A Thousand Miles up the Nile ... With ... illustrations, etc

Front matter

A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE GREAT ROCK-CUT TEMPLE, ABOO SIMBEL, NUBIA A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS THOR OF ' UNTRODDEN PEAKS AND UNFREQUENTED VALLEYS,' ' BARBARA'S HISTORY,' ET WITH UPWARDS OF SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY G. PEARSON AFTER FINISHED DRAWINGS EXECUTED ON THE SPOT BY THE AUTHOR GERTASSEE. It slows through old hush'd Egypt and its sands, Like some grave, mighty thought, threading a dream.'— ____h httn. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO

Preface

. " Un voyage en Egypte, c'est une partie d'anes et une promenade en bateau entremel_es de ruines." — Ampere. r\MPERE has put Egypt in an epigram. " A donkey ride and a boating-trip interspersed with ruins " does, in fact, sum up in a single line the whole experience of the Nile traveller. Apropos of these three things — the donkeys, the boat, and the ruins — it may be said that a good English saddle and a comfortable Dahabeeyah add very considerably to the pleasure of the journey ; and that the more one knows about the past history of the country, the more one enjoys the ruins. Of the comparative merits of wooden boats, iron boats, and steamers, I am not qualified to speak. We, however, saw one iron Dahabeeyah aground upon a sandbank, where, as we afterwards learned, it remained for three weeks.

We also saw the wrecks of three steamers between Cairo and the First Cataract. It certainly seemed to us that the old-fashioned wooden Dahabeeyah — flat-bottomed, drawing little water, light in hand, and easily poled off when stuck — was the one vessel best constructed for the navigation of the

PREFACE.

. VI Nile. Other considerations, as time and cost, are, of course, involved in this question. The choice between Dahabeeyah and steamer is like the choice between travelling with post-horses and travelling by rail. The one is expensive, leisurely, and delightful ; the other is cheap, swift, and comfortless. Those who are content to snatch but a glimpse of the Nile will doubtless prefer the steamer. I may add that the whole cost of the Philæ — food, dragoman's wages, boat-hire, cataract, everything included except wine — was about £\o per day. With regard to temperature, we found it cool — even cold, sometimes — in December and January ; mild in February ; very warm in March and April. The climate of Nubia is simply perfect. It never rains ; and once past the limit of the tropic, there is no morning or even ing chill upon the air.

Yet even in Nubia, and especi ally along the forty miles that divide Aboo-Simbel from Wady Halfeh, it is cold when the wind blows strongly from the north. I had hoped to add here a little table of average temperatures, compiled from notes taken by a fellow-traveller who carefully registered the varia tions of the thermometer from day to day. But the Idle Man has only too well carried out the promise of his sobriquet ; and I am still without the necessary data. In giving the names of places, I have adhered to the spelling adopted in Murray's Handbook for Egypt. There

PREFACE.

. VII are perhaps instances in which I should have preferred a different rendering ; but it seemed to me that in follow ing Murray, I best consulted the convenience of the general reader. Touching the title of this book, it may be objected that the distance from the port of Alexandria to the Second Cataract falls short of a thousand miles. It is, in fact, calculated at 964^ miles. But from the Rock of Abooseer, five miles above Wady Halfeh, the traveller looks over an extent of country far exceeding the thirty or thirty-five miles necessary to make up the full tale of a thousand. We distinctly saw from this point the summits of mountains which lie about 145 miles to the southward of Wady Halfeh, and which look down upon the Third Cataract. Perhaps I ought to say something in answer to the repeated inquiries of those who looked for the publica tion of this volume a year ago.

I can, however, only reply that the Writer, instead of giving one year, has given two years to the work. To write rapidly about Egypt is impossible. The subject grows with the book, and with the knowledge one acquires by the way. It is, moreover, a subject beset with such obstacles as must impede even the swiftest pen ; and to that swiftest pen I lay no claim. Those who may by and by approach the Nile and its monuments when Brugsch-Bey shall have completed his new History of Egypt, will find their path

PREFACE.

. VIII smooth and open ; but the writer who now seeks to be accurate, has to go for each fact, if not actually to original sources (which would be the texts themselves), at all events to translations and commentaries locked up in costly folios, or dispersed far and wide among the pages of scientific journals and the transactions of learned societies. A date, a name, a passing reference, may cost hours of seeking. To revise so large a number of illustrations, and to design tailpieces from jottings taken here and there in that pocket sketch-book which is the sketcher's constant companion, has also consumed no small amount of time. The cover, likewise, had to be designed ; and almost every name in the maps has been two or three times verified. This by way of apology. More pleasant is it to remember labour lightened than to consider time spent ; and I have yet to thank the friends who have spared no pains to help this book on its way.

To S. Birch, Esq., LL.D., etc. etc., so justly styled " the Parent in this country of a sound school of Egyptian philology," who, besides translating the hieratic and hieroglyphic inscriptions contained in Chapter XVIII., has also, with infinite kindness, seen the whole of that chapter through the press ; to Regi nald Stuart Poole, Esq. ; to Professor R. Owen, C.B., etc. etc. ; to the Rev. G. W. Cox, M.A., I desire to offer my hearty and grateful acknowledgments. It is

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. IX surely not least among the glories of learning, that those who adorn it most and work hardest should ever be readiest to share the stores of their knowledge. I am anxious also to express my cordial thanks to Mr. G. Pearson, under whose superintendence the whole of the illustrations have been engraved. To say that his patience and courtesy have been inexhaustible, and that he has spared neither time nor cost in the preparation of the blocks, is but a dry statement of facts, and conveys no idea of the kind of labour involved. Where engravings of this kind are executed, not from drawings made at first hand upon the wood, but from water-colour drawings which have not only to be reduced in size, but to be, as it were, translated into black and white, the difficulty of the work is largely increased.

In order to meet this difficulty and to ensure accuracy, Mr. Pearson has not only called in the services of accom plished draughtsmen, but in many instances has even photographed the subjects direct upon the wood. Of the engraver's work — which speaks for itself — I will only say that I do not know in what way it could be bettered. It seems to me that some of these blocks may stand for examples of the farthest point to which the art of engraving upon wood has yet been carried. The principal illustrations have all been drawn upon

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. X the wood by Mr. Percival Skelton ; and no one so fully as myself can appreciate how much the subjects owe to the delicacy of his pencil, and to the artistic feeling with which he has interpreted the original drawings. With regard to the maps drawn and lithographed by Mr. E. Weller, they combine, to my thinking, every excellence to which maps can lay claim. They are small, comprehensive, easy to read, and entirely trust worthy. The position of every important ruin is shown in them, and all latest additions to the railway system of Egypt are carefully indicated. Of the fascination of Egyptian travel, of the charm of the Nile, of the unexpected and surpassing beauty of the desert, of the ruins which are the wonder of the world, I have said enough elsewhere. I must, however, add that I brought home with me an impression that things and people are much less changed in Egypt than we of the present day are wont to suppose.

I believe that the physique and life of the modern Fellah is almost identical with the physique and life of that ancient Egyptian labourer whom we know so well in the wall-paintings of the tombs. Square in the shoulders, slight but strong in the limbs, full-lipped, brown-skinned, we see him wearing the same loin cloth, plying the same shadoof, ploughing with the same plough, preparing the same food in the same way, and eating it with his fingers from the same bowl, as

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. XI did his forefathers of six thousand years ago. The household life and social ways of even the provincial gentry are little changed. Water is poured on one's hands before going to dinner from just such a ewer and into just such a basin as we see pictured in the festival scenes at Thebes. Though the lotus-blossom is missing, a bouquet is still given to each guest when he takes his place at table. The head of the sheep killed for the banquet is still given to the poor. Those who are helped to meat or drink touch the head and breast in acknowledgment, as of old. The musicians still sit at the lower end of the hall ; the singers yet clap their hands in time to their own voices ; the dancing-girls still dance, and the buffoon in his high cap still performs his uncouth antics, for the entertainment of the guests.

Water is brought to table in the same jars manufactured at the same town as in the days of Cheops and Chephren ; and the mouths of the bottles are filled in precisely the same way with fresh leaves and flowers. The cucumber stuffed with minced-meat was a favourite dish in those times of old ; and I can testify to its excellence in 1874. Little boys in Nubia yet wear the side-lock that graced the head of Rameses in his youth ; and little girls may be seen in a garment closely re sembling the girdle worn by young princesses of the time of Thothmes the First. A Sheykh still walks with a long staff; a Nubian belle still plaits her tresses in b

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. XII scores of little tails ; and the pleasure-boat of the modern Governor or Moodeer, as well as the Dahabeeyah hired by the European traveller, reproduces in all essential features the painted galleys represented in the tombs of the kings. In these, and in a hundred other instances, all of which came under my personal observation and have their place in the following pages, it seemed to me that any obscurity which yet hangs over the problem of life and thought in ancient Egypt originates most probably with ourselves. Our own habits of life and thought are so complex that they shut us off from the simplicity of that early world. So it was with the problem of hieroglyphic writing. The thing was so obvious that no one could find it out. As long as the world persisted in believing that every hieroglyph was an abstruse symbol, and every hieroglyphic inscription a profound philoso phical rebus, the mystery of Egyptian literature remained insoluble.

Then at last came Champollion's famous letter to Dacier, showing that the hieroglyphic signs were mainly alphabetic and syllabic, and that the lan guage they spelt was only Coptic after all. If there were not thousands who still conceive that the sun and moon were created, and are kept going, for no other purpose than to lighten the darkness of our little planet ; if only the other day a grave gentleman had not written a perfectly serious essay to show that the

PREFACE.

. XIII world is a flat plain, one would scarcely believe that there could still be people who doubt that ancient Egyptian is now read and translated as fluently as ancient Greek. Yet an Englishman whom I met in Egypt — an Engdishman who had lonobeen resident in Cairo, and who was well acquainted with the great Egyptologists who are attached to the service of the Khedive — assured me of his profound disbelief in the discovery of Champollion. " In my opinion," said he, " not one of these gentlemen can read a line of hieroglyphics." As I then knew nothing of Egyptian, I could say nothing to controvert this speech. Since that time, however, and while writing this book, I have been led on step by step to the study of hieroglyphic writing ; and though still but the veriest beginner, I now know that Egyptian can be read, for the simple reason that I find myself able to read an Egyptian sentence.

The testimony of a tyro may not be of much value ; but I give it for the little that it is worth. The study of Egyptian literature has advanced of late years with rapid strides. Papyri are found less frequently than they were some thirty or forty years ago ; but the translation of those contained in the museums of Europe goes on now more diligently than at any former time. Religious books, variants of the Ritual, moral essays, maxims, private letters, hymns,

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. XIV epic poems, historical chronicles, accounts, deeds of sale, medical, magical, and astronomical treatises, geographical records, travels, and even romances and tales, are brought to light, photographed, facsimiled in chromo lithography, printed in hieroglyphic type, and translated in forms suited both to the learned and to the general reader. Not all this literature is written, however, on papyrus. The greater proportion of it is carved in stone. Some is painted on' wood, written on linen, leather, potsherds, and other substances. So the old mystery of Egypt, which was her literature, has van ished. The key to the hieroglyphs is the master-key that opens every door. Each year that now passes over our heads sees some old problem solved. Each day brings some long-buried truth to light. Thirteen years ago, a distinguished American artist painted a very beautiful picture called The Secret of the Sphinx.

In its widest sense, the Secret of the Sphinx would mean, I suppose, the whole uninterpreted and undiscovered past of Egypt. In its narrower sense, the Secret of the Sphinx was, till quite lately, the hidden significance of the human-headed lion which is one of the typical subjects of Egyptian art. Thirteen years is a short time to look back upon ; yet great things have been done in Egypt, and in Egyptology, since then. Edfoo, with its extraordinary wealth of inscriptions, has been laid bare. The whole contents of the Boulak

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. XV Museum have been recovered from the darkness of the tombs. The very mystery of the Sphinx has been disclosed ; and even within the last eighteen months, M. Chabas announces that he has discovered the date of the pyramid of Mycerinus ; so for the first time establishing the chronology of ancient Egypt upon an ascertained foundation. So the work goes on ; students in their libraries, excavators under Egyptian skies, toiling along different paths towards a common goal. The picture means more to-day than it meant thirteen years ago — means more, even, than the artist intended. The Sphinx has no secret now, save for the ignorant. In the picture, we see a brown, half-naked, toil-worn Fellah laying his ear to the stone lips of a colossal Sphinx, buried to the neck in sand. Some instinct of the old Egyptian blood tells him that the creature is God like.

He is conscious of a great mystery lying far back in the past. He has, perhaps, a dim, confused notion that the Big Head knows it all, whatever it may be. He has never heard of the morning-song of Memnon ; but he fancies, somehow, that those closed lips might speak if questioned. Fellah and Sphinx are alone together in the desert. It is night, and the stars are shining. Has he chosen the right hour? What does he seek to know ? What does he hope to hear ?

PREFACE.

. XVI Mr. Vedder has permitted me to enrich this book with an engraving from his picture. It tells its own tale ; or rather it tells as much of its own tale as the artist chooses. Each must interpret for himself The Secret of The Sphinx. AMELIA B. EDWARDS Westbury-on-Trym, Gloucestershire, Dec. 1876. ;e i 24 Si 69 CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Cairo And The Great Pyramid

Arrival at Cairo — Shepherd's Hotel — The Moskee — The Khan Khaleel — The Bazaars — Dahabeeyahs — Gheezeh — The Pyramids ......

Chapter II. Cairo And The Mecca Pilgrimage

The Mosque of Sultan Hassan — Muslims at prayer — Mosque of Mehemet Ali — View from the Platform — Departure of the Caravan for Mecca — The Bib en-Nasr — The Procession — The Mahmal — Howling Dervishes — The Mosque of Amr — The Shoobra road .....

Chapter III. Cairo To Bedreshayn

Departure for the Nile Voyage — Farewell to Cairo — Toora — The Philæ and crew — The Dahabeeyah and the Nile sailor — Native music — Bedreshayn

Chapter IV. Sakkarah And Memphis

The Palms of Memphis — Three groups of Pyramids — The M.B.s and their groom — Relic-hunting — The Pyramid of Ouenephes — The Serapeum — A Royal raid — The Tomb of Ti — The Fallen Colossus — Memphis CONTENTS. XVIII PAGE 104 r34 162 198

Chapter V. Bedreshayn To Minieh

The rule of the Nile — The Shadoof — Benisooef — Thieves by Night — The Chief of the Guards — A sand-storm — ' Holy Sheykh Cotton ' — The Convent of the Pulley — A Copt — The shadow of the world — Minieh — A native market — Prices of provisions — The Dom palm — Fortune-telling- — Ophthalmia . ...

Chapter VI. Minieh To Siout

Christmas Day — The Party completed — Christmas Dinner on the Nile — A Fantasia — Noah's Ark — Birds of Egypt — Gebel Aboofayda — Unknown Stelæ — Imprisoned — The Scarab-beetle — Manfaloot — Siout — Red and black pottery — Ancient Tombs — View over the plain — Biblical legend .

Chapter VII. Siout To Denderah

An ' Experienced Surgeon' — Passing scenery — Girgeh — Sheykh Seleem — Kasr es Syad — Forced labour — Temple of Denderah — Cleopatra — Benighted .

Chapter VIII. Thebes And Karnak

Luxor — Donkey-Boys — Topography of Ancient Thebes — Pylons of Luxor — Poem of Pentaour — The solitary Obelisk — Interior of the Temple of Luxor — Polite postmaster — Ride to Karnak — Great Temple of Karnak — The Hypostyle Hall — A world of ruins CONTENTS. XIX PAGE 229 257 288 3°7

Chapter IX. Thebes To Assouan

A storm on tlie Nile — Erment — A gentlemanly Bey — Esneh — A buried Temple — A long day's sketching — Salame the chivalrous — Remarkable Coin — Antichi — The Fellah — The pylons of Edfoo — An exciting Race— The Philæ wins by a length .......

Chapter X. Assouan And Elephantine

Assouan — Strange wares for sale — Madame Nubia — Castor oil — The black Governor — -An enormous blunder — Tannhauser in Egypt — Elephantine — Inscribed potsherds — Bazaar of Assouan — The Camel — A ride in the Desert — The Obelisk of the Quarry — A death in the town

Chapter XI. The Cataract And The Desert

Scenery of the Cataract — The Sheykh of the Cataract — Vexatious delays — The Painter's vocabulary — Mahatta — Ancient bed of the Nile — Abyssinian Caravan . . . .

Chapter XII

PHILÆ. Pharaoh's Bed — The Temples — Champollion's discovery — The Painted Columns — Coptic Philæ — Philæ and Desaix — Chamber of Osiris — Inscribed Rock — View from the roof of the Temple ...... CONTENTS. XX PAGE 342 357 384 414

Chapter XIII

PHILÆ TO KOROSKO. Nubian scenery — A sand-slope — Missing Yoosef — Trading by the way — Panoramic views — Volcanic cones — Dakkeh — Korosko — Letters from home ....

Chapter XIV. Korosko To Aboo Simbel

The Eed el Kebeer — Stalking wild ducks — Temple of Amada — Fine art of the Thothmes — Derr — A native funeral — Temple of Derr — The 'fair' families — The Sakkieh — Arrival at Aboo Simbel by moonlight .

Chapter XV. Rameses The Great

Youth of Rameses the Great — Treaty with the Kheta — His wives — His great works — The Captivity — Pithom and Rameses — Kauiser and Keniamon — The Birth of Moses — Tomb of Osymandias — Character of Rameses the Great

Chapter XVI. Aboo Simbel

The Colossi — Portraits of Rameses the Great — The Great Sand-drift — The smaller Temples — ' Rameses and Nofreari' — The Great Temple — A monster tableau — Alone in the Great Temple — Trail of a crocodile — Cleaning the Colossus — The sufferings of the sketcher . . . - . CONTENTS. XXI PAGE 455 476 521 572

Chapter XVII. The Second Cataract

Volcanic mountains — Kalat Adda — Gebel esh-Shems — The first crocodile — Dull scenery — Wady Halfeh — The Rock of Abooseer — The Second Cataract — The great view — Crocodile-slaying — Excavating a tumulus — Comforts of home on the Nile .*.....

Chapter XVIII. Discoveries At Aboo Simbel

Society at Aboo Simbel — The Painter discovers a rock-cut chamber — Sunday employment — Reinforcement of natives — Excavation — The Sheykh — Discovery of human remains — Discovery of pylon and staircase — Decorations of Painted Chamber — Inscriptions ....

Chapter XIX. Back Through Nubia

Temples ad infinitum — Tosko — Crocodiles — Derr and Amada again — Wady Sabooah — Haughty beauty — A nameless city — A river of sand — Undiscovered Temple — Maharrakeh — ■ Dakkeh — Fortress of Kobban — Gerf Hossayn — Dendoor — Bayt-el-Welly— The Karnak of Nubia— Silco of the Ethiopians — Tafah — Dabod — Baby-shooting — A Dilemma — Justice in Egypt — The last of Philæ

Chapter XX. Silsilis And Edfoo

Shooting the Cataract — Kom Ombo — Quarries of Silsilis — Edfoo the most perfect of Egyptian Temples — View from the pylons — Sand columns .... CONTENTS. XXII PAGE 600 680 723 7 23 726 729

Chapter XXI. Thebes

Luxor again — Imitation Antichi — Digging for Mummies — Tombs of Thebes — The Ramesseum — The granite Colossus — Medinet Haboo — The Pavilion of Rameses III. — The Great Chronicle — An Arab story-teller — Goornah — Bab el Molook — The shadowless Valley of Death — The Tombs of the Kings — Stolen goods — The French House — An Arab dinner and fantasia — The Coptic Church at Luxor — A Coptic service — A Coptic Bishop ....

Chapter XXII. Abydus And Cairo

Last weeks on the Nile — Spring in Egypt — Ninety-nine in the shade — Samata — Unbroken donkeys — The Plain of Abydus — Harvest-time — A Biblical idyll — Arabat the Buried — Mena — Origin of the Egyptian People — Temple of Seti — New Tablet of Abydus — Abydus and Teni — Kom-es-Sultan — Visit to a native Aga — The Hareem — Condition of women in Egypt — Back at Cairo — ' In the name of the Prophet, Cakes !' — The Moolid-en-Nebee — A human causeway — The Boulak Museum— Prince Ra-hotep and Princess Nefer-t — Early drive to Gheezeh — Ascent of the Great Pyramid — The Sphinx — The view from the Top — The end .

Appendix

. I. A. M'Callum, Esq., to the Editor of the 'Times' II. The Egyptian Pantheon . III. The Religious Belief of the Egyptians IV. Egyptian Chronology LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Great Rock-cut Temple, Aboo Simbel, Nubia Frontispiece. Gertassee ...... Title-page. The Secret of the Sphinx. After a Painting by Elihu Vedder, Esq. ....... xvi Cairo Donkey ....... 5 Tunis Market, Cairo ..... To face 10 Carpet Bazaar, Cairo . . . . . .12 Native Cangias ....... 68 Head of Ti . . . ... . . .92 Mitrahenny . . . . ... . .103 The Shadoof. . . . . .110 'Holy Sheykh Cotton' . . . . . .118 Market-Boat, Minieh . . ■ ■ 133 Gebel Aboofayda . . - • ■ • .141 River-side Tombs near Siout . . . . .150 SlOUT ........ Toface 151 GlRGEH ..... . Toface 166 Kasr es Syad . . . • ■ .170 Denderah ....... Toface 176 Cleopatra ..... . . 182 Sheykh Seleem ....... 197 Temple of Luxor ......

Toface 204 Hypostyle Hall, Karnak ...... 220 Temple of Esneh . . ■ ■ • • Toface 236 Native Boat, Assouan . ... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXIV PAGE Camel at Assouan ....■■■ 287 Soudan Traders at Mahatta . . • - * ■ 299 Pharaoh's Bed, Philæ ....-• 3°6 Grand Colonnade, Philæ . . . ■ Toface 309 Painted Columns, Philæ . Toface 319 Early Christian Shrine, Philæ . . • • • 321 Shrines of Osiris i, 2, and 3 • • • 334, 335 Resurrection of Osiris ...... 336 Inscribed Monolithic Rock, Philæ . . • 340 Temple of Dakkeh, Nubia ..... 354 Nubian Jewellery ..... - 35*5 Temple of Derr, Nubia ...... 370 Sakkieh, or Water-wheel 377 Cartouches of Rameses the Great . . ... 385 Rameses the Great (Bayt-el- Welly) .... 416 Rameses the Great (Abydus) ..... 416 Rameses the Great (Aboo Simbel) .... 416 Rameses the Great (Profile of Southernmost Colossus) . . 418 Smaller Temple, Aboo Simbel . . . .

Toface 429 Cleaning the Colossus . . . . . .451 Wady Halfeh ....... 463 The Rock of Abooseer ...... 475 Entrance of Speos ....... 485 Ground-plan ....... 496 Pattern of Cornice . -. . . . . 498 Horus Ensign ....... 499 Rameses II. of Speos . . . . . .502 Temple of Amada ....... 526 Temple of Wady Sabooah ..... 52S Head-dress of a King ...... LLST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXV PAGE Temple of Gerf Hossayn, Nubia . . . To face 546 Temple of Dendoor ...... 548 Head-dresses of Kings . . . . . -55' Temple of Kalabsheh, Nubia .... Toface 551 Ruined Temple at Tafah, Nubia . . . -555 Temple of Dabod ....... 560 Ruined Convent (Coptic) near Philæ . . .562 Philæ from the South ...... 570 Nubian Woman and Child . . .571 Temple of Kom Ombo, Upper Egypt . . . To face 577 Goddess Ta-urt (Silsilis) ...... 5S1 Goddess Ta-urt (Philæ) ...... 582 The lovely Arab Maiden ...... 599 Digging for Mummies .....

Toface 605 Osiride Court and Fallen Colossus, Ramesseum, Thebes . ..... Toface 613 Palace Entrance, Medinet Haboo .... 623 Vases and Goblets (Medinet Haboo) . . . .625 Osiride Court, Medinet Haboo . . . Toface 634 The 'French House,' Luxor .... Toface 659 Sakkieh at Siout ....... 704 'In the name of the Prophet— cakes !' . . . 705 Prince Ra-Hotep and Princess Nefer-t . . . 711 Sphinx and Pyramids . . . . ■ .717 Broken Sistrum . . . . . . .721 MAPS. Egypt . . . . . . .At beginning of Vol. Lower Nubia ...... At end of Vol.

Chapter I. Cairo And The Great Pyramid

IT is the traveller's lot to dine at many table-d'hotes in the course of many wanderings ; but it seldom befalls him to make one of a more miscellaneous gathering than that which overfills the great dining-room at Shepherd's Hotel in Cairo during the beginning and height of the regular Egyptian season. Here assemble daily some two to three hundred persons of all ranks, nationalities, and pursuits ; half of whom are Anglo-Indians homeward or outward bound, European residents, or visitors established in Cairo for the winter. The other half, it may be taken for granted, are going up the Nile. So composite and incongruous is this body of Nile-goers, young and old, well-dressed and ill-dressed, learned and unlearned, that the new-comer's first impulse is to inquire from what motives so many persons of dissimilar tastes and training can be led to embark upon an expedition which is, to say the least of it, very tedious, very costly, and of an alto gether exceptional interest.

His curiosity, however, is soon gratified. Before two days are over, he knows everybody's name and everybody's business ; distinguishes at first sight between a Cook's B CAIRO AND THE GREAT PYRAAIID. 2 tourist and an independent traveller ; and has discovered that nine-tenths of those whom he is likely to meet up the river are English or American. The rest will be mostly German, with a sprinkling of Belgian and French. So far en bloc ; but the details are more heterogeneous still. Here are invalids in search of health ; artists in search of subjects ; sportsmen keen upon crocodiles ; states men out for a holiday ; special correspondents alert for gossip ; collectors on the scent of papyri and mummies ; men of science with only scientific ends in view ; and the usual surplus of idlers who travel for the mere love of travel, or the satisfaction of a purposeless curiosity.

Now in a place like Shepherd's, where every fresh arrival has the honour of contributing, for at least a few minutes, to the general entertainment, the first appearance of L. and the Writer, tired, dusty, and considerably sun -burnt, may well have given rise to some of the comments in usual circulation at those crowded tables. People asked each other, most likely, where these two wandering Englishwomen had come from ; why they had not dressed for dinner ; what brought them to Egypt ; and if they also were going up the Nile — to all which questions it would have been easy to give satisfactory answers. We came from Alexandria, having had a rough passage from Brindisi, followed by forty-eight hours of quarantine. We had not dressed for dinner because having driven on from the station in advance of drago man and luggage, we were but just in time to take seats with the rest.