Contents
FAOB
CHAPTER I. —Cairo AND THE Great Pyramid ... 13 Arrival at Cairo. — Shepheard's Hotel. — The Moskee. — The Khan Khaleel. — The Bazaars. — Dahabeeyahs. — Ghizeh. — The Pyramids.
CHAPTER II. —Cairo and the Mecca Pilgrimage . . 29
The Mosque of Sultan Hassan. — Moslems at prayer. — Mosque of Mehemet Ali. — View from the Platform. — Departure of the Caravan for Mecca. — The Bdb en-Nasr. — The Procession. — The Mahmal. — Howling Dervishes.
— The Mosque of 'Amr. — The Shubra Road.
CHAPTER III. — Cairo to Bedreshayn 45
Departure for the Nile Voyage. — Farewell to Cairo. — Turra. — The Philse and crew. — The Dahabeeyah and the Nile sailor. — Native music. — Bedreshayn.
CHAPTER IV. — Sakkarah and Memphis 56
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.
CHAPTER V. — Bedreshayn to Minieh 76
The rule of the Nile. — The Shaduf. — Beni Suef . — Thieves by night. — The Chief of the Guards. — A sandstorm. — "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 Siut 94
Christmas Day. — The Party completed. — Christmas Dinner on the Nile. — A Fantasia. — Noah's Ark. — Birds of Egypt. — Gebel Abufayda. — Unknown Stelae. — Imprisoned. — The Scarab-beetle. — Manfalut. — Sitit. — Red and black pottery. — Ancient tombs. — View over the plain. — Biblical lesrend.
viii CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER VII. — Si^T TO Denderah Ill
An "Experienced Surgeon." — Passing scenery. — Girgeh. — Sheykh Selim. — Kasr es Syad. — Forced labour. — Temple of Denderah. — Cleopatra. — Benighted.
CHAPTER VIII. — Thebes and Karnak 134
Luxor. — Donkey-boys. — Topography of Ancient Thebes. — Pylons of Luxor. — Poem of Pentaur. — 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.
CHAPTER IX. — Thebes to AsstrAN . .- 154
A storm on the 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 Edfu. — An exciting race.
— The Philfe wins by a length.
CHAPTER X. — Assu AN AND Elephantine 171
Assuan. — Strange wares for sale. — Madame Nubia. — Castor oil. — The black Governor. — An enormous blunder.
— Tannhauser in Egypt. — Elephantine. — Inscribed ^jotsherds. — Bazaar of Assuan. — The Camel. — A ride in the Desert. — The Obelisk of the Quarry. — A death in the town.
CHAPTER XL — The Cataract and the Desert ... 189
Scenery of the Cataract. — The Sheykh of the Cataract. — Vexatious delays.: — The Paintei''s vocabulary. — Mahatta.
— Ancient bed of the Nile. — Abyssinian Caravan.
CHAPTER XII. — PmL^ 201
Pharaoh's Bed. — The Temples. — Champollion's discovery. — The Painted Columns. — Coptic Philae. — Philge and Desaix. — Chamber of Osiris. — Inscribed Rock. — View from the roof of the Temple.
CHAPTER XIIL — Pmi.^ TO KOROSKO 225
Nubian scenery. — A sand-slope. — Missing Yusef. — Trading by the way. — Panoramic views. — Volcanic cones. — Dakkeh. — Korosko. — Letters from home.
CHAPTER XIV. — KOROSKO TO Abou SiMBEL 234
• El-'Id el-Kebir. — 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 Abou Simbel by moonliglit.
CONTENTS. IX
PAGE
CHAPTER XV.— Rameses the Great 250
Youth of Rameses the Great. — Ti'eaty 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.— Abou Simbel 270
The Colossi. — Portraits of Rameses the Great. — Tlie Great Sand-drift. — The smaller Temples. — ' ' Rameses and Nef ertari." — The Great Temple. — A monster tableau. — Alone in the Great Temple. — Trail of a crocodile. — Cleaning the Colossus. — The sufferings of the sketcher.
CHAPTER XVn.— The Second Cataract 296
Volcanic mountains. — Kalat Adda. — Gebel esh-Shems. — The first crocodile. — Dull scenery. — Wady Halfeh — The Rock of Abusir. — The Second Cataract. — The great view.
— Crocodile-slaying. — Excavating a tumulus. — Comforts of home on the Nile.
CHAPTER XVm. — Discoveries at Abou Simbel ... 308 Society at Abou Simbel. — The Painter discovei's 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 ...... 336
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. — Bay t-el- Welly. — The Karnak of Nubia. — Silco of the Ethiopians. — Tafah. — Dabod. — Baby-shooting. — A dilemma. — Justice in Egypt. — The last of Philie.
CHAPTER XX. — SiLSiLis and Edfu 369
Shooting the Cataract. — Kom Ombo. — Quarries of Silsilis.
— Edfu the most perfect of Egyptian Temples. — View from the pylons. — Sand columns.
CHAPTER XXI. —Thebes 386
Luxor again. — Imitation "Anteekahs." — Digging for Mummies. — Tombs of Thebes. — The Ramesseum. — The granite Colossus. — Medinet Habu. — The Pavilion of Rameses HI. — The Great Chronicle. — An Arab story-teller. — Gournah. — Bab-el-Moluk. — 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.
X CONTENTS.
PAGK
CHAPTER XXn. — Abybos and Cairo 437
Last weeks on the Nile. — Spring in Egypt. — Ninety-nine in the shade. — Samata. — Unbroken donkeys. — The Plain of Abydos. — Harvest-time. — A Biblical idyll. — Arabat the Buried. — Mena. — Origin of the Egyptian People. — Temple of Seti. — New Tablet of Abydos. — Abydos 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 M61id-en-Nebee. — A human causeway. — The Boulak Museum. — Prince Ra-hotep and Princess Nef er-t. — Early drive to Ghizeh. — Ascent of the Great Pyramid. — The Sphinx. — The view from the Top. — The end.
Appendix
PAGB
I. A. M'Callum, Esq., to the Editor of the Times .... 461
II. The Egyptian Pantheon 461
III. The Religious Belief of the Egyptians 463
IV. Egyptian Chronology 466
V. Contemporary Chronology of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and
Babylon 468
LIST OF PHOTOGEAVURE ILLUSTEATIONS.
PAGE
1. Cairo Frontispiece
2. Mosque op Mehemet Ali 28
3. A Dahabeetah 44
4. Ruins of Memphis . . ' 73
5. Sugar Cane Sellers op Bedreshayn 89
7. Denderah 128
10. Elephantine 186
11. The First Cataract 200
13. Temple op Dakkeh 230
14. Statue op Rameses the Great 264
15. Wady Halpa 296
17. Great Temple at Abou Simbel 330
18. Temple op Amada 336
19. SiLsiLis 368
20. Temple op Osiris 408
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
The Secret of the Sphinx 11
Cairo Donkey 16
Tunis Market, Cairo 19
Carpet Bazaar, Cairo 21
Native Cangias 54
Head op Ti .69
MitrIhIneh 75
The Shadup . 80
•' Holy Sheykh Cotton " 84
Market Boat Minieh 92
Gebel Abupayda 98
Riverside Tombs near SiCt 103
SifJT .105
GrlRGEH 115
Kasr es Syad 117
Denderah 121
Cleopatra 124
Sheykh SeLim 133
Colonnade op Horemheb . . 135
Temple op Luxor , . . . 139
Hypostyle Hall, Karnak 149
Temple op Esneh 159
Native Boat, Assuan 170
Camel at Assuan 188
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 3
PAGE
Soudan Traders at Maiiatta 195
Pharaoh's Bed. Phil^ 199
Grand Colonnade, Phil.e 203
Painted Columns, portico op large temple, Phil^ . . . 209
Early Christian Shrine, Phil^ 211
Shrines of Osiris. — 1, 2, and 3 219, 230
Resurrection of Osiris 221
Inscribed Monolithic Rock, Phil^ 223
Temple of Dakkeh, Nubia 231
Nubian Jewelry 233
Temple op Derr, Nubia 242
Sakkieh, or Water Wheel 246
Cartouches op Rameses the Great 251
Outlines prom Bas-Reliep at Bayt-el- Welly . . . 271, 272
Profile op Rameses II 273
Great Rock-cut Temple, Abou Simbel, Nubia 275
Smaller Temple, Abou Simbel, Nubia 279
Cleaning the Colossus 293
Wady Halpeh 300
The Rock op Abusir 307
Entrance op Speos 313
Excavated Speos . 319
Pattern op Cornice, Speos 321
Standard op Horus Aroeris 322
Rameses II., of Speos 323
Sculptured Inscriptions, South Wall Speos 325
Hieratic Inscription, North Wall Speos 329
Temple op Amada 338
Temple of Wady Sabooah 341
Temple op Gerf Hossayn, Nubia 351
4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAOE
Temple of Dendoor 352
Sculptures at Bayt-el-Welly 354
Temple op Kalabsheh, Nubia 355
Ruined Temple at Tafah, Nubia 358
Temple of Dabod 361
Ruined Coptic Convent near Phil^e 363
Phil^ from the South 367
Nubian Woman and Child 368
Temple of Komb Ombo, Upper Egypt 373
Ta-ur-t (Silsilis) 375
The Lovely Arab Maiden 385
Digging for Mummies 389
OsiRiDE Court and Fallen Colossus, Ramessum, Thebes . 395
Palace Entrance— Medinet Habu 401
Sculptured Vases at Medinet Habu 403
OsiRiDE Court, Medinet Habu 407
Columns op Amenhotep III. (Luxor) 425
Sakkieh at SitT 450
"In the Name of the Prophet— Cakes !" 451
Statues of Prince Ra-hotep and Princess Nefer-t . . . 454
Sphinx and Pyramids 458
Broken Sistrum 460
Preface
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
First published in 1877, this book has been out of print for several years. I have therefore very gladly revised it for a new and cheaper edition. In so revising it, I have corrected some of the historical notes by the light of later discoveries ; but I have left the narrative untouched. Of the political changes which have come over the land of Egypt since that narrative was written, I have taken no note ; and because I in no sense offer myself as a guide to others, I say nothing of the altered conditions under which most Nile travellers now perform the trip. All these things will be more satisfactorily, and more practically, learned from the pages of Baedeker and Murray.
AMELIA B. EDWAEDS.
Preface To The First Edition
" Un voyage en Egypte, c'est una partie d'anes at une promenade en bateau entremelees de ruines." — Ampere.
Ampere 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.
6 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
Of the comparative merits of wooden boats, iron boats, and steamers, I am not qualified to speak. We, however, saw one iron daliabeeyah 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 oldfashioned 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 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 posthorses and travelling by rail. The one is expensive, leisurely, delightful ; the other is cheap, swift, and comparatively 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 Philae — food, dragoman's wages, boathire, cataract, everything included except wine — was about £10 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 evening chill upon the air. Yet even in Nubia, and especially along the forty miles which divide Abou Simbel from Wady Halfeh, it is cold when the wind blows strongly from the north. ^
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 Abusir, 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 publication of this volume a year ago. I can, however, only reply that the
1 For the benefit of any who desire more exact information, I may add that a table of average temperatures, carefully registered day by day and week by week, is to be found at the end of Mr. H. Villiers Stuart's " Nile Gleanings." [Note to Second Edition.]
Preface To The Fibst Edition. 7
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. Moreover the writer, who seeks to be accurate, has frequently to go for his facts, 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. This by way of apology.
More pleasant is it to remember labor 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 Reginald Stuart Poole, Esq. ; to Professor R. Owen, C.B., etc. etc. ; to Sir G. W. Cox, I desire to offer my hearty and grateful acknowledgments. It is 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 Avhole 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 accomplished
8 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
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 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 feelings with which he has interpreted the original drawings.
Of. the fascination of Egyptian travel, of the charm of the JSTile, 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 Eygpt 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 laborer 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 shaduf, ploughing with the same plough, preparing the same food in the same way, and eating it with his fingers from the same bowl, as 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 jars of the same shape 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
Preface To The First Edition. 9
with minced-meat was a favorite dish in those times of old ; and I can testify to its excellence in 1874. Little boys iu 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 resembling 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 scores of little tails ; and the pleasure-boat of the modern Governor or Mudir, as well as the dahabeeyah hired by the European traveller, reproduces in all essential features the painted galleys represented in tlie tombs of the kings.
hi 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 iu believing that every hieroglyph was an abstruse symbol, and every hieroglyphic inscription a profound philosophical 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 language 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 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 Englishman who had long been 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 ChampoUion. " 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
10 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
the study of hieroglyphic writing, and I now know that Egyptian can be read, for the simple reason that I find myself able to read an Egyptian sentence.
My testimony 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, 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 vanished. 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.
Some 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 Avould 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. Edfli, with its extraordinary wealth of inscriptions, has been laid bare. The whole contents of the Boulak 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
1 These dates, it is to be remembered, refer to the year 1877, when the first edition of this book was published. [Note to Second Edition.]
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
Mycerinus ; so for the first time establishing the chronology of ancient Egypt upon an ascertained foundation. Thus 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.
Each must interpret for himself The Secret of The Sphinx.
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 G-od-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
12 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
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 ?
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.
AMELIA B. EDWARDS.
ONE THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
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 Shepheard'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 illdressed, 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 altogether exceptional interest.
His curiosity, however, is soon gratified. Before two days are over, he knows everybody's name and eveiybody's business ; distinguishes at first sight between a Cook's 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 ; statesman 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 Shepheard's, where every fresh arrival has the honor of contributing, for at least a few minutes, to the general entertainment, the first appearance of L. and the Writer, tired, dusty, and considerably sunburnt, 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 ; wliy they had not dressed for dinner ; what brought them to Eg3rpt; and if they also were going up the Nile — to 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 dragoman and luggage, we were but just in time to take seats with the rest. We intended, of course, to go up the Nile ; and had any one ventured to inquire in so many words Avhat brought us to Egypt, we should have replied : — " Stress of weather."
For in simple truth we had drifted hither by accident, with no excuse of health, or business, or any serious object whatever ; and had just taken refuge in Egypt as one might turn aside into the Burlington Arcade or the Passage des Panoramas — to get out of the rain.
And with good reason. Having left home early in September for a few weeks' sketching in central France, we had been pursued by the wettest of wet weather. Washed out of the hill-country, we fared no better in the plains. At Nismes, it poured for a month without stopping. Debating at last whether it were better to take our wet umbrellas back at once to England, or push on farther still in search of sunshine, the talk fell upon Algiers — Malta — Cairo ; and Cairo carried it. Never was distant expedition entered upon with less premeditation. The thing was no sooner decided than we were gone. Nice, Genoa, Bologna, Ancona flitted by, as in a dream ; and Bedreddin Hassan when he awoke at the gates of Damascus was scarcely more surprised than the writer of these pages, when she found herself on board the Simla, and steaming out of the port of Brindisi.
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