their importunities, we rode to 
 the Memnonium. 
 
 This edifice, the temple-palace of Remeses the Great, is 
 supposed to be the Memnonium, described by Strabo. It is 
 built on a gentle rise of land at the foot of the mountain, and 
 looks eastward to the Nile and Luxor. The grand stone py- 
 lon which stands at the entrance of its former avenue of 
 
124 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 sphinxes has been half levelled by the fury of the Persian con- 
 querors, and the colossal granite statue of Remeses, in the first 
 court of the temple, now lies in enormous fragments around its 
 pedestal. Mere dimensions give no idea of this immense 
 mass, the weight of which, when entire, was nearly nine hun- 
 dred tons. How poor and trifling appear the modern statues 
 which we call colossal, when measured with this, one of whose 
 toes is a yard in length; and how futile the appliances of 
 modern art, when directed to its transportation for a distance 
 of one hundred and fifty miles ! The architrave at each end 
 of the court was upheld by four caryatides, thirty feet in height. 
 Though much defaced, they are still standing, but are dwarfed 
 by the mighty limbs of Remeses. It is difficult to account for 
 the means by which the colossus was broken. There are no 
 marks of any instruments which could have forced such a mass 
 asunder, and the only plausible conjecture I have heard is, 
 that the stone must have been subjected to an intense heat and 
 afterwards to the action of water. The statue, in its sitting 
 position, must have been nearly sixty feet in height, and is the 
 largest in the world, though not so high as the rock-hewn 
 monoliths of Aboo-Simbel. The Turks and Arabs have cut 
 several mill-stones out of its head, without any apparent dimi 
 nution of its size. 
 
 The Memnonium differs from the other temples of Egypt 
 in being almost faultless in its symmetry, even when measured 
 by the strictest rules of art. I know of nothing so exquisite 
 as the central colonnade of its grand hall — a double row of 
 pillars, forty-five feet in height and twenty-three in circum 
 ference, crowned with capitals resembling the bell-shaped blos- 
 soms of the lotus. One must see them to comprehend how 
 
THE MEMNONIUM. 125 
 
 this simple form, whose expression is all sweetness and tender- 
 ness in the flower, softens and beautifies the solid majesty of 
 the shaft. In spite of their colossal proportions, there is 
 nothing massive or heavy in their aspect. The cup of the 
 capital curves gently outward from the abacus on which the 
 architrave rests, and seems the natural blossom of the co- 
 lumnar stem. On either side of this perfect colonnade are four 
 rows of Osiride pillars, of smaller size, yet the variety of their 
 form and proportions only enhances the harmony of the whole. 
 This is one of those enigmas in architecture which puzzle one 
 on his first acquaintance with Egyptian temples, and which he 
 is often forced blindly to accept as new laws of art, because his 
 feeling tells him they are true, and his reason cannot satisfac- 
 torily demonstrate that they are false. 
 
 We waited till the yellow rays of sunset fell on the capi- 
 tals of the Memnonium, and they seemed, like the lotus flowers, 
 to exhale a vapory light, before we rode home. All night we 
 wandered in dreams through kingly vaults, with starry ceilings 
 and illuminated walls ; but on looking out of our windows at 
 dawn, we saw the red saddle-cloths of our horses against the 
 dark background of the palm grove, as they came down to the 
 boat. No second nap was possible, after such a sight, and 
 many minutes had not elapsed before we were tasting the cool 
 morning air in the delight of a race up and down the shore. 
 Our old guide, however, was on his donkey betimes, and called 
 us off to our duty. We passed Goorneh, and ascended the 
 eastern face of the mountain to the tombs of the priests and 
 private citizens of Thebes. For miles along the mountain 
 side, one sees nothing but heaps of sand and rubbish, with 
 here and there an Arab hut, built against the face of a tomb 
 
126 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.. 
 
 whose chambers serve as pigeon-houses, and stalls for assea. 
 The earth is filled with fragments of mummies, and the ban- 
 dages in which they were wrapped ; for even the sanctity of 
 death itself, is here neither respected by the Arabs nor tlie 
 Europeans whom they imitate. I cannot conceive the passion 
 which some travellers have, of carrying away withered hands 
 and fleshless legs, and disfiguring the abodes of the dead with 
 their insignificant names. I should as soon think of carving 
 my initials on the back of a live Arab, as on these venerable 
 monuments. 
 
 The first tomb we entered almost cured us of the desire to 
 visit another. It was that called the Assasseef, built by a 
 wealthy priest, and it is the largest in Thebes. Its outer 
 court measures one hundred and three by seventy-six feet, and 
 its passages extend between eight and nine hundred feet into 
 the mountain. We groped our way between walls as black as 
 ink, through long, labyrinthine suites of chambers, breathing 
 a deathlike and oppressive odor. The stairways seemed to 
 lead into the bowels of the earth, and on either hand yawned 
 pits of uncertain depth. As we advanced, the ghostly vaults 
 rumbled with a sound like thunder, and hundreds of noisome 
 bats, scared by the light, dashed against the walls and dropped 
 at our feet. We endured this for a little while, but on reach- 
 ing the entrance to some darker and deeper mystery, were so 
 surrounded by the animals, who struck their filthy wings 
 against our faces, that not for ten kings' tombs wculd we have 
 gone a step further. My friend was on the point of vowing 
 never to set his foot in another tomb, but I persuaded him to 
 wait until we had seen that of Amunoph. I followed the 
 guide, who enticed me by flattering promises into a great many 
 
MEDEENET ABOU ^TIIE PYLON. 127 
 
 snakelike holes, and when he was tired with crawling in the 
 dust, sent one of our water-carriers in advance, who dragged 
 me in and out by the heels. 
 
 The temple of Medeenet Abou is almost concealed by the 
 ruins of a Coptic village, among which it stands, and by which 
 it is partially buried. The outer court, pylon and main hall 
 of the smaller temple rise above the mounds and overlook the 
 plain of Thebes, but scarcely satisfy the expectation of the 
 traveller, as he approaches. You first enter an inclosure sur- 
 rounded by a low stone wall, and standing in advance of the 
 pylon. The rear wall, facing the entrance, contains two sin- 
 gle pillars, with bell-shaped capitals, which rise above it and 
 stand like guards before the doorway of the pylon. Here was 
 another enigma for us. Who among modem architects would 
 dare to plant two single pillars before a pyramidal gateway of 
 solid masonry, and then inclose them in a plain wall, rising to 
 half their height ? Yet here the symmetry of the shafts is not 
 injured by the wall in which they stand, nor oppressed by the 
 ponderous bulk of the pylon. On the contrary, the light col- 
 umns and spreading capitals, like a tuft of wild roses hanging 
 from the crevice of a rock, brighten the rude strength of the 
 masses of stone with a gleam of singular loveliness. What 
 would otherwise only impress you by its size, now endears it- 
 self to you by its beauty. Is this the effect of chance, or the 
 result of a finer art than that which flourishes in our day ? I 
 will not pretend to determine, but I must confess that Egypt, 
 in whose ruins I had expected to find only a sort of barbaric 
 grandeur, has given me a new insight into that vital Beauty 
 which is the soul of true Art. 
 
 We devoted little time to the ruined court and sanctuaries 
 
J 28 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 which follow the pylon, and to the lodges of the main temple 
 standing beside them like watch-towers, three stories in height. 
 The majestic pylon of the great temple of Kemeses III. rose 
 behind them, out of heaps of pottery and unburnt bricks, and 
 the colossal figure of the monarch in his car, borne by two 
 horses into the midst of the routed enemy, attracted us from a 
 distance. We followed the exterior wall of the temple, for its 
 whole length of more than six hundred feet, reading the sculp- 
 tured history of his conquests. The entire outer wall of the 
 temple presents a series of gigantic cartoons, cut in the blocks 
 of sandstone, of which it is built. Remeses is always the cen- 
 tral figure, distinguished from subjects and foes no less by his 
 superior stature than by the royal emblems which accompany 
 him. Here we see heralds sounding the trumpet in advance of 
 his car, while his troops pass in review before him ; there, with 
 a lion walking by his side, he sets out on his work of conquest. 
 His soldiers storm a town, and we see them climbing the wall 
 with ladders, while a desperate hand-to-hand conflict is going 
 on below. In another place, he has alighted from his chariot 
 and stands with his foot on the neck of a slaughtered king. 
 Again, his vessels attack a hostile navy on the sea. One of 
 the foreign craft becomes entangled and is capsized, yet while 
 his spearmen hurl their weapons among the dismayed enemy, 
 the sailors rescue those who are struggling in the flood. After 
 we have passed through these stiange and stirring pictures, we 
 find the monarch reposing on his throne, while his soldiers de- 
 posit before him the hands of the slaughtered, and his scribes 
 present to him lists of their numbers, and his generals lead to 
 him long processions of fettered captives. Again, he is repre- 
 sented as ofiering a group of subject kings to Amun, the The* 
 
 M 
 
THE INNER COURT. 129 
 
 ban Jupiter, who says to him : " Go, my cherished and chosen, 
 make war on foreign nations, besiege their forts and carry off 
 their people to live as captives." On the front wall, he holds 
 in his grasp the hands of a dozen monarchs, while with the 
 other hand he raises his sword to destroy them. Their faces 
 express the very extreme of grief and misery, but he is cold 
 and calm as Fate itself. 
 
 We slid down the piles of sand ani entered by a side-door 
 into the grand hall of the temple. Here, as at Dendera, a sur- 
 prise awaited us. We stood on the pavement of a magnificent 
 court, about one hundred and thirty feet square, around which 
 ran a colonnade of pillars, eight feet square and forty feet high. 
 On the western side is an inner row of circular columns, twen- 
 ty-four feet in circumference, with capitals representing the 
 papyrus blossom. The entire court, with its walls, pillars and 
 doorways, is covered with splendid sculptures and traces of 
 paint, and the ceiling is blue as the noonday sky, and studded 
 with stars. Against each of the square columns facing the 
 court once stood a colossal caryatid, upholding the architrave 
 of another colonnade of granite shafts, nearly all of which have 
 been thrown from their bases and lie shivered on the pavement. 
 This court opens towards the pylon into another of similar 
 dimensions, but buried almost to the capitals of its columns in 
 heaps of rubbish. The character of the temple is totally differ- 
 ent from that of every other in Egypt. Its height is small in 
 proportion to its great extent, and it therefore loses the airy 
 lightness of the Memnonium and the impressive grandeur of 
 Dendera. Its expression is that of a massive magnificence, if 
 I may use such a doubtful compound : no single epithet sufl^ 
 ces to describe it. 
 
 6* ^ 
 
130 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 With Medeenet Abou finished our survey of the western 
 division of Thebes — two long days of such experience as the 
 contemplation of a lifetime cannot exhaust. At sunset we took 
 advantage of the wind, parted from our grooms and water- 
 carriers, who wished to accompany me to Khartoum, and -jross- 
 ed the Nile to Luxor. 
 
AN EGYPTIAN SCHOOL. 139 
 
 •—I should certainly make despotic use of it, in tearing down 
 some dozens of villages and setting some thousands of Copts 
 and Fellahs at work in exhuming what their ancestors have 
 mutilated and buried. The world- cannot spare these remains. 
 Tear down Roman ruins if you will ; level Cyclopean walls , 
 build bridges with the stones of Gothic abbeys and feudal for- 
 tresses ; but lay no hand on the glory and grandeur of Egypt. 
 
 In order to ascend the great pylon of the temple, we were 
 obliged to pass through a school, in which thirty or forty little 
 Luxorians were conning their scraps of the Koran. They im- 
 mediately surrounded us, holding up their tin slates, scribbled 
 with Arabic characters, for our inspection, and demanded back- 
 sheesh for their proficiency. The gray-bearded pedagogue tried 
 to quiet them, but could not prevent several from following 
 us. The victories of Remeses are sculptured on the face of 
 the towers of the pylon, but his colossi, solid figures of granite, 
 which sit on either side of the entrance, have been much de- 
 faced. The lonely obelisk, which stands a little in advance, 
 on the left hand, is more perfect than its Parisian mate. From 
 this stately entrance, an avenue of colossal sphinxes once ex- 
 tended to the Ptolemaic pylon of Karnak, a distance of a mile 
 and a half. The sphinxes have disappeared, but the modem 
 Arab road leads over its site, through fields of waste grass. 
 
 And now we galloped forward, through a long procession 
 of camels, donkeys, and Desert Arabs armed with spears, 
 towards Karnak, the greatest ruin in the world, the crowning 
 triumph of Egyptian power and Egyptian art. Except a 
 broken stone here and there protruding through the soil, the 
 plain is as desolate as if it had never been conscious of a 
 human dwelling, and only on reaching the vicinity of the mud 
 
140 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 hamlet of Karnak, can the traveller realize that he is in Thebea 
 Here the camel-path drops into a broad excavated avenue, 
 lined with fragments of sphinxes and shaded by starveling 
 acacias. As yon advance, the sphinxes are better preserved 
 and remain seated on their pedestals, but they have all been 
 decapitated. Though of colossal proportions, they are seated 
 so close to each other, that it must have required nearly two 
 thousand to form the double row to Luxor. The avenue final- 
 ly reaches a single pylon, of majestic proportions, built by one 
 of the Ptolemies, and covered with profuse hieroglyphics. 
 Passing through this, the sphinxes lead you to another pylon, 
 followed by a pillared court and a temple built by the later 
 Remesides. This, I thought, while my friend was measuring 
 the girth of the pillars, is a good beginning for Karnak, but it 
 is certainly much less than I expect. '• Tddl minhenneel " 
 (come this way !) called the guide, as if reading my mind, and 
 led me up the heaps of rubbish to the roof and pointed to the 
 north. 
 
 Ah, there was Karnak ! Had I been blind up to this time, 
 or had the earth suddenly heaved out of her breast the remains 
 of the glorious temple ? From all parts of the plain of Thebes 
 I had seen it in the distance — a huge propylon, a shattered 
 portico, and an obelisk, rising above the palms. Whence this 
 wilderness of ruins, spreading so far as to seem a city rather 
 than a temple — pylon after pylon, tumbling into enormous 
 cubes of stone, long colonnades, supporting fragments of Titan- 
 ic roofs, obelisks of red granite, and endless walls and avenues, 
 branching out to isolated portals ? Yet they stood as silently- 
 amid the accumulated rubbish of nearly four thousand years, 
 and the sunshine threw its yellow lustre as serenely over the 
 
KARNAK. 141 
 
 despoiled sanctuaries, as if it had never been otherwise, since 
 the world began. Figures are of no use, in describing a place 
 like this, but since I must use them, I may say that the length 
 of the ruins before us, from west to east, was twelve hundred 
 feet, and that the total circumference of Karnak, including its 
 numerous pylae, or gateways, is a mile and a half. 
 
 We mounted and rode with fast-beating hearts to the west- 
 em or main entrance, facing the Nile. The two towers of the 
 propylon — ^pyramidal masses of solid stone — are three hundred 
 and twenty -nine feet in length, and the one which is least ruined, 
 is nearly one hundred feet in height. On each side of the sculp- 
 tured portal connecting them, is a tablet left by the French 
 army, recording the geographical position of the principal 
 Egyptian temples. We passed through and entered an open 
 court, more than three hundred feet square, with a corridor of 
 immense pillars on each side, connecting it with the towers of 
 a second pylon, nearly as gigantic as the first. A colonnade 
 of lofty shafts, leading through the centre of the court, once 
 united the two entrances, but they have all been hurled down 
 and lay as they fell, in long lines of disjointed blocks, except 
 one, which holds its solitary lotus-bell against the sky. Two 
 mutilated colossi of red granite still guard the doorway, whose 
 lintel-stones are forty feet in length. Climbing over the huge 
 fragments which have fallen from above and almost blocked up 
 the passage, we looked down into the grand hall of the temple. 
 
 I knew the dimensions of this hall, beforehand ; I knew the 
 number and size of the pillars, but I was no more prepared for 
 the reality than those will be, who may read this account of it 
 and afterwards visit Karnak for them elves. It is the great 
 good-luck of travel that many things must be seen to be known 
 
142 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA 
 
 Nothing could have compensated for the loss of that oyer- 
 whelming confusion of awe, astonishment, and delight, which 
 came upon me like a flood. I looked down an avenue of twelve 
 pillars — six on each side — each of which was thirty-six feet in 
 circumference and nearly eighty feet in height. Crushing as 
 were these ponderous masses of sculptured stone, the spreading 
 bell of the lotus-blossoms which crowned them, clothed them 
 with an atmosphere of lightness and grace. In front, over the 
 top of another pile of colossal blocks, two obelisks rose sharp 
 and clear, with every emblem legible on their polished sides 
 On each side of the main aisle are seven other rows of columns 
 — one hundred and twenty-two^ in all — each of which is about 
 fifty feet high and twenty-seven in circumference. They have 
 the Osiride form, without capitals, and do not range with the 
 central shafts. In the efforts of the conquerors to overthrow 
 them, two have been hurled from their places and thrown 
 against the neighboring ones, where they still lean, as if weary 
 with holding up the roof of massive sandstone. I walked alone 
 through this hall, trying to bear the weight of its unutterable 
 majesty and beauty. That I had been so oppressed by Den- 
 dera, seemed a weakness which I was resolved to conquer, and 
 I finally succeeded in looking on Karnak with a calmness more 
 commensurate with its sublime repose — ^but not by daylight. 
 
 My ride back to Luxor, towards evening, was the next 
 best thing after Karnak. The little animal I rode had become 
 excited by jumping over stones and sliding down sand-heaps ; 
 oar guide began to show his Bedouin blood by dashing at full 
 gallop toward the pylons and reining in his horse at a bound, 
 and, to conclude, I became infected with a lawless spirit tba* 
 could not easily be laid. The guide's eyes sparkled when ] 
 
' BEDOUIN DIVERSIONS. 143 
 
 proposed a race. We left my friend and the water-carriers, 
 bounded across tlie avenue of sphinxes, and took a smooth path 
 leading toward the Desert. My mare needed but a word and 
 a jog of the iron stirrup. Away we flew, our animals stretch- 
 ing themselves for a long heat, crashing the dry dourra-stalks, 
 clearing the water-ditches, and scattering on all sides the Arab 
 laborers we met. After a glorious gallop of two or three miles 
 my antagonist was fairly distanced ; but one race would not 
 content him, so we had a second, and finally a third, on the 
 beach of Luxor. The horses belonged to him, and it was a 
 matter of indifference which was the swiftest ; he raced mere- 
 ly for the delight of it, and so did I. 
 
 The same gallant mare was ready for me at night. It was 
 precisely full moon, and I had determined on visiting Karnak 
 again before leaving. There was no one but the guide and I, 
 he armed with his long spear, and I with my pistols in my 
 belt. There was a wan haze in the air, and a pale halo around 
 the moon, on each side of which appeared two faint mock- 
 moons. It was a ghostly light, and the fresh north-wind, 
 coming up the Nile, rustled solemnly in the palm-trees. We 
 trotted silently to Karnak, and leaped our horses over the frag- 
 ments until we reached the foot of the first obelisk. Here we 
 dismounted and entered the grand hall of pillars. There was no 
 sound in all the temple, and the guide, who seemed to compre- 
 hend my wish, moved behind me as softly as a shadow, and 
 spoke not a word. It needs this illumination to comprehend 
 Karnak. The unsightly rubbish has disappeared : the rents in 
 the roof are atoned for by the moonlight they admit ; the frag- 
 ments shivered from the lips of the mighty capitals are only 
 the crumpled edges of the flower ; a maze of shadows hides the 
 
144 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 desolation of the courts, but every pillar and obelisk, pylon and 
 propylon is glorified by the moonlight. The soul of Karnak 
 is soothed and tranquillized. Its halls look upon you no longer 
 with an aspect of pain and humiliation. Every stone seems to 
 say : " I am not fallen, for I have defied the ages. I am a 
 part of that grandeur which has never seen its peer, and I shall 
 endure for ever, for the world has need of me." 
 
 I climbed to the roof, and sat looking down into the 
 hushed and awfiil colonnades, till I was thoroughly penetrated 
 with their august and sublime expression. I should probably 
 have remained all night, an amateur colossus, with my hands 
 on my knees, had not the silence been disturbed by two arri- 
 vals of romantic tourists — an Englishman and two Frenchmen. 
 We exchanged salutations, and I mounted the restless mare 
 again, touched her side with the stirrup, and sped back to 
 Luxor. The guide galloped beside me, occasionally hurling 
 his spear into the air and catching it as it fell, delighted with 
 my readiness to indulge his desert whims. I found the cap- 
 tain and sailors all ready and my friend smoking his pipe on 
 deck. In half an hour we had left Thebes. 
 
THB TEMPLE OF HERM0NTI8. }45 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FROM THEBES TO THE NUBIAN FRONTIER. 
 
 The Temple of Hermontts— Esneh and its Temple — The Governor— El Kab by Torch* 
 light— The Temple of Edfoa— The Quarries of Djebel Silsileh— Ombos- Approach 
 to Nabia — Change in the Scenery and Inhabitants — ^A Mirage— Arrival at Assouan. 
 
 Our journey from Thebes to Assouan occupied six days, in- 
 cluding a halt of twenty-four hours at Esneh. We left Luxor 
 on the night of December 8 th, but the westward curve of the 
 Nile brought us in opposition with the wind, and the next day 
 at noon we had only reached Erment, the ancient Hermontis, 
 in sight of the three peaks of the Theban hills. We left our 
 men to tug the boat along shore, and wandered oflF to the 
 mounds of the old city, still graced with a small temple, or 
 lying-in house of the goddess Reto, who is here represented as 
 giving birth to the god Hor-pire. The sculptures in the dark 
 chambers, now used as stalls for asses, were evidently intend- 
 ed only for the priesthood of the temple, and are not repeated, 
 as are those of other temples, in the halls open to the public. 
 Notwithstanding the great license which the Egyptian faith 
 assumed, its symbols are, in general, scrupulously guarded 
 from all low and unworthy forms of representation. 
 
 The group of pillars in the outer court charmed us by the 
 7 
 
146 JOURNEY TO OENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 ricliness and variety of their designs. No two capitals are of 
 similar pattern, while in their combinations of the papyrus, the 
 lotus and the palm-leaf, they harmonize one with another and 
 as a whole. The abacus, between the capital and the archi- 
 trave, is so high as almost to resemble a second shaft. In 
 Karnak and the Memnonium it is narrow, and lifts the pon- 
 derous beam just enough to prevent its oppressing the lightness 
 of the capital. I was so delighted with the pillars of Hermon- 
 tis that I scarcely knew whether to call this peculiarity a grace 
 or a defect. I have never seen it employed in modern archi- 
 tecture, and judge therefore that it has either been condemned 
 by our rules or that our architects have not the skill and dar- 
 ing of the Egyptians. 
 
 We reached Esneh the same night, but were obliged to re- 
 main all the next day in order to allow our sailors to bake 
 their bread. We employed the time in visiting the temple, 
 the only remnant of the ancient Latopolis, and the palace of 
 Abbas Pasha, on the bank of the Nile. The portico of the 
 temple, half buried in rubbish, like that of Dendera, which it 
 resembles in design, is exceedingly beautiful. Each of its 
 twenty-four columns is crowned with a different capital, so 
 chaste and elegant in their execution that it is impossible to 
 give any one the preference. The designs are mostly copied 
 from the doum-palm, the date-palm, and the lotus, but the 
 cane, the vine, and various water-plants are also introduced. 
 The building dates from the time of the Ptolemies, and its 
 sculptures are uninteresting. We devoted all our time to the 
 study of the capitals, a labyrinth of beauty, in which we were 
 soon entangled. The Governor of Esneh, Ali Effendi, a most 
 friendly and agreeable Arab, accompanied us through the tem- 
 
EL KAB BY TORCHLIGHT. 147 
 
 pie, and pointed out all the fishes, birds and crocodiles he 
 could find. To him they were evidently the most interesting 
 things in it. He asked me how old the building was, and by 
 whom it had been erected. On leaving, we accepted his invi- 
 tation to partake of coffee and pipes. The visit took place in 
 due form, with many grave salutations, which we conscien- 
 tiously imitated. Achmet had returned to our boat, and my 
 small stock of Arabic was soon exhausted, but we managed to 
 exchange all the necessary commonplaces. 
 
 The day of leaving Esneh, we reached El Kab, the ancient 
 Eleuthyas, whose rock-tombs are among the most curious in 
 Egypt. We landed at twilight, provided with candles, and 
 made our way through fields of wiry half eh grass, and through 
 a breach in the brick wall of the ancient town, to the Arabian 
 Desert. It was already dark, but our guide, armed with his 
 long spear, stalked vigorously forward, and brought us safely 
 up the mountain path to the entrances of the sepulchres. 
 There are a large number of these, but only two are worth 
 visiting, on account of the light which they throw on the social 
 life of the Egyptians. The owner of the tomb and his wife — 
 a red man and a yellow woman — are here seen, receiving the 
 delighted guests. Seats are given them, and each is presented 
 with an aromatic flower, while the servants in the kitchen 
 hasten to prepare savory dishes. In other compartments, all 
 the most minute processes of agriculture are represente i with 
 wonderful fidelity. So little change has taken place in three 
 thousand years, that they would answer, with scarcely a cor- 
 rection, as illustrations of the Fellah agriculture of Modern 
 Egypt. 
 
 The next morning we walked ahead to the temple of Edfou, 
 
148 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 Bhooting a few brace of fat partridges by the way, and scaring 
 two large jackals from their lairs in the thick grass. The 
 superb pylon of the temple rose above the earthy mounds of 
 ApoUinopolis like a double-truncated pyramid. It is in an 
 entire state of preservation, with all its internal chambers, pas- 
 sages and stairways. The exterior is sculptured with colossal 
 figures of the gods, thirty feet in height, and from the base 
 of the portal to the scroll-like cornice of the pylon, is more 
 than a hundred feet. Through the door we entered a large open 
 court, surrounded by a colonnade. The grand portico of the 
 temple, buried nearly to the tops of its pillars, faced us, and 
 we could only judge, from the designs of the capitals and the 
 girth of the shaft, the imposing effect which it must have pro- 
 duced on those who entered the court. The interior is totally 
 filled with rubbish, and a whole village of Arab huts stands on 
 the roof. 
 
 A strong wind carried us, before sunset, to the quarries of 
 Djebel Silsileh, the " Mountain of the Chain," where the Nile 
 is compressed between two rugged sandstone hills. The river 
 is not more than three hundred yards broad, and the approach 
 to this rocky gateway, after so many weeks of level alluvial 
 plain, is very striking. Here are the sandstone quarries whence 
 the huge blocks were cut, to build the temples and shape the 
 colossi of Thebes. They lie on the eastern bank, close to the 
 river, and the ways down which the stones were slid to the 
 vessels that received them, are still to be seen. The stone is 
 of a pale reddish-brown color, and a very fine and clear grain. 
 It appears to have been divided into squares of the proper size, 
 and cut from above downward. The shape of many of the 
 enormous blocks may be easily traced. In one place the rock 
 
THE RUINS OF OMBOS 149 
 
 has been rouglily hewn into a sort of temple, supported by pil 
 lars thirty feet square, and with an entrance as grand and rude 
 as a work of the Titans. 
 
 In the morning we awoke in the shadow of Ombos, which 
 stands on a hill overlooking the Nile, into which its temple to 
 Isis has fallen. Little now remains of the great temple to 
 Savak, the crocodile-headed god, the deity of Ombos, but it« 
 double portico, supported by thirteen pillars, buried nearl} 
 waist-deep in the sands. The aspect of these remains, seated 
 on the lonely promontory commanding the course of the river 
 and the harvest-land of the opposite shore, while the stealthy 
 Desert approaches it from behind, and year by year heaps the 
 sand higher against the shattered sanctuary, is sadly touching. 
 We lingered and lingered around its columns, loth to leave the 
 ruined grace which a very few years will obliterate. Two such 
 foes as the Nile and the Desert make rapid progress, where no 
 human hand is interposed to stay them. As we sailed away, a 
 large crocodile, perhaps Savak himself, lay motionless on a 
 sand-bank with his long snout raised in the air. 
 
 We were two days in sailing from Ombos to Assouan 
 owing to a dead calm, the first in two weeks. The nights were 
 very cool, and the mid-day temperature not too warm for com- 
 fort. One morning my thermometer stood at 40° ; the Arabs 
 complained bitterly of the cold, and, wrapped in their woolen 
 mantles, crawled about the deck as languidly as benumbed flies. 
 At noon the mercury did not often rise above 75° in the 
 shade. As we approach Nubia, the scenery of the river 
 undergoes a complete change. The rugged hills of black sand- 
 stone and granite usurp the place of the fields, and leave but a 
 narrow strip of cultivable land on either side. The Arabs are