My winter on the Nile

Front matter

Class DT5't

Book W u ^

Copyright ]^^^

Prefatory Note

" My Winter on the Nile," and its sequel, '* In the Levant," which record the experiences and observations of an Oriental journey, were both published in 1876 ; but as this volume was issued only by subscription, it has never reached the large public which is served by the general book trade.

It is now republished and placed within the reach of those who have read " In the Levant." Advantage has been taken of its reissue to give it a careful revision, which, however, has not essentially changed it. Since it was written the Khedive of so many ambitious projects has given way to his son, Tufik Pasha ; but I have let stand what was written of Ismail Pasha for whatever historical value it may possess. In other respects, what was written of the country and the mass of the people in 1876 is true now. The interest of Americans in the land of the oldest civilization has greatly increased within the past few years, and literature relating to the Orient is in more demand than at any previous time.

The brief and incidental allusion in the first chapter to the peculiarity

in the construction of the oldest temple at Paestum — a peculiarity

here for the first time, so far as I can find, described in print — is

worthy the attention of archaeologists. The use of curved lines in this

so-called Temple of Neptune is more marked than in the Parthenon,

and is the secret of its fascination. The relation of this secret to the

irregularities of such mediceval buildings as the Duomo at Pisa is

obvious.

C. D. W.

Hartford, October, 1880.

Chapter I. At The Gates Op The East

PAGE,

The Mediterranean — The East unlike the West — A "World risked for a Woman — An Unchanging World and a Fickle Sea — Still an Orient — Old Fashions — A Journey without Reasons — Off for the Orient — Leaving Naples — A Shaky Court — A Deserted District — Ruins of Paestum — Temple of Neptune — Entrance to Purgatory — Safety Valves of the World — Enterprising Natives — Sunset on the Sea — Sicily — Crete — Our Passengers — The Hottest place on Record — An American Tourist — An Evangelical Dentist — On a Secret Mission — The Vanquished Dignitary 17

Chapter II. Within The Poktals

Africa — Alexandria — Strange Contrasts— A New World— Nature — First View of the Orient — Hotel Europe — Mixed Nationalities — The First Backsheesh — Street Scenes in Alexandria — Familiar Pictures Idealized — Cemetery Day — A Novel Turn Out — A Moslem Cemetery — New Terrors for Death — Pompey's Pillar — Our First Camel — Along the Canal — Departed Glory — A set of Fine Fellows — Our Handsome Dragomen — Bazaars — Universal Good Humor — A Continuous Holiday — Private life in Egypt — Invisible Blackness — The Land of Color and the Sun — A Casino 29

Chapter III. Egypt Op To-day

Railways— Our Valiant Dragomen — AHand-to-Hand Struggle — Alexandria to Cairo — Artificial Irrigation — An Arab Village — The Nile — Egyptian Festivals — Pyramids of Geezeh — Cairo— Natural Queries. 43

Chapter IV. Caibo

A Rhapsody— At Shepherd's— Hotel life, Egyptian plan— English Noblemen — Life in the Streets — The Valuable Donkey and his Driver — The " swell thing " in Cairo — A hint for Central Park- Eunuchs — "Yankee Doodles" of Cairo— A Representative Arab — Selecting Dragomen — The Great Business of Egypt — An Egyptian Market-place— A Substitute for Clothes— Dahabeehs of the Nile— A Protracted Negotiation — Egyptian wiles 48

Chapter V. On The Bazaar

Sight Seeing in Cairo — An Eastern Bazaar — Courteous Merchants — The Honored Beggar — Charity to be Rewarded — A Moslem Funeral — The Gold Bazaar — Shopping for a Necklace — Conducting a Bride Home — A Partnership matter — Early Marriages and Decay — Longings for Youth , 61

Chapter VI. Mosques And Tombs

The Sirocco — The Desert — The Citadel of Cairo — Scene of the Massacre of the Memlooks — The World's Verdict — The Mosque of Mohammed Ali — Tomb of the Memlook Sultans — Life out of Death 72

Chapter VII. Moslem Worship — The Call To Prayer

An Enjoyable City — Definition of Conscience — "Prayer is better than Sleep " — Call of the Muezzin — Moslems at Prayer — Interior of a Mosque — Oriental Architecture — The Slipper Fitters — Devotional Washing— An Inman's Supplications 78

Chapter VIII. The Pyramids

A.ncient Sepulchres— Grave Robbers — The Poor Old Mummy — The Oldest Monument in the World— Fii-st View of the Pyramids— The resident Bedaween — Ascending the Steps — Patent Elevators — A View from the Top— The Guide's Opinions— Origin of "Murray's Guide Book"— Speculations on the Pyramids— The Interior- Absolute Night— A Taste of Death— The Sphinx— Domestic Life in a Tomb— Souvenirs of Ancient EL^ypt- Backsheesh ! 85

CONTENTS. xi

Chapter IX. Preparations For A Voyage

A Weighty Question — The Seasons Bewitched — Poetic Dreams Realized — Egyptian Music — Public Garden — A Wonderful Rock — Its Patrons — The Playing Band — Native Love Songs— The Howling Derweeshes — An Exciting Performance — The Shakers put to Shame— Descendants of the Prophet — An Ancient Saracenic Home — The Land of the Flea and the Copt — Historical Curiosities — Preparing for our Journey — Laying in of Medicines and Rockets — A Determination to be Liberal — Official life in Egypt — An Interview with the Bey — Paying for our Rockets — A Walking Treasury —Waiting for Wind— 100

Chapter X. On The Nile

On Board the "Rip Van Winkle"— A Farewell Dinner— The Three Months Voyage Commenced — On the Nile — Our Pennant's Device — Our Dahabeeh — Its Officers and Crew — Types of Egyptian Races — The Kingdom of the " Stick" — The false Pyramid of Maydoon — A Night on the River — Curious Crafts — Boat Races on the Nile — Native Villages — Songs of the Sailors — Incidents of the Day — The Copts— The Patriarch — The Monks of Gebel e Tayr — Disappointment all Round — A Royal Luxury — The Banks of the Nile — Gum Arabic — Unfair Reports of us — Speed of our Dahabeeh — Egyptian Bread — Hasheesh- Smoking — Egyptian Robbers — Sitting in Darkness — Agriculture — Gathering of Taxes — Successful Voyaging, . . 116

Chapter XI. People On The River Bank

Sunday on the Nile — A Calm — A Land of Tombs — A New Divinity — Burial of a Child — A Sunday Companion on Shore — A Philosophical People— No Sunday Clothes — The Aristocratic Bedaween — The Sheykh — Rare Specimens for the Centennial — Tracts Needed — Woman's Rights — Pigeons and Cranes — Balmy Winter Nights — Tracking— Copying Nature in Dress — Resort of Crocodiles — A Hermit's Cave — Waiting for Nothing — Crocodile Mummies — The Boatmen's Song — Furling Sails — Life Again — Pictures on the Nile. 140

Chapter XII. Spending Christmas On The Nile

Independence in Spelling — Asioot — Christmas Day — The American Consul — A Visit to the Pasha — Conversing by an Interpreter — The Ghawazees at Home — Ancient Sculpture — Bird's Eye View of the Nile — Our Christmas Dinner — Our Visitor — Grand Reception — Tl>e Fire Works— Christmas Eve on the Nile. ... - 15G

Xii CONTENTS.

Chapter XIII. Sights And Scenes On The Riveb

Ancient and Modern Ruins— We Pay Toll— Cold Weather— Night Sailing— Farshoot— A Visit from the Bey— The Market-Place— The Sakiyas or Water Wheels — The Nile is Egypt 167

Chapter XIV. Midwinter In Egypt

Midwinter in Egypt — Slaves of Time — Where the Water Jars are Made — Coming to Anchor and how it was Done — New Years — " Smits" Copper Popularity — Great Strength of the Women — Conscripts for the Army — Conscription a Good Thing — On the Threshold of Thebes 175

Chapter XV. Among The Ruins Of Thebes

Situation of the City — Ruins — Questions — Luxor — Karnak — Glorification of the Pharaohs — Sculptures in Stone — The Twin Colossi — Four Hundred Miles in Sixteen Days 186

Chapter XVI. History In Stone

A Dry City — A Strange Circumstance — A Pleasant Residence — Life on the Dahabeeh — Illustrious Visitors — Nose-Rings and Beauty — Little Fatimeh — A Mummy Hand and Thoughts upon it — Plunder of the Tombs — Exploits of the Great Sesostris— Gigantic Statues and their Object — Skill of Ancient Artists — Criticisms — Christian Churches and Pagan Temples — Society — A Peep into an Ancient Harem — Statue of Meninon — Mysteries — Pictures of Heroic Girls — Women in History 193

Chapter XVII. Karnak

An Egyptian Carriage — Wonderful Ruins— The Great Hall of Sethi — The Largest Obelisk in The World— A City of Temples and Palaces. 212

Chapter XVIII. Ascending The Riveb

Ascending the River — An Exciting Boat Race — Inside a Sugar Factory —Setting Fire to a Town— Who Stole the Rockets ?— Striking Contrasts—A Jail— The Kodi or Judge— What we saw at Assouan— A Gale — Ruins of Kom Ombos— Mysterious Movement — Land of Eternal Leisure 217

CONTENTS.

Chapter XIX. Passing The Cataract Of The Nile

Passing the Cataract of the Nile — Nubian Hills in Sight — Island of Elephantine — Ownership of the Cataract — Difficulties of the Ascent — Negotiations for a Passage — Items about Assouan — Off for the Cataracts — Our Cataract Crew— First Impressions of the Cataract — In the Stream — Excitement — Audacious Swimmers — Close Steering—A Comical Orchestra — The Final Struggle — Victory — Above the Rapids — The Temple of Isis — Ancient Kings and Modern Conquerors 234

Chapter XX. On The Borders Of The Desert

Ethiopia — Relatives of the Ethiopians — Negro Land — Ancestry of the Negro— Conversion Made Easy — A Land of Negative Blessings — Cool air from the Desert — Abd-el-Atti's Opinions — A Land of Comfort — Nubian Costumes — Turning the Tables — The Great Desert — Sin, Grease and Taxes 254

Chapter XXI. Ethiopia

Primitive Attire — The Snake Charmer — A House full of Snakes — A Writ of Ejectments — Natives — The Tomb of Mohammed — Disasters — A Dandy Pilate — Nubian Beauty — Opening a Baby's Eyes — A Nubian Pigville 263

Chapter XXII. Life In The Tropics — ^wadt Halfa

liife in the Tropics — Wady Haifa — Capital of Nubia — The Centre of Fashion — The Southern Cross — Castor Oil Plantations — Justice to a Thief— Abd-el-Atti's Court — Mourning for the Dead — Extreme of our Journey— A Comical Celebration— The March of Civilization. 275

CHAPTER XXIIL

APPROACHING THE SECOND CATARACT.

Two Ways to See It — Pleasures of Canal Riding — Bird's Eye View of the Cataracts— Signs of Wealth— Wady Haifa— A Nubian Belle- Classic Beauty — A Greek Bride — Interviewing a Crocodile — Joking with a Widow— A Model Village 28!

Xiv CONTENTS.

Chapter XXIV. Giants In Stone

The Colossi of Aboo Simbel, the largest in the World — Bombast — Exploits of Remeses II. — A Mysterious Temple — Feting Ancient Deities — Guardians of the Nile — The Excavated Rock — The Temple—A Row of Sacred Monkeys — Our Last View of The Giants. . 296

Chapter XXV. Flitting Through Nubia

Learning the Language — Models of Beauty — Cutting up a Crocodile — Egyptian Loafers — A Modern David — A Present — Our Menagerie — The Chameleon — "Woman's Rights — False Prophets — Incidents — Tiie School Master at Home — Confusion — Too Much Conversion — Charity — "Wonderful Birds at Mecca 304

Chapter XXIX. The Future Of The Mummy's Soul

Ancient Egyptian Literature — Mummies — A Visit to the Tombs — Disturbing the Dead — The Funeral Ritural — Unpleasant Explorations A Mummy in Pledge — A Desolate "Way — Buried Secrets — Building for Eternity — Before the Judgment Seat — "Weighed in the Balance The Habitation of the Dead — Illuminated — Accommodations for the Mummy— The Pharaoh of the Exodus— A Baby Charon— Bats. 358

CONTENTS. XV

Chapter XXX. Farewell To Thebes

Social Festivities — An Oriental Dinner — Dancing Girls — Honored by the Sultan — The Native Consul — Finger Feeding — A Dance — Ancient Style of Dancing — The Poetry of Night — Karnak by Moonlight — Amusements at Luxor — Farewell to Thebes 375

Chapter XXXI. Loitering By The Way

« Very Grammatick" — The Lying in Temple — A Holy Man — Scarecrows — Asinine Performers — Antiquity — Old Masters — Profit and Loss — Hopeless "Fellahs" — Lion's Oil — A Bad Reputation — An Egyptian Mozart 387

Chapter XXXII. Jottings

Mission School — Education of Women — Contrasts — A Mirage — Tracks of Successive Ages — Bathers — Tombs of the Sacred Bulls — Religion and Grammar— Route to Darfoor— Winter Residence of the Holy Family — Grottoes — Mistaken Views — Dust and Ashes — Osman Bey — A Midsummer's Night Dream — Ruins of Memphis — Departed Glory — A Second Visit to the Pyramids of Geezeh — An Artificial Mother 406

Chapter XXXIII. The Khedive

Ai. Gezereh — Aboo Yusef the Owner — Cairo Again — A Question — The Khedive— Solomon and the Viceroy — The Khedive's Family Expenses — Another Joseph — Personal Government — Docks of Cairo- Raising Mud— Popular Superstitions — Leave Taking 426

Chapter XXXIV. The Wooden Man

Visiting a Harem— A Reception— The Khedive at Home— Ladies of the Harem— Wife of Tufik Pasha— The Mummy— The Wooden Man Discoveries of Mariette Bey— Egypt and Greece Compared— Learned Opinions 440

Chapter XXXV. On The Way Home

Leaving our Dahabeeh— The Baths in Cairo— Curious Mode of Execution—The Guzeereh Palace— Empress Eugenia's Sleeping Room—

Xvi CONTENTS.

Medallion of Benjamin Franklin in Egypt — Heliopolis — The Bedaween Bride — Holy Places — The Resting Place of the Yirgin Mary — Fashionable Drives — The Shoobra Palace — Forbidden Books — A Glimpse of a Bevy of Ladies — Uncomfortable Guardians. 450

Chapter XXXVI. By The Red Sea

Following the Track of the Children of Israel— Routes to Suez — Temples — Where was tlie Red Sea Crossed ? — In sight of the Bitter Lakes — Approaching the Red Sea — Faith — The Suez Canal — The Wells of Moses — A Sentimental Pilgrimage — Price of one of the Wells — Miriam of Marah — Water of the Wells — Returning to Suez — A Caravan of Bedaweens — Lunch Baskets searched by Custom Officers— The Commerce of the East 459

Chapter XXXVII. Eastward Ho

Leaving Suez— Ismailia — The Lotus — A Miracle — Egyptian Steamer — Information Sought — The Great Highway— Port Said — Abd-el-Atti again— Great Honors Lost— Farewell to Egypt 471

Chapter I. At The Gates Of The East

THE Mediterranean still divides the East from the West. Ages of traffic and intercourse across its waters have not changed this fact ; neither the going of armies nor of embassies, Northmen forays nor Saracenic maraudings, Christian crusades nor Turkish invasions, neither the borrowing from Egypt of its philosophy and science, nor the stealing of its precious monuments of antiquity, down to its bones, not all the love-making, slave-trading, war-waging, not all the commerce of four thousand years, by oar and sail and steam, have sufficed to make the East like the West.

Half the world was lost at Actium, they like to say, for the sake of a woman ; but it was the half that I am convinced we never shall gain — for though the Romans did win it they did not keep it long, and they made no impression on it that is not,compared with its own individuality, as stucco to granite. And I suppose there is not now and never will be another woman in the East handsome enough to risk a world for.

There, across the most fascinating and fickle sea in the world — a feminine sea, inconstant as lovely, all sunshine and tears in a moment, reflecting in its quick mirror in rapid succession the skies of grey and of blue, th"? weather of Europe and of Africa, a sea of romance and nausea — lies a world in Everything unlike our own, a world perfectly known yet 2 17

18 A JOURNEY WITHOUT REASONS.

never familiar and never otherwise than strange to the European and American. I had supposed it otherwise ; I had been led to think that modern civilization had more or less transformed the East to its own likeness; that, for instance the railway up the Nile had practically "done for" that historic stream. They say that if you run a red-hot nail through an orange, the fruit will keep its freshness and remain unchanged a long time. The thrusting of the iron into Egypt may arrest decay, but it does not appear to change the country.

There is still an Orient, and I believe there would be if it were all canaled, and railwayed, and converted ; for I have great faith in habits that have withstood the influence of six or seven thousand years of changing dynasties and religions. Would you like to go a little w^ay with me into this Orient.'*

The old-fashioned travelers had a formal fashion of setting before the reader the reasons that induced them to take the journey they described ; and they not unfrequently made poor health an apology for their wanderings, judging that that excuse would be most readily accepted for their eccentric conduct. " Worn out in body and mind we set sail," etc.; and the reader was invited to launch in a sort of funereal bark upon the Mediterranean and accompany an invalid in search of his last resting-place.

There w^as in fact no reason why we should go to Egypt — a remark that the reader will notice is made before he has a chance to make it — and there is no reason w^hy any one indisposed to do so should accompany us. If information is desired, there are whole libraries of excellent books about the land of the Pharaohs, ancient and modern, historical, archaeological, statistical, theoretical, geographical; if amusement is wanted, there are also excellent books, facetious and sentimental. I suppose that volumes enough have been written about Egypt to cover every foot of its arable soil if they were spread out, or to dam the Nile if they were dumped into it, and to cause a drought in either case if they were not ali interesting and the reverse of dry. There is therefore no onui Upon the traveler in the East to-day to write otherwise than

OFF FOR THE ORIENT. 19

suits his humor; he may describe only what he chooses. With this distinct understanding I should like the reader to go with me through a winter in the Orient. Let us say that we go to escape winter.

It is the last of November, 1874 — the beginning of what proved to be the bitterest winter ever known in America and Europe, and I doubt not it was the first nip of the return of the rotary glacial period — that we go on board a little Italian steamer in the harbor of Naples, reaching it in a row-boat and in a cold rain. The deck is wet and dismal ; Vesuvius is invisible, and the whole sweep of the bay is hid by a slanting mist. Italy has been in a shiver for a month ; snow on the Alban hills and in the Tusculan theatre ; Rome was as chilly as a stone tomb with the door left open. Naples is little better ; Boston, at any season, is better than Naples — now.

We steam slowly down the harbor amid dripping ships, losing all sight of villages and the lovely coast ; only Capri comes out comely in the haze, an island cut like an antique cameo. Long after dark we see the light on it and also that of the Punta della Campanella opposite, friendly beams following us down the coast. We are off Paestum, and I can feel that its noble temple is looming there in the darkness. This ruin is in some sort a door into, an introduction to, the East.

Paestum has been a deadly marsh for eighteen hundred years, and deserted for almost a thousand. Nettles and unsightly brambles have taken the place of the "roses of Paestum " of which the Roman poets sang; but still as a poetic memory, the cyclamen trails among the debris of the old city ; and the other day I found violets waiting for a propitious season to bloom. The sea has retired away from the site of the town and broadened the marsh in front of it. There are at Paestum three Greek temples, called, no one can tell why, the Temple of Neptune, the Basilica, and the Temple of Ceres ; remains of the old town wall and some towers; a tumble-down house or two, and a wretched tavern. The whole coast IS subject to tremors of the earth, and the few inhabitants hanging about there appear to have had all their bones shaken out of them by the /ever and ague.

A DESERTED DISTRICT.

We went down one raw November morning from Naples, driving from a station on the Calabrian railway, called Battipaglia, about twelve miles over a black marshy plain, relieved only by the bold mountains, on the right and left. This plain is gradually getting reclaimed and cultivated ; there is raised on it inferior cotton and some of the vile tobacco which the government monopoly compels the free Italians to smoke, and large olive-orchards have been recently set out. The soil is rich and the country can probably be made habitable again. Now, the few houses are wretched and the few people squalid. Women were pounding stone on the road we traveled, even young girls among them wielding the heavy hammers, and all of them very thinly clad, their one sleazy skirt giving little protection against the keen air. Of course the women were hard-featured and coarse-handed ; and both they and the men have the swarthy complexion that may betoken a more Eastern origin. We fancied that they had a brigandish look. Until recently this plain has been a favorite field for brigands, who spied the rich traveler from the height of St. Angelo and pounced upon him if he was unguarded. Now, soldiers are quartered along the road, patrol the country on horseback, and lounge about the ruins at Paestum. Perhaps they retire to some height for the night, for the district is too unhealthy for an Italian even, whose health may be of no consequence. They say that if even an Englishman, who goes merely to shoot woodcock, sleeps there one night, in the right season, that night will be his last.

We saw the ruins of Paestum under a cold grey sky, which harmonized with their isolation. We saw them best from the side of the sea, with the snow-sprinkled mountains rising behind for a background. Then they stood out, impressive, majestic, time-defying. In all Europe there are no ruins better worthy the study of the admirer of noole architecture than these.

The Temple of Neptune is older than the Parthenon, itj Poric sister, at Athens. It was probably built before the Persians of Xerxes occupied the Acropolis and saw from there the flight of their ruined fleet out of the Strait of Salamis, I|

AMONG THE RUINS OF PyESTUM. 21

was built when the Doric had attained the acme of its severe majesty, and it is to-day almost perfect on the exterior. Its material is a coarse travertine which time and the weather have honeycombed, showing the petrifications of plants and shells ; but of its thirty-six massive exterior columns not one has fallen, though those on the north side are so worn by age that the once deep fluting is nearly obliterated. You may care to know that these columns which are thirty feet high and seven and a half feet in diameter at the base, taper symmetrically to the capitals, which are the severest Doric.

At first we thought the temple small, and did not even realize its two hundred feet of length, but the longer we looked at it the larger it grew to the eye, until it seemed to expand into gigantic size ; and from whatever point it was viewed its harmonious proportions were an increasing delight. The beauty is not in any ornament, for even the pediment is and always was vacant, but in its admirable lines.

The two other temples are fine specimens of Greek architecture, also Doric, pure and without fault, with only a little tendency to depart from severe simplicity in the curve of the capitals, and yet they did not interest us. They are of a period only a little later than the Temple of Neptune, and that model was before their builders, yet they missed the extraordinary, many say almost spiritual beauty of that edifice. We sought the reason, and found it in the fact that there are absolutely no straight lines in the Temple of Neptune. The side rows of columns curve a little out ; the end rows curve a little in ; at the ends the base line of the columns curves a trifle from the sides to the center, and the line of the architrave does the same. This may bewilder the eye and mislead the judgment as to size and distance, but the effect is more agreeable than almost any other I know in architecture. It is not repeated in the other temples, the builders of which do not seem to have known its secret. Had the Greek colony lost the art of this perfect harmony, in the little time that probably intervened between the erection of these edifices ? It was ctill kept at Athens, as the Temple of Theseus and the Parthe non testify.

22 REPUTED ENTRANCE TO PURGATORY.

Looking from the interior of the temple out at either end, the entrance seems to be wider at the top than at the bottom, an Egyptian effect produced by the setting of the inward and outer columns. This appeared to us like a door through which we looked into Egypt, that mother of all arts and of most of the devices of this now confused world. We were on our way to see the first columns, prototypes of the Doric order, chiselled by man.

The custodian — there is one, now that twenty centuries of war and rapine and storms have wreaked themselves upon this temple — would not permit us to take our luncheon into its guarded precincts ; on a fragment of the old steps, amid the weeds we drank our red Capri wine ; not the usual compound manufactured at Naples, but the last bottle of pure Capri to be found on the island, so help the soul of the landlady at the hotel there; ate one of those imperfectly nourished Italian chicken's orphan birds, owning the pitiful legs with which the table d'hote frequenters in Italy are so familiar, and blessed the government for the care, tardy as it is, of its grandest monument of antiquity.

When I looked out of the port-hole of the steamer early in the morning, we were near the volcanic Lipari islands and islets, a group of seventeen altogether; which serve as chimneys and safety-valves to this part of the world. One of the small ones is of recent creation, at least it was heaved up about two thousand years ago, and I fancy that a new one may pop up here any time. From the time of the Trojan war all sorts of races and adventurers have fought for the possession of these coveted islands, and the impartial earthquake has shaken them all off in turn. But for the mist, we should have clearly seen Stromboli, the ever-active volcano, but now we can only say we saw it. We are near it, however, and catch its outline, and listen for the groans of lost souls which the credulous crusaders used to hear issuing from its depths. It was at that time the entrance of purgatory; we read in the guide-book that the crusaders implored the monks of Cluny to intercede for the deliverance of those confined there, and that therefore Odilo of Cluny instituted tho observance of All Souls' Day.

ENTERPRISING NA TIVES. 23

The climate of Europe still attends us, and our first view of Sicily is through the rain. Clouds hide the coast and obscure the base of ^tna (which is oddly celebrated in America as an assurance against loss by fire); but its wide fields of snow, banked up high above the clouds, gleam as molten silver — treasure laid up in heaven — and give us the light of the rosy morning.

Rounding the point of Faro, the locale of Charybdis and Scylla, we come into the harbor of Messina and take shelter behind the long, curved horn of its mole. Whoever shunned the beautiful Scylla was liable to be sucked into the strong tide Charybdis; but the rock has lost its terror for moderns, and the current is no longer dangerous. We get our last dash of rain in this strait, and there is sunny weather and blue sky at the south. The situation of Messina is picturesque; the shores both of Calabria and Sicily are mountainous, precipitous and very rocky; there seems to be no place for vegetation except by terracing. The town is backed by lofty circling mountains, which form a dark setting for its white houses and the string of outlying villages. Mediaeval forts cling to the slopes above it.

No sooner is the anchor down than a fleet of boats surrounds the steamer, and a crowd of noisy men and boys swarms on board, to sell us muscles, oranges, and all sorts of merchandise, from a hair-brush to an under-wrapper. The Sunday is hopelessly broken into fragments in a minute. These lively traders use the English language and its pronouns with great freedom. The boot-black smilingly asks : " You black my boot.? "

The vender of under-garments says : " I gif you four franc for dis one. I gif you for dese two a seven franc. No } What you gif? "