AN ANCIENT DONKEY.
"We found a picture of a donkey with a saddle on his back exactly like the one he wears to-day for carrying burdens. There are several representations of this patient little beast, not only at Beni-Hassan, but in the tomb of Tih, at Sakkara; in the latter whole droves are shown,so that the donkey must have been a common beast of burden in ancient, as he his in modern Egypt. If there were any doubt on the subject it could be settled by reference to the Old Testament, where the donkey, or ass, is frequently mentioned.
"The conductor interrupted us in the middle of our studies of the sculptures, and said it was time to move on. We went to several tombs and found something interesting in all of them; we have not time to describe a tenth of what we saw, and, if you want to learn more about the place, we must refer you to the descriptions by Wilkinson and others. These gentlemen spent a long time here making sketches, and taking impressions by means of wet paper; as far as we know, their descriptions are accurate, though they do not always agree as to the exact meaning of the hieroglyphics which are above some of the pictures.
A RESPECTABLE CITIZEN.
"When we came back to the boat we were annoyed by the natives begging for backsheesh; they were nearly as persistent as the Arabs at the pyramids, and if we had been a small party they might have been insolent. As soon as we were on board the steamer they gathered on the bank close to it, and kept up such a howl that one of the passengers threw a few copper coins for them to scramble after.
"How they rolled over each other, and tossed the dust in the air! Every time a coin was thrown, there was a rush for it, and the rule seemed to be that might made right. The small children were pushed aside by the larger boys, and several times they would fight for the possessionof a penny till both the combatants were exhausted, and had to stop to take breath.
"Some coins were thrown into the shallow water at the stern of the boat, and instantly the boys flung off their scanty clothing and plunged in. They would not go far out from the bank, or, rather, they would not try to find coins in any depth where they could not wade; the water of the Nile is not at all transparent, and it was probably because they could not see to any depth that they refused to dive. We fastened a coin in a piece of wood and threw it far out into the river; half a dozen of the boys swum for it, and there was a very pretty race between them to get the prize. It was far better than the rough scramble on the bank, and we repeated the performance several times till the boat was ready to start from the landing-place.
"These boys are excellent swimmers, and now that the crocodiles have pretty well disappeared from the Nile below the first cataract, they do not run much risk in exercising in the water. Doctor Bronson says there were many crocodiles in the river thirty years ago, but they have been hunted so much by tourists that very few of them are left."
AN OLD INHABITANT.
From Beni-sooef the steamer proceeded to Sioot, or Asyoot, a city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and one of the most important places of Upper Egypt. It is about two miles back from the river, from which water is brought by a canal, and the roadway passes along a high embankment lined with shade-trees. Just at the entrance of the city there is a picturesque gate-way, which reminded our friends of some of the gates of Cairo. The city is on the site of the ancient Lycopolis, and has borne its present name for more than two thousand years. Nevertheless it is called a modern town by most of the writers on Egyptian history, and is not allowed any claim to antiquity.
A SCENE NEAR SIOOT.
"At the landing-place of Sioot," said the boys in their journal, "we found better donkeys than at Beni-sooef, and were able to ride with somedegree of comfort. We went first to some tombs which are cut in the side of the mountain overlooking the valley, and were the burial-places of the ancient Lycopolis. There are a good many of them, and they were formerly well filled with mummies, but at present the mummies are gone, and the tombs contain nothing worth carrying away. According to the historical accounts the inhabitants of Lycopolis worshipped the wolf as a divinity, and when the tombs were plundered a good many mummies of wolves were found in them.
"The view from the mountain where these tombs were excavated is very pretty, as it embraces a considerable extent of the Nile Valley; some writers have called it the finest in all Egypt, as there is an unbroken view for several miles of beautiful green such as you find nowhere else in the world. Dean Stanley was charmed with the spot,and compared the mud villages that are scattered among the luxuriant fields to the marks of a soiled foot on a rich carpet. The mountain has an additional interest to many people, as the caves in its sides were the homes of the early Christians during the periods of persecution.
SCENE IN THE BAZAARS.
"We had been told that the bazaars of Sioot were almost as fine as those of Cairo, though naturally less extensive, and so we hurried down from the mountain in order to see as much as possible of the place.
"It happened to be market-day when we were there, much to our delight, as it enabled us to see what the country-people had brought in for sale. The market square was crowded with people, and also with donkeys and camels, and we had to keep both eyes wide open to escape being run over or knocked down. The camels were specially dangerous, as they seemed to have adopted the motto of the donkey dancing among the chickens—'Let everybody look out for his own feet!' They had great loads of sugar-canes or fresh cut grass, and as these loads stuck out on each side they needed a wide path, and took it too. It was a wonder that they didn't kill somebody, or, at any rate, do a good deal of damage, but somehow they didn't.
"All over the square were groups of men and women with heaps of sugar-cane, palm-stalks, beans, pease, wheat, and other products of the soil for sale. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry, and every transaction required a great deal of bargaining before it was concluded. All around the edge of the square was a fringe of solemn old Arabs, whose entire occupation appeared to be to sit on the ground and smoke their pipes. The stem of each pipe was about four feet long and made of a hollow reed, and when a man is engaged in smoking one of these pipes he can do very little else. In this part of the world the pipe is a very cumbersome thing, and occupies the entire attention of the smoker.
"One of the most interesting parts of the market at Sioot was the place where donkeys were sold. We went to see them, and asked the prices; but as the natives knew we did not want to buy any, they put the figures absurdly high. We found out that good ones could be bought for thirty or forty dollars—just good common donkeys for every-day wear; but if you wanted a fancy animal, you must go much higher. A hundred dollars would buy a handsome one, with a great deal of 'style' and corresponding strength, and there were some for which two hundred dollars had been refused. A two hundred dollar donkey is something that only the wealthy can afford.
ROOM IN AN ORIENTAL HOUSE.
"We had a chance to go into a fine house, and of course we embraced it at once. We passed through a gate-way with a lofty arch, and entereda narrow passage that led to the principal room of the building. They tell us that this passage-way is generally made crooked, in order that people on the street cannot look inside when the doors are open by any chance; this is especially the case with the women's apartments, into which no man except the master is allowed to look under any pretence, and great care is taken that he shall not do so. We were shown into the reception-room, which had low windows that only let in a dim light: we wondered at this, until our guide explained that it was desirable to exclude the heat as much as possible, and therefore the windows were made low and the walls very thick. At one end of the room there was a platform six inches higher than the floor; there was an alcove in the middle of this platform, which was supposed to face toward Mecca, and, consequently, it was the place of worship at the hours when prayers were said.
"There were no chairs in the room, and no tables whatever; the only furniture we saw were some divans like wide sofas, and on these we were invited to sit while the servantsbrought coffee for us to drink. There were heavy cushions at the back of the divans, and these are arranged so that they can be moved around just as one may desire in order to make himself comfortable. The Orientals sit cross-legged on these divans, and not after our style; and if you invite them to occupy an arm-chair they will quite likely double up into it, and put their feet beneath them. It is torture for them to sit as we do, just as it is torture for us to sit in the Oriental way.
AN ORIENTAL GENTLEMAN.
"The ordinary mode of sitting on one of these divans is to get into a corner, or rather to make one by piling two of the cushions together across the divan. If an Oriental gentleman receives you, it is quite likely you will find him sitting as we have described, with his feet gathered under him, and his shoes lying where he can easily step into them in case he wishes to rise. In this position he will sit for hours perfectly contented, or, what is quite as likely, he will fall back on the divan and go to sleep. The divans are occupied pretty much all the time, as they are used to sit upon during the day, and form sleeping-couches by night. As they are rarely less than three feet wide, are well stuffed, and covered with cloth resembling chintz, they are not to be despised, and form excellent substitutes for beds.
AN EGYPTIAN LAMP.
"There was a handsome lamp in the hall-way of the house, and the Doctor told us it was much like the lamps that are used for decorating the mosques. It hung under a wooden frame in the shape of a six-pointed star. The ornamentation upon the outside of the body of the lamp was in curious patterns of arabesque design; the light was given by a series of little cups hanging on the outside, and not by the lamp itself.Each cup was partly filled with oil, and a tiny wick floated on its surface, and gave out a small blaze of light. It reminded us of the floating wicks for burning in a sick-room at home, and we readily understood why there were so many of them. A single flame would not have been enough to light the hall-way, and it was only by employing a great many that the proper illumination could be secured.
"On leaving the house we went to the bazaars, which were crowded with people, partly because it was market-day, when so many country people, men and women, came to town, and partly because of the large party of strangers that had landed from the steamboat, and were sure to be in the bazaars before continuing their journey.
"We bought some fans of ostrich feathers, which were offered for about half of what they would cost in Cairo. Sioot is one of the starting-points of the caravan routes to the regions where ostriches abound, and it is only natural that these things should be cheaper here than farther down the river. We also bought some cups and saucers, and a few pipe-bowls, made of a fine clay peculiar to the neighborhood of Sioot, and highly prized throughout Egypt. Of course we were obliged to bargain a long time to save ourselves from being cheated. It is of no use to tell these people you are in a hurry, and must have the lowest price at once; they cannot understand you, and will lose the chance of selling their goods rather than change their mode of dealing.
"Leaving Sioot we found ourselves in a region where the river winds considerably. The wind blowing from the north does not choose to follow all the bends of the Nile. A boat sailing up the stream will have a fair wind one hour and an adverse one the next, and when she finds both wind and current against her she must wait for a change in the breeze, or send the crew out with the tow-line. Towing up stream is slow work, but it is better than no progress at all. Ten or fifteen miles a day may be made by it, and sometimes as many as twenty miles, and if the passengers have a fondness for hunting they can indulge it very easily. Sometimes a walk of a few miles will cover a whole day's journey of the dahabeeah while she is working around a bend, and even the steamer is not averse to gaining distance while her passengers are on shore.
"Towing is the hardest part of the occupation of the crew of a Nile boat. They are harnessed like horses, and attached to a rope which is taken to the bank. The captain remains on board to steer the craft, and if the sailors are remiss in their work he shouts to them in a voice the reverse of pleasing; and while it is a laborious task for the men it is a severe trial to the passengers, this dragging along at a snail's pace, andlistening to the imprecations of the captain, which grate harshly on the ear, even though they are uttered in an unknown tongue.
PIGEON-HOUSES.
"We wound along the river, sometimes close to the cliffs that form the eastern bank, and sometimes in the midst of a fertile plain, with the desert at a distance. We passed several villages, and the conductor told us their names; but as they were all pretty much alike, we did not think it worth while to write them down. An interesting feature of the villages was the great number of pigeon-houses, some of them standing by themselves, and others built on the tops of dwellings. The pigeons are kept in great flocks. Sometimes they are owned in common by a whole village, while at others they are the private property of individuals. The guano from the pigeon-houses is carefully saved for enriching the melon patches; and, where the house is the common property of the village, the key is kept by the sheik or chief. Some of the houses are like square towers, with a great many holes where the birds enter, and the inside of the walls is full of niches, where the pigeons make their nests. Others are of a circular shape, and have protuberances on the top like chimneys, which are filled with holes for admitting the pigeons, but too small for the hawks and other birds of prey that pursue them.
THE ORIENTAL PIGEON.
"The pigeons get their living in the fields around the village, and sometimes they do a great deal of damage. When the grain begins to ripen the people erect booths in the midst of the fields, where men are stationed to frighten away the birds. They are armed with slings, with which they can throw stones to a considerable distance, and they keep up the alarm by blowing horns and making other noises. That the ancient Egyptians had the same practices we learn from the paintings in the tombs, where men are represented standing on platforms and using the sling to frighten away the thieving birds.
A WATCHMAN'S BOOTH.
"The abundance of pigeons in this part of Egypt is shown by the frequency with which the bird appears on our table. We have broiled pigeon for breakfast, cold pigeon for lunch, and roast pigeon for dinner. We do not have cold pigeon for supper, and probably this can be accounted for by the fact that we do not have any supper at all. They give us a cup of tea and a piece of dry cake in the evening, and it is quite possible that if anybody asked for pigeon he would be accommodated; but nobody seems to want it.
"We met some funny-looking rafts a few miles above Sioot, andwondered what they could be. They did not appear to be made of logs, or barrels, or anything of the sort, and yet they were floating along, and each carried two or three men. What do you suppose they were?
"Doctor Bronson said they were made up of large jars for holding water, and were principally from a town called Ballas. The jars are arranged in rows, with the mouth uppermost, and when enough of them have been put together to form a raft, they are enclosed in a frame of poles and reeds; then they are ready to float down the river to Cairo, where they are sold. The jar is made of a porous clay that lets the water filter slowly through it. Every few hours the men in charge of the raft must bail out their conveyance, which they do by means of a sponge or bunch of reeds lowered into each jar. Unless they do this the raft would soon take in water enough to sink it, and not only would the jars be lost, but the men would run the risk of being drowned into the bargain.
INFLATED SKIN RAFT (FROM ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE).
"It seemed so funny to make up a raft in this way, but the Doctor informed us that the idea was a very old one. He said it was in practice among the ancient Assyrians, as there were pictures on the walls of their temples of men rowing rafts made of inflated skins, which were preferred to jars on account of their obviating the necessity of frequent bailing.
"We thought of the scriptural phrase, and asked, 'Is there anything new under the sun?'
AN ANCIENT LIFE-PRESERVER.
"'There are fewer new things than you might suppose,' was the Doctor's reply. 'Perhaps you think the inflated life-preserver is a modern invention, but it isn't. The Assyrians had it centuries ago; and we learn from their sculptures that their warriors used to swim across rivers on the skins of goats that were filled with air, just as we fill the life-preservers that we buy in New York or London. I believe that a patent was granted to the modern inventor, but the Assyrian was thousands of years ahead of him.'
"One of us suggested that perhaps the modern inventor was honest, and thought he really had made an entirely new thing.
"'That is quite likely,' the Doctor answered. 'Many a man has applied for a patent on something that he had honestly invented; he thought it out himself, and kept it from the knowledge of everybodyelse till he sent his model to the Patent-office. Then he learned to his surprise that his invention was an old one, and either secured already, or had been so long in use that no one could get a patent for it. The experts in the Patent-office at Washington could tell you of hundreds of instances of this kind, and they could also tell you that it not unfrequently happens that two or three persons in different parts of the country, and wholly unknown to each other, have hit upon the same thing at almost the same moment, without the least suspicion that either of them knew what the other was doing.
"'One instance that occurs to me is of the use of chloroform and similar substances for preventing pain during surgical operations. There were no less than four claimants to the honor of the discovery of anæsthetics, and monuments have been erected to the memory of two of these gentlemen. There is no ground for believing that either of them encroached on the other, for their experiments were quite independent, and in different parts of the country, and each believed he was the first in the field. The invention of printing by means of movable types is claimed for two men; the steam-engine had two or three inventors, and so had the system of electric telegraphy. A curious circumstance is that many things which have been considered new in our times were known to the ancients. Samuel Colt received a patent for the revolving pistol, when the same weapon had been made in Europe two or three centuries ago; and patents have been taken out for the invention of things that were afterward found in the ruins of Pompeii, where they had been buried for 1800 years. Of course there are many new things under the sun, but not everything is new that appears so when we first see it.'"
MODERN "KELEKS," OR SKIN RAFTS.
GIRGEH.
The first halting-place above Sioot was Girgeh, which may be considered the Arabic for George, as the place was named in honor of the saint whose history is intimately connected with the dragon. St. George is the patron saint of the Christians of Egypt, and there was a Coptic convent at Girgeh, four or five centuries ago, that was named after him. It supported two hundred monks and had a large revenue; but its inhabitants died during a visitation of the plague, and for some time the buildings were without tenants. At present there is a small convent or monasteryat Girgeh, and it is said to be the oldest establishment of the kind in Egypt. The superior is a European, but the rest of the members are native Egyptians. Formerly the town was some distance back from the river, but the Nile has so changed its course that Girgeh is now on the very brink of the stream, and some of its houses have been washed away.
It was announced that the party would land at Girgeh to visit the ruins of the ancient Abydus, or Thinis, twelve miles away; during their absence the boat would proceed to Bellianeh, where they would find it at the end of their excursion. The start was made immediately after breakfast, not without considerable opposition on the part of the donkeys, and a wrangle with the natives over the question of backsheesh.
SCENE DURING THE INUNDATION.
The road lay through fields of sugar-cane, pease, beans, and other products of the Egyptian soil; many of them were in blossom, and the boys thought the scene was the richest they had yet encountered during their visit to the country. Frank remarked the great contrast between the luxuriant fields and the miserable villages of the natives. The villages here, as elsewhere in the valley, are generally built on mounds, so as to keep them out of the reach of the water when the river overflows its banks. During the season of the inundation the whole country is overflowed, and the natives cannot go from their villages except in boats, or unless they choose to swim. Cattle seek the mounds for safety; and sometimes, when the banks give way, and the river rises suddenly, many of them are drowned. The people go out with boats to secure their goats, cows, and oxen, and the scene is a very active one. Until the water subsides the villages are indiscriminately filled with live stock and their owners, and sometimes there is an animated contest between them for the right of occupation.
At every village the children came out and begged for backsheesh, and their appearance was quite in keeping with the squalid aspect of the mud huts where they lived. Frank wondered that they managed toreach the age of ten years in such habitations, and the Doctor replied that it was a proof that the human race is capable of living anywhere, if it will only try.
A CAMEL ON HIS WAY TO PASTURE.
There was the usual excitement among the cows and chickens at the presence of the strangers; in two or three cases the cows broke the ropes by which they were tethered, and scampered into the villages as though they feared immediate conversion into beef. The boys observed that the cows were required to cut their own fodder; they were tethered in the rich grass, and required to eat the spot entirely clean before their locations were changed. Evidently it was not the custom to allow them to run loose and help themselves. Now and then the tall form of a camel was visible, either carrying a burden of some sort or tethered out, like the cows and oxen.
A ride of three hours brought the party to the object of their excursion, the Temple of Abydus. Frank and Fred will tell us about it.
"The Temple of Abydus is one of the most interesting in Egypt, as it is quite extensive, and its architectural character is excellent. We admired its vast proportions, the massive pillars covered with sculptures, and the walls that were everywhere blazing with hieroglyphics representing scenes of the country's glory. And while we were studying all these things we looked around for the Doctor, and could not find him.
"Pretty soon he re-appeared, and said the historical interest of theplace was in a narrow passage-way leading from the second hall to a small inner chamber.
"We went there with him, and he pointed to the eastern wall of the passage. There were some hieroglyphics we could not understand, and we asked what they were.
HEADS OF CAPTIVES OF RAMESES II.
"'They are the names of seventy-six kings,' said the Doctor, 'to whom Sethi I., the founder and builder of the temple, and father of Rameses II., is offering homage. The list begins with Menes, the founder of the first dynasty, and ends with the name of Sethi. Rameses II. is offering homage with his father, and for this reason it has been supposed that the list was made by Rameses after Sethi's death. The list is called "The Tablet of Abydus," and is of great value to the writers on Egyptian history; a similar list, but badly mutilated, was found in a temple near here, and carried to the British Museum. There is some dispute as to whether it is a full or only partial list of the kings of Egypt, but in either case it is of great historical interest.'
"Abydus was second only to Thebes in importance, and was for a long time the capital of Egypt. Several temples, or rather their ruins, have been discovered here, and it is thought that others are still buriedin the sand. A great many tombs have been opened, and where their contents were of any consequence they were carried to the museum at Cairo, or sent to the large collections in Europe.
"One of the temples that we visited was in a very ruined state; it must have been a magnificent structure in the days of its perfection, as the walls were lined with alabaster and covered with beautiful sculptures, all painted in colors that still remain. Some of the smaller rooms in the great temple were roofed with large stones placed on their edges, an arch was made in the stones, and then the whole of the cut surface was covered with hieroglyphics, which are as perfect as the day they were made. The sand that buried these temples for so many centuries was in one way their preserver.
A LUNCH-PARTY OF OTHER DAYS.
"We took our lunch in the great hall of the temple, and it was an odd sight to see a group of Americans, English, and other modern people seated among the columns of this ancient edifice, engaged in picking the flesh from the bones of chickens, or devouring sandwiches, or slices of cold beef. Doctor Bronson leaned against one of the columns, and his hunger made him quite forget that his shoulders pressed upon the feet of a sculptured king, who had been patient and chickenless for many hundred years, and was totally unmoved by the incidents of modern days. Wonder if they had sandwiches and kindred things in the time of Sethi I., and is it possible that they used silver-plated knives and forks, or drank cold tea from glass tumblers?
"Of the great city that once stood here nothing remains but heapsof rubbish, ruined temples and tombs, and a miserable village with a few dozen inhabitants, who live by what they can extort from visitors.
"We returned to the steamer at Bellianeh by a road only half as long as that from Girgeh. The route was pretty much the same, as it lay through richly-tilled fields, and passed near several small villages of mud huts and muddy inhabitants. At Bellianeh there was the usual crowd of beggars, and we varied the monotony by throwing copper coins into heaps of dust, where the children scrambled for them.
"Just by the stern of the boat there was a dust-heap about forty feet high, and very steep on the sides; one of the passengers threw a coin so that it struck about midway from top to bottom of the heap, and what a scramble there was for it! Those at the top rolled down, and those below climbed up. During the struggle they raised a perfect cloud, and several of them tumbled into the river.
"Somebody got the money, and then they made signs for trying it again. Another copper was thrown, and then another, and the children evidently enjoyed the fun, and wanted it kept up as long as the boat remained.
"While they were in the midst of the sport two or three men, who appeared to be elders of the village, came with whips and ordered the boys away. The passengers sent the conductor to argue with them to let the sport go on; his argument was very short, and consisted in giving each man a franc to go away. They accepted the money and walked off. The instant they were out of sight the performance was renewed, and it continued till the boat swung out and moved up the river. We had several swimming matches, like those we had farther down the Nile. Some of the boys were very expert swimmers, and seemed as much adapted for the water as for the land."
From Bellianeh the steamer proceeded to Keneh, an important town on the east bank of the Nile, and the terminus of a caravan road from Kosseir, on the Red Sea. Formerly it had a considerable trade with the Red Sea, but since the opening of the Suez Canal, and the facilities it affords for steam communication with Alexandria, the business has declined very greatly. At one time it supplied a large part of the Arabian coast with corn, which was carried on camels to Kosseir, and then shipped to the points where it was wanted.
The town stands a couple of miles back from the river, and is on the site of an ancient city, though it contains no ruins of any consequence. At the landing-place Frank saw a large pile of jars or water-bottles made of porous clay, and, on asking about them, he learned that a considerabletrade in these articles was carried on from Keneh, which had the reputation of making them better than any other place on the Nile.
Of course this assertion excited his curiosity, and led him to wonder why the potters of Keneh should be more expert than other men in the same occupation.
"It is not the potters, but the material they work with," replied the Doctor, "that makes the superiority of the water-bottles of Keneh."
"How is that?"
"Close to the town there is a bed of clay," was the response, "which is said to be peculiarly adapted to the manufacture of these bottles. It is mixed with the ashes of halfa grass in certain proportions, and must be well mixed while both substances are in a dry state. Then the mixture is moistened, and is ready for the potter. We will see one of the establishments where the work is performed."
On their way to the town our friends visited a shed where several potters were engaged at their trade. The soft clay was placed on a horizontal wheel, which was turned rapidly either by the hand or the foot of the workman; while it revolved with its plastic burden the fingers of the potter gave the bottle its shape, and the whole operation was very quickly accomplished. Then the bottle was carefully removed, and placed where it could dry in the open air, and the wheel was ready for fashioning another.
ANCIENT POTTERS AT WORK.
The Doctor explained that the modes of making these bottles had changed very little in five thousand years, as they could see by the pictures on the walls of the tombs. The ancient Egyptians were familiar with the wheel and its uses; the potter of the time of Rameses II. manipulated the clay in the same manner as his descendant of to-day, and he doubtless knew the necessary proportions of clay and sifted ashes for making his composition.
ANCIENT VASES, CUPS, AND WATER-JARS.
The boys had already observed the porous character of the Egyptian water-bottle. It allows the water to pass through so freely that the outsideis constantly wet; in the dry air of Egypt this outside water evaporates rapidly, and every student of natural philosophy knows that evaporation produces coolness. Especially is this the case if the bottle is placed where there is a current of air, as the evaporation is greatly increased by the action of the wind. One day the boys made an experiment with one of these bottles with the following result:
The temperature of the air was 81° Fahrenheit, and so was that of the water with which the bottle was filled. It was hung in a shady place, where there was a good draught, and in half an hour a thermometer lowered into the bottle showed that the water had fallen to 63°, or eighteen less than the surrounding temperature.
This process, or a similar one, is in use in all hot countries. Doctor Bronson told the youths that he had seen bottles very like the Egyptian ones in Mexico and South America. In some cases, where the material was not porous, the coolness was produced by wrapping a piece of cloth around a bottle, and keeping it constantly wet while hanging in a current of air.
DATE-PALMS, NEAR KENEH.
Another feature of Keneh that attracted attention was the remarkably fine dates that were offered for sale. The dates of Keneh have an excellent reputation in the markets of Cairo and Alexandria, and generallybring a high price. They are not pressed into a solid mass, like most of the dates sold in America, but each one is separate from the others, and only the best are selected for packing. Our friends bought several boxes of these dates, and kept them in their rooms on the steamboat with the intention of taking them to Cairo; but, like many other good intentions, their scheme fell through, as the sweetness and delicate flavor of the contents of the boxes were temptations that could not be resisted. Continual dropping is said to wear away stone, and Fred remarked that continual nibbling would wear away the best box of dates ever known.
The boat was to remain at the landing during the night and until the greater part of the following day, and so our friends had the evening for seeing Keneh. An invitation came for some of the passengers to visit the German Consulate, and witness a characteristic dance of the country. The invitation included Doctor Bronson, and Frank, and Fred, and at the appointed hour the party set out. On reaching the Consulate, they were ushered into a large hall that seemed to have been fitted up for the special entertainment of Europeans, as it was furnished with chairs instead of divans, and the consul, though a native, was in European dress.
ANCIENT DANCERS AND MUSICIANS.
After a little delay the dance was announced, and the dancers made their appearance. There were four of them, and they were accompanied by two musicians, one playing the nay, and the other the darabookah, bothof which have been already described. The musicians settled on the floor in one corner of the apartment, and the dancers stepped to the middle of the room. At a signal from the master of the house the dance began.
A MODERN MUSICIAN.
The dancers were young women, who were rather fantastically dressed. They wore "rings on their fingers and bells on their toes," as the old nursery rhyme has it, and their heads and necks were covered with a profusion of jewellery, consisting principally of gold and silver coins strung closely together, and so arranged that they jingled every time the wearers moved. A richly embroidered jacket, and a long skirt which nearly touched the floor, were the outer garments worn by the dancers. The dresses of the four were precisely alike, and the Doctor said the costume was pretty much the same all through Egypt, where fashions rarely change from one year to another.
The boys had read of the wonderful beauty of the Egyptian dancers, and the great novelty of the scene they were about to witness. The Doctorsaid nothing, but there was a smile on his features when the dance began. He knew that the youths were doomed to be disappointed, and in the first pause of the dance he asked them what they thought of it.
"If that is what they call dancing," said Frank, "I'm glad to know it. It seems more like the efforts of people learning to skate."
"About as lively as the performance of the figures on a hand-organ," Fred remarked. "I wonder why travellers have written so much nonsense about it."
"Some travellers have described the Egyptian dance in the most enthusiastic language," answered the Doctor, "and others thought they must do the same. It requires considerable courage to fly in the face of opinions that have been given over and over again by others, and consequently the fashion that was set long and long ago has been kept up.
"I have seen a good many dances in Egypt," he continued, "and never yet knew one that approached the most of the descriptions I have read. Sometimes the girls are fairly pretty, but the great majority are of an ordinary type, and the dancing consists of that gliding and sliding from side to side which you have just witnessed. It is more suggestive of skating than of what is called dancing in Western countries."
The dance was resumed after a brief rest, and it continued with several intermissions for something over an hour. Coffee was served two or three times in the course of the evening, and when the entertainment was ended our friends returned to the steamer. Before they retired the conductor collected five francs from each passenger who had attended the dance, in order to remunerate the consul for his outlay. He said the consul went through the form of inviting strangers to an entertainment, but expected them to pay for it in a roundabout way.
"Not at all unusual in the East," the Doctor remarked, "and certainly no one could expect a consul to spend his money in the entertainment of every party of strangers that comes along. We can imagine we were his guests, and forget that we have paid for what we saw. The illusion is very thin, but it does no harm to any one."
AN EGYPTIAN KING ON HIS THRONE.
The next day was devoted to an excursion to the Temple of Denderah, which is on the opposite side of the Nile from Keneh, and a ride of about an hour from the landing. The party was ferried over in the ordinary boats of the natives, and found donkeys waiting on the bank with the usual crowd of importunate natives.
The Temple of Denderah is the most modern in all Egypt, as it was built less than two thousand years ago. After one is accustomed to the pyramids, and similar structures of forty or fifty centuries, and comes to the Temple of Denderah, he hesitates to rub against it for fear the paint is not sufficiently dried.
But however much he may dislike the newness of the building, he can hardly fail to admire its solidity, and the magnificence of its halls and porticos. It is the best preserved of all the temples, as its walls and columns are practically uninjured, and the roof is almost entire. A mound of rubbish extends quite around it, and from a little distance the entrance of the temple is quite invisible.
FRONT OF THE TEMPLE AT DENDERAH.
The entrance is through a fine portico of twenty-four columns. On the ceiling of this portico is a zodiac, which has been the subject of a great deal of discussion, as it was supposed to show that the signs of thezodiac were used by the ancient Egyptians. Recent discoveries show that it is of Roman origin, and less ancient than was at first believed. Every student of Egyptology has had something to say about it, and we may safely remark that there are more opinions on the subject than there are signs in the zodiac itself.
Considerable time was spent in the inspection of the temple, and in admiring the sculptures on the walls. Among them is a portrait of Cleopatra, which is supposed to have been made in the lifetime of that historic lady, and may therefore be regarded as a fair likeness of her. It does not represent her as a pretty woman, and therefore we may doubt whether she was as handsome as the artists of modern times have tried to make her. Some of those who wish to believe she was very pretty say the portrait at Denderah was made by an artist who never saw her, and did his work from an inaccurate likeness.