AN EGYPTIAN HARPER.
"From this tomb we went to that of Rameses III. It was discovered by Bruce, the famous traveller in Egypt and Abyssinia, and usually bears his name, though it is sometimes called 'the Harper's Tomb,' from the figure of a man playing on a harp, which is painted on one of the walls. It is much easier to visit than Belzoni's, and its chief interest lies in the great number of agricultural, pastoral, and other scenes depicted on the walls. The daily life of the people is very clearly shown, and we have an excellent idea of what the ancient Egyptians did, how they lived, and what were their articles of furniture, dress, and the like. We were astonished to see pictures of sofas, chairs, tables, and other adornments of the house that would be considered luxurious at the present time. Doctor Bronson says the designers of modern furniture might learn a great deal by coming here and copying the pictures on the walls.
A CHAIR FROM BRUCE'S TOMB.
"We saw half a dozen tombs of the kings, and then went to the tombs of the Assaséef. Perhaps you'd like to know what they are?
"They were the tombs of certain high-priests of Thebes, who are reputed to have been very wealthy and powerful, and certainly they must have been pretty nearly as important as the king under whom they lived. Their tombs are even larger than any of the tombs of the kings: the greatest of the Assaséef tombs has a lineal distance from the entrance tothe farthest point of eight hundred and sixty-two feet, and the floors of the various passages, rooms, and pits include an area of about an acre and a quarter. Isn't that a pretty large tomb for one person—even though he included the members of his family and a few personal friends?
"We lighted our torches at the entrance, and then began a long walk through the interior, though we did not visit all the side chambers and narrow rooms, of which there are a great many. The sculptures on the walls are inferior to those in Belzoni's and Bruce's tombs, and we did not spend much time over them.
"Several times some of our torches were put out by the bats, of which there are great numbers in the tomb. It was quite as bad for the bats as for the torches, as they could not fly into the flame without risk of having their wings singed. They flew in our faces, and were anything but agreeable. One of our party said he had heard of receiving 'a bat in the eye,' but never before experienced the sensation. He had a dozen of them at least before he got out of the place.
"From this place we went to some private tombs, and then to the tombs of the queens, but only visited one of each. Neither of these was particularly interesting after what we had seen, though they contained the usual profusion of mural paintings, which we had no time for inspecting. The best of the paintings and sculptures have been copied by Wilkinson and others, and we may study them at our leisure when we get home, and our friends who are interested in the subject can do the same thing. In one of the tombs we found the work of an artist who evidently had the spirit of fun in him, as there were several caricatures of no mean order. In one picture a boat has collided with another, and a whole lot of cakes and other eatables are overturned on the rowers. We find caricatures occasionally, but not often, and, on the whole, the Egyptians seem to have been a serious people.
"We got back all right to the bank of the river, where the boats were waiting to ferry us over to Luxor. So ends our sight-seeing at Thebes, as we leave to-morrow morning to continue our journey up the Nile. We have had no accident beyond a few slight tumbles and bruises, and have obtained a store of information that will severely tax our memories to retain. Let us hope that we can remember it, and be able to impart our knowledge to others; if we can, we shall be rewarded a thousand times over for the trouble we have taken, and for the fatigues of our visits to the temples and tombs of this famous city of thirty centuries ago."
Since the travels of our friends in Egypt an event has occurred of great interest to all who have any familiarity with the history of the land of the Pharaohs. It will be noted that Frank and Fred, during their visits to the tombs of the kings, and to the museum at Boulak, did not see the mummy of any royal personage, if we except that of Queen Amen-Hotep, which was found by Mariette Bey, together with the remarkable collection of jewellery described in Chapter VIII.
Remembering that no mummy of a king had been found down to the date of the journey of our friends in Egypt, and that all the royal tombs when opened were found to have been previously visited by vandals as free-handed as those of modern days, we can appreciate the importance of the announcement, toward the end of 1881, that a new tomb had been opened and found to contain the mummies of several kings, together with those of other royal personages. The following description is taken from a recent publication, the details having been derived from the reports of M. Maspero, the able successor of Mariette Pasha:
"For the last ten years or more it had been suspected that the Theban Arabs (whose main occupation is tomb-pillage and mummy-snatching) had found a royal sepulchre. Objects of great rarity and antiquity were being brought to Europe every season by travellers who had purchased them from native dealers living on the spot; and many of these objects were historically traceable to certain royal dynasties which made Thebes their capital city. At length suspicion became certainty. An English tourist, passing through Paris, presented Professor Maspero with some photographs from a superb papyrus which he had then lately bought at Thebes from an Arab named Abd-er-Ranoul. This papyrus proved to be the Ritual, or funereal sacred book, written for Pinotem I., third priest-king of the twenty-first dynasty. Evidently, then, the tomb of this sovereign had been discovered and pillaged. In January, 1881, the late lamented Mariette Pasha died at Cairo, and was succeeded by Professor Maspero, the present Conservator of Antiquities to H.H. the Khedive. Professor Maspero at once resolved to get to the bottom of the Theban mystery; and, with that object chiefly in view, proceeded last April to Upper Egypt upon his first official trip of inspection. Arriving at Luxor he straightway arrested the said Abd-er-Ranoul. Threats, bribery, persuasion were, however, tried in vain, and Abd-er-Ranoul was consigned to the district prison at Keneh, the chief town of the province. Here for two months he maintained an obstinate silence. In the mean while Professor Maspero offered a reward of £500 for the discovery ofthe secret, and returned to Europe. Scarcely had he embarked when the elder brother of Abd-er-Ranoul went privately before the Governor of Keneh, offered to betray the secret, and claimed the reward.SECTION OF PAPYRUS."The governor telegraphed immediately to Cairo; and Herr Emil Brugsch, Keeper of the Boulak Museum (whom Professor Maspero had deputed to act for him in any case of emergency), was forthwith despatched to Thebes. Here he was conducted to a lonely spot in the most desolate and unfrequented part of the great necropolis which extends for between three and four miles along the western bank of the Nile. Hidden behind an angle of limestone cliff, and masked by a huge fragment of fallen rock, he beheld the entrance to a perpendicular shaft descending to a depth of thirty-nine feet. At the bottom of this shaft opened a gallery two hundred and forty feet in length, leading to a sepulchral vault measuring twenty-three feet by thirteen. In this gallery and vault were found some thirty-six mummies, including more than twenty kings and queens, besides princes, princesses, and high-priests, to say nothing of an immense store of sacred vessels, funereal statuettes, alabaster vases, and precious objects in glass, bronze, acacia-wood, etc. The treasure thus brought to light consisted of some six thousand items, not the least valuable of which were four royal papyri. Professor Maspero, in his official report, warmly eulogizes the energy with which Herr Emil Brugsch, by the aid of five hundred native laborers, exhumed, packed, shipped, and brought to Cairo the whole contents of this now famous hiding-place.COFFIN AND MUMMY OF A ROYAL PRINCESS."The following are the principal royal mummies found in this recently opened tomb:"King Rasekenen-Taaken and Queen Ansera, of the seventeenth dynasty."King Ahmes Ra-neb-Pehti, Queen Ahmes Nofretari, Queen Aah-Hotep, Queen Merit-Amen, Queen Hontimoo-hoo, Prince Se Amen, Princess Set-Amen, King Amen-Hotep I., King Thothmes I.,* King Thothmes II., King Thothmes III., Queen Sitka, all of the eighteenth dynasty.COFFIN OF QUEEN NOFRETARI."King Rameses I.,* King Sethi I., King Rameses II., of the nineteenth dynasty.[The asterisk indicates that the mummy is missing.]"Queen Notem-Maut, King and High-priest Pinotem I., King Pinotem II., Prince and High-priest Masahirti, Queen Hathor Hout-Taui, Queen Makara, Queen Isi-em-Kheb, Princess Nasi-Khonsu, Prince Tat-f-Ankh, Nebseni, a priest, Noi-Shounap, a priest, of the twenty-first dynasty."In some instances the mummy reposes in its original mummy-case, and sometimes in two or three mummy-cases, the whole enclosed in an enormous outer sarcophagus. In others, only the mummy case is left, the mummy having been destroyed or abstracted. Farther, some mummies are found in mummy-cases not their own, or in mummy-cases which have been altered and usurped for their use in ancient times."There can be no doubt that the vault in which these various mummies and funereal treasures were found was the family sepulchre of the kings of the twenty-first dynasty. This dynasty was founded by Her-Hor, High-priest of Amen of the great Temple of Amen at Thebes, who, toward the close of the twentieth dynasty, at a time the throne of the last Ramessides was tottering to its foundations, either inherited the crown by right of descent or seized it by force."The close of the twentieth dynasty was an epoch of great internal trouble and disorder. During the reigns of the last four or five kings of that line there had been little security for life and property in Thebes; and organized bands of robbers committed constant depredations in the more retired quarters of the necropolis, attacking chiefly the tombs of great personages, and venturing even to break open the sepulchres of the royal dead. Hence it became the sacred duty of the reigning monarch to take every possible precaution to insure the mummies of his predecessors against profanation and pillage."We accordingly find that Her-Hor caused the sepulchres of his predecessors to be periodically visited by a service of regularly appointed Inspectors of Tombs, whose duty it was to report upon the condition of the royal mummies; to repair their wrappings and mummy-cases when requisite; and, if necessary, to remove them from their own sepulchres into any others which might be deemed more secure. All of them seem to have been moved several times: at one time the tomb of Queen Ansera, at another time the tomb of Sethi I., at another time the tomb of one of the Amen-Hoteps would seem to have been selected as the chosen hiding-place of several royal mummies, all of whom had been removed from their own original sepulchres by order of Her-Hor or his successors. The mummy of Rameses II. (to whose memory, as the supposed Pharaoh of the oppression of the Hebrews, so strong an interest attaches) appearsto have been removed more frequently, and to have suffered more vicissitudes of fortune than any of the others. That his sepulchre in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings had been violated by robbers can scarcely be doubted, for his original mummy-cases were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair."All the mummies were eventually consigned to the tomb of the Her-Hor family near the end of the twenty-first dynasty. Professor Maspero believes this final measure to have been taken during the reign of King Menkheperra, the last sovereign but one of the Her-Hor line. Menkheperra himself is not among those found in the vault; neither is his son and successor, Pinotem III. Having piously deposited all these revered and deified Pharaohs and other royal personages in the last home of his own immediate ancestors, Menkheperra evidently closed the vault forever, and was himself content to be buried elsewhere."It is interesting to learn from the reports of Professor Maspero and Herr Brugsch the heights of some of the famous kings of Egypt. Raskenen, it seems, was among Egyptian kings like Saul in Israel. He measured six feet one inch, and very few of his descendants took after him in this particular. Ashmes, for instance (his grandson), measured only five feet six inches, and the great Thothmes III. five feet seven inches. Thothmes II. approached the stature of his ancestor, but Sethi I. was no more than five feet nine inches. It is satisfactory to learn that Rameses II. was taller than his father, and not, like Thothmes III., a little man, by any means, for his mummy wants but one inch of six feet.COFFIN OF RAMESES II."One of the most interesting objects in the collection is the coffin of Rameses II. The face of the king is represented on the lid, and the hands are in high relief, grasping the Osirian scourge and crook, but the face is not from the studio of the artists who carved the walls of Abydus, and designed the sitting figures of Aboo-Simbel. On the breast is a legend which includes two royal cartouches or ovals, with an inscription in that hieratic or cursive hieroglyphic writing which is so difficult to read. The names in the ovals are easily read, however—'Ra-messes-mer-Amen' in one, 'Ra-user-Ma Setep-en-Ra' in the other."Considerable interest attaches to the mummy of King Pinotem, as it was the latest of all theroyal collection. Pinotem was the third king of the twenty-first dynasty, who reigned as nearly as possible a millenniumb.c. In addition to the royal mummies, a multitude of objects bearing cartouches will throw great light upon the succession of these kings; and the tent of Pinotem, of leather, embroidered and colored, and covered with hieroglyphics, cannot fail to clear up some historical difficulties as to the priest-kings of Thebes. His face has an Ethiopian cast of features, and he is believed to have been descended from the princes of Egypt who came from the South. The lips are slightly parted, and the upper teeth are almost visible. The absence of the eyeball is indicated by the way in which the eyelids are sunken; and the nostrils are forcibly distended, in consequence of the method employed by the embalmers for the removal of the brain, which was effected by means of a hooked instrument passed up through the nose. The expression is, nevertheless, not unpleasing. The shrouds are of somewhat coarse texture; and a few withered flowers may be observed stuck through the bands which hold the wrappings together."
"For the last ten years or more it had been suspected that the Theban Arabs (whose main occupation is tomb-pillage and mummy-snatching) had found a royal sepulchre. Objects of great rarity and antiquity were being brought to Europe every season by travellers who had purchased them from native dealers living on the spot; and many of these objects were historically traceable to certain royal dynasties which made Thebes their capital city. At length suspicion became certainty. An English tourist, passing through Paris, presented Professor Maspero with some photographs from a superb papyrus which he had then lately bought at Thebes from an Arab named Abd-er-Ranoul. This papyrus proved to be the Ritual, or funereal sacred book, written for Pinotem I., third priest-king of the twenty-first dynasty. Evidently, then, the tomb of this sovereign had been discovered and pillaged. In January, 1881, the late lamented Mariette Pasha died at Cairo, and was succeeded by Professor Maspero, the present Conservator of Antiquities to H.H. the Khedive. Professor Maspero at once resolved to get to the bottom of the Theban mystery; and, with that object chiefly in view, proceeded last April to Upper Egypt upon his first official trip of inspection. Arriving at Luxor he straightway arrested the said Abd-er-Ranoul. Threats, bribery, persuasion were, however, tried in vain, and Abd-er-Ranoul was consigned to the district prison at Keneh, the chief town of the province. Here for two months he maintained an obstinate silence. In the mean while Professor Maspero offered a reward of £500 for the discovery ofthe secret, and returned to Europe. Scarcely had he embarked when the elder brother of Abd-er-Ranoul went privately before the Governor of Keneh, offered to betray the secret, and claimed the reward.
SECTION OF PAPYRUS.
"The governor telegraphed immediately to Cairo; and Herr Emil Brugsch, Keeper of the Boulak Museum (whom Professor Maspero had deputed to act for him in any case of emergency), was forthwith despatched to Thebes. Here he was conducted to a lonely spot in the most desolate and unfrequented part of the great necropolis which extends for between three and four miles along the western bank of the Nile. Hidden behind an angle of limestone cliff, and masked by a huge fragment of fallen rock, he beheld the entrance to a perpendicular shaft descending to a depth of thirty-nine feet. At the bottom of this shaft opened a gallery two hundred and forty feet in length, leading to a sepulchral vault measuring twenty-three feet by thirteen. In this gallery and vault were found some thirty-six mummies, including more than twenty kings and queens, besides princes, princesses, and high-priests, to say nothing of an immense store of sacred vessels, funereal statuettes, alabaster vases, and precious objects in glass, bronze, acacia-wood, etc. The treasure thus brought to light consisted of some six thousand items, not the least valuable of which were four royal papyri. Professor Maspero, in his official report, warmly eulogizes the energy with which Herr Emil Brugsch, by the aid of five hundred native laborers, exhumed, packed, shipped, and brought to Cairo the whole contents of this now famous hiding-place.
COFFIN AND MUMMY OF A ROYAL PRINCESS.
"The following are the principal royal mummies found in this recently opened tomb:
"King Rasekenen-Taaken and Queen Ansera, of the seventeenth dynasty.
"King Ahmes Ra-neb-Pehti, Queen Ahmes Nofretari, Queen Aah-Hotep, Queen Merit-Amen, Queen Hontimoo-hoo, Prince Se Amen, Princess Set-Amen, King Amen-Hotep I., King Thothmes I.,* King Thothmes II., King Thothmes III., Queen Sitka, all of the eighteenth dynasty.
COFFIN OF QUEEN NOFRETARI.
"King Rameses I.,* King Sethi I., King Rameses II., of the nineteenth dynasty.
[The asterisk indicates that the mummy is missing.]
"Queen Notem-Maut, King and High-priest Pinotem I., King Pinotem II., Prince and High-priest Masahirti, Queen Hathor Hout-Taui, Queen Makara, Queen Isi-em-Kheb, Princess Nasi-Khonsu, Prince Tat-f-Ankh, Nebseni, a priest, Noi-Shounap, a priest, of the twenty-first dynasty.
"In some instances the mummy reposes in its original mummy-case, and sometimes in two or three mummy-cases, the whole enclosed in an enormous outer sarcophagus. In others, only the mummy case is left, the mummy having been destroyed or abstracted. Farther, some mummies are found in mummy-cases not their own, or in mummy-cases which have been altered and usurped for their use in ancient times.
"There can be no doubt that the vault in which these various mummies and funereal treasures were found was the family sepulchre of the kings of the twenty-first dynasty. This dynasty was founded by Her-Hor, High-priest of Amen of the great Temple of Amen at Thebes, who, toward the close of the twentieth dynasty, at a time the throne of the last Ramessides was tottering to its foundations, either inherited the crown by right of descent or seized it by force.
"The close of the twentieth dynasty was an epoch of great internal trouble and disorder. During the reigns of the last four or five kings of that line there had been little security for life and property in Thebes; and organized bands of robbers committed constant depredations in the more retired quarters of the necropolis, attacking chiefly the tombs of great personages, and venturing even to break open the sepulchres of the royal dead. Hence it became the sacred duty of the reigning monarch to take every possible precaution to insure the mummies of his predecessors against profanation and pillage.
"We accordingly find that Her-Hor caused the sepulchres of his predecessors to be periodically visited by a service of regularly appointed Inspectors of Tombs, whose duty it was to report upon the condition of the royal mummies; to repair their wrappings and mummy-cases when requisite; and, if necessary, to remove them from their own sepulchres into any others which might be deemed more secure. All of them seem to have been moved several times: at one time the tomb of Queen Ansera, at another time the tomb of Sethi I., at another time the tomb of one of the Amen-Hoteps would seem to have been selected as the chosen hiding-place of several royal mummies, all of whom had been removed from their own original sepulchres by order of Her-Hor or his successors. The mummy of Rameses II. (to whose memory, as the supposed Pharaoh of the oppression of the Hebrews, so strong an interest attaches) appearsto have been removed more frequently, and to have suffered more vicissitudes of fortune than any of the others. That his sepulchre in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings had been violated by robbers can scarcely be doubted, for his original mummy-cases were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
"All the mummies were eventually consigned to the tomb of the Her-Hor family near the end of the twenty-first dynasty. Professor Maspero believes this final measure to have been taken during the reign of King Menkheperra, the last sovereign but one of the Her-Hor line. Menkheperra himself is not among those found in the vault; neither is his son and successor, Pinotem III. Having piously deposited all these revered and deified Pharaohs and other royal personages in the last home of his own immediate ancestors, Menkheperra evidently closed the vault forever, and was himself content to be buried elsewhere.
"It is interesting to learn from the reports of Professor Maspero and Herr Brugsch the heights of some of the famous kings of Egypt. Raskenen, it seems, was among Egyptian kings like Saul in Israel. He measured six feet one inch, and very few of his descendants took after him in this particular. Ashmes, for instance (his grandson), measured only five feet six inches, and the great Thothmes III. five feet seven inches. Thothmes II. approached the stature of his ancestor, but Sethi I. was no more than five feet nine inches. It is satisfactory to learn that Rameses II. was taller than his father, and not, like Thothmes III., a little man, by any means, for his mummy wants but one inch of six feet.
COFFIN OF RAMESES II.
"One of the most interesting objects in the collection is the coffin of Rameses II. The face of the king is represented on the lid, and the hands are in high relief, grasping the Osirian scourge and crook, but the face is not from the studio of the artists who carved the walls of Abydus, and designed the sitting figures of Aboo-Simbel. On the breast is a legend which includes two royal cartouches or ovals, with an inscription in that hieratic or cursive hieroglyphic writing which is so difficult to read. The names in the ovals are easily read, however—'Ra-messes-mer-Amen' in one, 'Ra-user-Ma Setep-en-Ra' in the other.
"Considerable interest attaches to the mummy of King Pinotem, as it was the latest of all theroyal collection. Pinotem was the third king of the twenty-first dynasty, who reigned as nearly as possible a millenniumb.c. In addition to the royal mummies, a multitude of objects bearing cartouches will throw great light upon the succession of these kings; and the tent of Pinotem, of leather, embroidered and colored, and covered with hieroglyphics, cannot fail to clear up some historical difficulties as to the priest-kings of Thebes. His face has an Ethiopian cast of features, and he is believed to have been descended from the princes of Egypt who came from the South. The lips are slightly parted, and the upper teeth are almost visible. The absence of the eyeball is indicated by the way in which the eyelids are sunken; and the nostrils are forcibly distended, in consequence of the method employed by the embalmers for the removal of the brain, which was effected by means of a hooked instrument passed up through the nose. The expression is, nevertheless, not unpleasing. The shrouds are of somewhat coarse texture; and a few withered flowers may be observed stuck through the bands which hold the wrappings together."
A surprise was in store for Frank and Fred when they returned from their excursion to the tombs of the kings.
Several ladies of the party had declined to visit the tombs, partly on account of the fatigue of the journey, and partly because they had been invited to see the harem of the English consul at Luxor, and did not wish to miss the opportunity of learning how the women of the East pass their time. When our friends returned to the boat the ladies had only been back a short time from the harem, and there was an active interchange of accumulated information until dinner was announced.
After dinner Frank tried to persuade one of the ladies to write an account of what she saw in the harem, as he wished to send it home for his sister and Miss Effie to read. She was unwilling to write, but promised that she would tell him the next day, while they were steaming up the river, and then he might write it out for himself.
Frank accepted the conditions, and next morning he sat down, pencil in hand, to take the story from the lady's lips. He thought it would be more interesting in her words than in his, and, as he was a rapid writer, he managed to get down a good part of the story just as she told it.
Here is the result of his work:
"We went to the office," said the lady, "and found the consul was all ready for us. We walked from there to his house, which is quite pretty when you get inside of it, and has a nice little garden on a balcony; from this balcony we went into the harem, accompanied by the consul's son, who speaks English. The consul remained outside with the husband of one of the ladies, as it would have been a great outrage upon Oriental etiquette for a foreign gentleman to step inside the sacred spot.
"The son of the consul only stayed long enough to introduce us, and then we were left to take care of ourselves. There were half a dozen women, some of them the wives of the consul, and others married to his son: we couldn't remember them all separately, and so when the young man left us we didn't know which was which. But it was of no particular consequence that we forgot, as we had to do all our talking by signs; the women spoke only Arabic, and not one of us knew a dozen words of that language. The only word I could think of wasempshy!(clear out!), which you say to beggars when you want to be rid of them, and that wasn't exactly the kind of language to use when you are introduced to strangers.
AN ORIENTAL LADY AT HOME.
"When we entered the room they saluted us in Arabic, and invited us to sit on the carpet, which we did as well as we could. There were divans around the sides of the room, and a fine carpet in the centre, and we sat more on the carpet than on the divans. We wanted to do as nearly like our entertainers as we could, and when they invited us to the carpet we thought it would be rudeness to decline. Of course we were rather awkward about it, and laughed at our clumsiness, so as to give them a chance to laugh with us if they wanted to.
"They were dressed loosely in the flowing robes such as you see the Arab women wear in the streets, but they had no veils on their faces. There was one who did not seem to be more than fifteen years old, and I presume she was the favorite wife of the consul's son. She wore a dress embroidered more richly than any other, and the material was of a costly silk. I wanted to ask her where it was made, and how much it cost, as I fancied it would be a nice one to take home and excite the envy of my friends. But then, you know, it might have been impolite to put such a question, and, besides, I didn't know how to ask in Arabic. All things considered, I didn't ask at all.
"As soon as we sat down on the carpet they began to examine us; they looked very intently into our faces, they scanned our clothing and boots, loosened our hair, took out our ear-drops, and appeared as curiousand innocent as children. We returned the compliment by examining them, and they seemed greatly pleased that we did so.
"What excited their curiosity more than anything else was Mrs. ——'s hair. They pinched it and twisted it in all sorts of ways, passed it through their hands, and were not contented until they satisfied themselves that it grew naturally on her head. Even then they kept touching it and looking at it closely every few minutes, all the time we were in the harem."
EASTERN LADIES LISTENING TO MUSIC.
Frank made a memorandum, for the benefit of his sister and Miss Effie, that the lady in question was English, and had hair of the purest blonde. It was rich and glossy, of the hue of old gold, and was doubtless the first hair of the kind these Arab ladies had ever seen. It was no wonder that their curiosity was roused by it. Black hair is universal among the Arabs, and the tricks of the bleachers of London and New York are unknown in Egypt.
"Before we knew what they were doing," the lady continued, "they had our heads in their laps, and were staining our eyelids. They wanted to stain our finger-nails and tattoo our chins, but we declined the honor, as we did not like the effect of the coloring matter, which will not wash off. It remains on for several days, and when it begins to wear off it makes the hands very dingy. They were as much amused at the whiteness of our finger-nails as we were at the dark color of theirs.
"They wore their hair loose, with bands around the head to keep it in place, and the youngest of them had a very rich head-dress with many pieces of gold attached to it. They served us with pipes and coffee soon after we entered, and seemed much surprised at our refusal to smoke. One of us tried a few whiffs from a nargileh, and it made them laugh very much when the smoke choked her and set her to coughing.
"Our visit lasted about half an hour. They embraced us when we came away, but did not offer to kiss us, and the last thing they did was to give a farewell pinch to Mrs. ——'s hair. They intimated by signs that they would like to come to the boat to see us; but of course that would not be according to Eastern usage, and they are not at all likely to come."
Frank gathered other details about the life of Eastern women which he appended to his account of the visit we have just described. A few of them will not be out of place in this narrative.
"According to all I can learn," wrote Frank, "the life of an Eastern woman must be very monotonous. She goes out very little, and after she is married can only rarely visit her relatives. Day and night her place is in the harem, and she never speaks to any man except her husband—not even to his most intimate friends or to her own brothers. Thetime must hang very heavily on her hands, especially when, as is generally the case, she is unable to read, and cannot obtain the consolation which books afford.
AN ORIENTAL DANCING GIRL.
"I have told you of the marriage ceremonies among the modern Egyptians; they are practically the same in most of the Moslem countries, and have the same result among all except the poorer classes. The wife of a man who can afford the expense of a harem passes the most of her time there, and only goes out on rare occasions. Ladies of her own rank may call on her, and she can return their visits, but they are not very frequent, and she passes the most of the time entirely among the other women of her house. These include the servants or slaves, and possibly the other wives of her husband.
"Speaking of other wives, let me say here that, according to the Koran, an Arab or Turk may have four wives, provided he can take care of them, but by custom he sometimes has more. Doctor Bronson says the intercourse of the East with Europe has caused a great many men to adopt the customs of the latter country and have only one wife. Some of the high officers of Egypt have done so, and they are occasionally seen in public with their wives, which is a great innovation upon the old habits of the land.
"Where a man has two or more wives each of them is entitled to separate apartments, and to servants whose whole business is to wait on her; consequently, a harem is an expensive luxury, and there are not many who can afford it. Perhaps the saving of expense has something to do with the spread of European ideas among the Orientals. And then, too, there are apt to be quarrels among the occupants of the harem which the master is called upon to settle, and with a sufficient number of them his life is anything but a happy one.
AN EASTERN STORY-TELLER.
"The amusements of the ladies of the harem consist of music and story-telling, and for this there are professional narrators and performerswho go from house to house, and are paid for their services. Of course these are women, as no man except the master of the house can enter the harem. Their visits are always welcome, as they greatly assist in passing away the time. When a story-teller is present the women gather about her, and sometimes the master of the house is seated in a balcony, where he can hear the performance and look upon the assemblage below. For the musical entertainments there are generally two or more performers,one of them playing on the flute and the other on the guitar. Then there are women who sing in addition to playing, or, if singers cannot play, they bring their own accompanists.
"A lady in Moslem countries gives a party very much like one in New York, with the difference that all the visitors are ladies. Generally these parties are in the afternoon, though they sometimes take place in the evening. In either case the guests come at an appointed hour and are received by the hostess, who is in evening costume and without a veil. Her visitors having come through the streets on their way to the house are of course veiled when they arrive, but the veil is laid aside with the shawls and cloaks, and the guests make themselves at home, very much as in Christian countries.
"If the hostess is the wife of an official, or merchant having business with foreigners, she sends invitations to their wives or sisters—in fact, to any ladies she knows, whether they are of her religion or not. In this way European ladies are introduced to the harems, and it often happens that warm friendships are formed between women of different religions, just as they are formed among men.
A RECEPTION IN A HAREM.
"When there is a large party, some are seated on the divans and others on the carpet. Coffee and cigarettes are served, and those who desire pipes to smoke can be accommodated, as the long-stemmed nargileh abounds in every harem, and is very much in use. Conversation is very brisk, and it is said that the ladies of the East are quite as fluent with their tongues as their Western sisters.
"After a little time has been devoted to conversation the hostess gives a signal, and the entertainment provided for the occasion begins. If the lady has slaves that can sing they seat themselves on the floor and begin a song, but if there is not sufficient talent among them a party of professionals is especially engaged. The singing is followed by dancing, and this is almost always by professional dancing girls, and the affair is said to be much like the one we saw at Keneh.
"Dancing follows singing, and singing follows dancing, and now and then a story-teller is introduced for the amusement of those who like them. Sweetmeats and cakes are liberally served, and so are coffee and sherbet, which are taken from tiny cups such as we would disdain in our own country.
"In addition to these amusements they have cards and checkers, and many of the Eastern ladies are said to be very skilful at these games. In various ways the afternoon or evening is worn away, and, if the affair is a specially fine one, a supper is served on a large platter placed on a standin the centre of the room. It consists mostly of preserved fruits and other dainties, and is not so extensive as the supper at a party of the same sort in America. Nobody is expected to leave until some of the most fashionable or distinguished ladies give the signal. The hostess pretends to be very sorry to have them go, but is no doubt wishing to herself that they would make haste and leave her alone.
"So much for harem life in Egypt. I'm sorry I can't tell more about it, but all my information must come from somebody else, and therefore you must consider it second-hand. The condition of women in the East is improving, but it is yet far behind that of Europe and America. The progress is more rapid in Egypt than in Turkey and other Moslem lands, and the example of the rulers of this country in establishing schools for girls will have an effect in the right direction. But it will take a long time to overcome the prejudices that exist in consequence of the religion of the East, not only among the men but among the women themselves. Many of the Egyptian and Turkish ladies have told their foreign visitors that they would not desire to change places with them: they enjoy their life of indolence and seclusion, as it gives them a feeling of protection they would not have if the customs of Europe prevailed among them."
Esneh was the first stopping-place above Luxor, and the object of interest was a temple partly cleared out and partly covered by the houses of the town. The only part to be seen was the portico, which was reached by a flight of steps descending to it. Nobody knows the extent of the temple, as it was covered for many hundred years with heaps of rubbish. The attempts to clear it out were made quite recently, but enough has not been excavated to give even the outline of the original edifice.
SCULPTURES MUTILATED BY THE PERSIANS.
The boys observed here, as they had already done at Luxor and other places, that the sculptures were frequently injured by the destruction of the faces of the figures that had been engraved with so much care. They asked the Doctor how this was done, and he thus explained it:
"The Persians," said he, "had a great objection to seeing figures on the walls of the temples, and when they overran Egypt they mutilated them in the way you perceive. Happily the sculptures were so numerous that they did not have sufficient time to destroy them all, or even a goodly portion of them.
"The early Christians, in their zeal for removing the evidences of paganism, continued the work which the Persians began. In some instances they plastered the figures over so as to conceal them, and thus unintentionally caused them to be preserved. Where the plaster is removed the figures are found in excellent condition."
It did not require a long time for the visit to the Temple of Esneh, as the curiosity of the travellers concerning Egyptian temples had somewhatdiminished since their stay at Thebes, and the many explorations they had made. After seeing the temple they strolled through the town, and listened to the songs of a group of Arabs at thecaféswhich line the bank of the river near the landing-place.
Just as the whistle of the steamer gave the signal for continuing the journey, Frank's attention was attracted by what he pronounced a thing of beauty.
A THING OF BEAUTY.
It was not a girl, or a painting, or a temple, or even a scarabæus: it was a mule.
Both the boys pronounced it the handsomest beast of the kind they had seen in Egypt, and were sorry their time was so limited they could not study the animal closely. Its color was pure white, and Fred suggested that the mule was probably kalsomined every morning, and was evidently treated with great care.
The animal was the property of the governor, and his trappings were in keeping with his fine appearance. Some of the travellers regarded the saddle quite as much as they did the animal that carried it. Frank said he could understand why the Arabs are such excellent horsemen, when the saddles are so formed that it is very difficult to throw a rider out of them.
VIEW IN THE TEMPLE OF EDFOO.
From Esneh to the foot of the first cataract there was no incident of importance. The boat stopped at two or three places where there were ruined temples, the most interesting being that of Edfoo. It was cleared out in 1864 by order of the Egyptian Government, and the rubbish that had been there thousands of years lay piled around it. The rubbish had tended to the preservation of the sculptures, and after the clearing was completed they were found to be in better condition than in most of the other temples.
The general plan of the building was much like that of the Temple of Denderah, and it was dedicated to the worship of the hawk. In the sanctuary is a cage hewn from a single block of granite, which was once the home of the sacred bird, who, no doubt, received the adoration of the faithful much against his will. He would have preferred freedom and a flock of chickens to the homage of the Egyptians, unless he was unlike the hawks of modern days.
HAGAR SILSILIS.
At Hagar Silsilis, or "the Rock of the Chain," the boat stopped to give an opportunity for seeing the quarries, whence great quantities of stone were taken for the construction of the temples at Esneh, Edfoo, Karnak, and other places. The excavations where the stones were cut have been partly filled by drifting sand, but enough of them remain to show how the work was done. The Nile is here only a little more than a thousand feet wide at its narrowest part, and there is a tradition that when ancient Egypt was threatened with invasion a chain was stretched across the river to prevent the passage of hostile boats. Frank made a hasty sketch of the place, and included in his drawing the column of rock where the chain is said to have been fastened.
There was once a flourishing town at this place, but at present little remains of it; and even the ruins have been so covered with sand that they cannot be readily found. The desert comes down on both sides of the river at Hagar Silsilis, and the fertile land of the Nile disappears altogether. To the stranger ascending the river for the first time it seems as though he had reached the head of the Nile, and his journey was to come suddenly to an end; but a turn of the stream undeceives him, and his eye rests upon a more agreeable scene.
THE FOOT OF THE FIRST CATARACT.
On and on went the boat, and the scenery became more and more picturesque as the sandstone formation disappeared and granite took its place. The barren shores of Hagar Silsilis were forgotten in the fertility of the soil below Assouan and the brightness of the verdure on the island of Elephantine, which lies at the foot of the first cataract of the Nile. The hills around the cataract were crowned with little shrines and tombs of Moslem saints, and there was a fringe of barren hills directly back of the town in sharp contrast to the fertility of the soil below it. The sun shone brightly on the water, which appeared quiet as a lake enclosed in the mountains; the black rocks that rose here and there on the bank of the river seemed to threaten danger to any boat that ventured nearthem, since it was not easy to know what might be concealed below the surface. Beyond Elephantine Island the river was broken and lost, and our friends had no difficulty in comprehending that they were in a part of the Nile quite unlike anything they had seen before.
The steamer swung sharply around at the foot of the island, and in a few minutes was at the landing-place of Assouan, the Syene of the ancients.
Not only were our friends among new scenes of rocks and hills, but the crowds of natives that welcomed them were different from any they had seen before. It was a mingling of Arabs and Nubians: the former were nothing new, but the latter had put in an appearance for the first time. They were scantily dressed, their skins were black as ink, and their woolly hair was done up in little ringlets, like pen-holders, and apparently soaked in grease. The goods they offered for sale were ostrich feathers, Nubian dresses, arrows, old coins, knives, and kindred things, and they were as shrewd in making bargains as their friends the Arabs. Whips and canes of the hide of the hippopotamus were liberally offered, and nearly every passenger made purchases of these articles.
The hippopotamus whip is called acourbashby the Arabs, and has the reputation of being the most cruel whip in the world. It is much like the "green hide" that was in use in the Southern States of North America during the days of slavery, and a blow from it is to be dreaded and long remembered by man or beast.
It was late in the afternoon when our friends arrived at Assouan, and there was only time to stroll through the bazaars before sunset. Plans were made for an excursion to the island of Philæ on the following day, and everybody went early to bed.
Frank and Fred were destined to enjoy a novelty in the way of travelling. They were to make their excursion to the island of Philæ on the backs of camels.
It is about five miles from Assouan to Philæ, and the road is chiefly through the rocky desert, or along the equally rocky bank of the river. The travellers had the choice of camels or donkeys for the journey, and the two youths unhesitatingly decided in favor of the former.
"You can ride almost any time on a donkey," said Fred, "but it isn't every day you can have a camel."
"I quite agree with you," Frank replied. "We'll have a jolly ride of it, and have a good story to tell when we get home."
The boys went out before breakfast and found, close to the landing-place, a group of camels waiting for the proposed excursion. They were all lying or kneeling on the ground, and the boys walked around them with the air of having been familiar with camels all their lives. Finally they selected two, and at the suggestion of the drivers Frank proceeded to mount his new beast of burden, just to try his qualities.
"I began," said Frank, afterward, in telling the story to the Doctor—"I began by patting the camel on the head, and saying 'good fellow! good fellow!' He returned my kindness by trying to bite me, and if I had not jumped quickly to one side he would have had a good nip at my arm. The driver then stood by his head, and I proceeded to take my seat in the saddle, which resembled a wood-sawyer's 'horse' with a blanket thrown across it.
"As soon as I was in place I seized the front and rear of the saddle; the driver then pulled at the halter, and said something that sounded like 'heyda! heyda!'
"The camel began to move as though there was a small earthquake under him. There were three motions—a surge backward, a surge forward, and then a backward plunge that brought him to a level.
THE SHIP OF THE DESERT.
"I could not see exactly how it was done; but Fred, who was looking on, said the camel rose on half his fore-legs, then on all of his hind-legs, and lastly on the remaining half of his fore-legs. This will account for the three motions that were required to bring him up standing."
"Yes," answered the Doctor, "and he kneels in the reverse way—half the fore-legs, all the hind-legs, and then half the fore-legs. He is alwaysmade to kneel for receiving his burden or being relieved of it. He makes a great fuss when he is being loaded, and leads you to suppose that the burden placed on him is much more than he can bear. The older the camel the more noise does he make."
"He must have thought I weighed a ton at least," Frank responded, "for he began groaning and bellowing as soon as I entered the saddle, and did not stop till he was on his feet. Then he concluded it was no use protesting any more and became quiet."
BEDOUIN ARABS WITH THEIR CAMEL HERDS.
The boys did not learn till after the commencement of their journey that the saddles on which they rode were nothing more than pack-saddles for transporting freight around the cataract, and their beasts of burden were the ordinary freight camels, and not those kept exclusively for riding. A blanket was thrown over the saddle, but it did not conceal the inequalities of it, and long before their return the youths would have been quite willing to exchange their poetic camels for prosaic donkeys. The last mile of Frank's ride was performed on foot, and it would have been a difficult matter to persuade him to try the excursion over again under similar conditions.
CAMELS (FROM AN ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE).
The regular saddle for camel riding is a sort of dish, in which you sit with your feet crossed around the pommel or hanging over the side. You can have a pair of stirrups attached if you like, for resting the feet, and they are by no means to be despised. An excellent plan for a long journeyis to sling a couple of boxes or a pair of well-stuffed bags across a common pack-saddle, and cover them with mattresses and blankets, so as to make a platform about six feet broad; then put up your bed in a roll and fasten it to the back of the saddle, to form a comfortable rest, and with a pair of stirrups fastened to the saddle-bow you can select your own position for riding. If the sun is hot you can spread an umbrella; and if you have been fortunate in your selection of a camel, and his motion is easy, you will find no difficulty in reading and even in sleeping, though a nap on the back of a camel is not altogether safe.
The camel has a peculiar rocking motion that is a great strain on the spine of the inexperienced rider. He does not feel it much till the second day, and then, as Fred expressed it, he feels as though he had a back-bone of glass, or some other brittle substance.
A BACTRIAN CAMEL IN GOOD CONDITION.
During the first part of the journey each of the boys watched the camel of the other, in order to understand the motions of his limbs and to observe the peculiarities of his feet. The Doctor explained that the foot of the camel is wonderfully adapted to travelling over the sands of the desert. It is divided into two lobes, and each lobe is armed with a stout claw, like the point of the ox's hoof. The foot is like a great sponge, and whenplaced on the ground it spreads out very wide, but is immediately contracted when raised. It thus presents a broad surface to the sand or mud, and where the ground is steep and slippery it clings like the foot of a fly on a window-pane. The strong claw assists its adhesion, and consequently the camel can climb the side of a mountain which is impassable to a well-shod horse.