Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-05-13
Travelling on the Nile.

IhOse VINO nave fingered III raptures ofel
the eloquent pages of Curtis or Prime, de-
scribing the witchery of tour up the Nile, will
do well, perhaps, to peruse the following, if
they have any intention of realizing the pleas
ures so felicitously expressed by these authors
1t will give them a glimpse at the reverse Of
the bright pictures that were so entertaining,
and perhaps lead them to indulge their desire
for travel in some deterrent direction. We copy
from the correspondence of the New York
Journal Of Commerce.
Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 1858.
Our company of four miles have just stepped
ashore, from trip of p days 8 up the Nile,
to the second cataract and back. We believe
none of our party experienced much of the
dreamy intoxicating pleasure of Nile life de-
scribed by Curtis, and even p****'s rhapsodies
of later date, failed to find single sympa-
thizng mind in our staid company. Let not
travellers, however despise these delectable
books, for does not hearty laugh do one good i?
And hearty carcature, carried even to the
skies, by clever writer, of the abominable
sights one sees on the Nile, serves to while away
many an hour in comparing notes with reality.
we started with the determination to be pleased
with everything-even vile butter churned in
q goat-skin, with the hair inward, white where
not delicately impregnated with blue veins
that strongly reminded some of us of Nile mud,
or evnn mora fltbv ;nnrod;on+s ,,b;la do1;o,t ta
hairs bound the delicious morsels together.
Bread we generally found in every village.
To be sure it was kneaded by the nymphs who
paraded it for sale, on dunghill, the same
nympth having kneaded portions of said dung
hill into their cakes, which after having been
dried in the sun, suffced as fuel to bake the
bread
As for meats, we had varieties quite unknown
in America. There was what we called the
high bred goat, from the fact that to all in
tents and purposes, the body was that of a
goat but the head, no one could deny belonged
to sheep. Then, too, there was the buffalo,
whose flesh, tough and strong as it was, Tar
ter might Digestive could not.
At night, for variety, the pilot would oc-
casionally run us on IL sand bank, when we
would find ourselves unceremoniously pitched
from our berths to the opposite side of the boat
and, to crown all, dash Or two of Nile water
would find its way through stray crack in the
board, and while we were picking ourselves up, a
shower bath would revive tired Nature
All the night long our slumbers, if we even
could indulge in such luxuries, would be be-
guiled by songs from the crew accompanied by
the most unearthly banging on the Arab-drun
those songs, which sonany travellers mention
but which none ever describe OF all un
earthly noises to our ears, they Capped tn,
climax. fall the lmps of the Internal regions
had been let loose to torment us, they coulc
hardly have done it more effectualy than die
the Arab music.
Our dragoman, Abraham, or The Patri
arch, as we called him, rendered what aid HI
could by way of cheating, lying, and variou
other methods peculiar to Maltere, to con
tribute to the pleasures of the trip
However we lived through it all, and mos
conscientously visited temples, tombs AM
ruins, admiring where we could, and condemn
ing where we could not help it, Above tn
first cataract, there is scarcely anything wort
= seeing, if we except Abohciguabal and Philin
hillbelow. After one has seen Thebes, there
lite to interest. Such are some of the dis
, comforts our party experienced, and we wer
9 not alone, for nearly every company we met ha
their complaints of cold, dirt, and insolence, b
- way of dragomen and servants. All this
Il hardly worth coming six thousand miles to e,
{ perience, at least 50 thought the writer, and h
is not alone in the opinion. In my next, OF
y experience of the climate, as adapted to il
'' valids, of which so much has been said, ma
:, not be uninteresting to those thinking to Wis
n Egypt"