Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-03-14
DAILY COMMERCIAL.
BALTIMORE, MD.
NJ y Nile Boat.

vi J nile B0af.
From the ambush Of the cabin window. while
we are dressing, my enthusiastic sporting friend
| badger nearly every morning gets a Shot at
| great peEcans, who with their aldermon;c
| pouch come sailing along within reach He
| seldom drops one but he gives me plowing
accounts of how the shot spashed all over the
vast creature, or how it futtered in peculiar
| manner to express surprise at the excellence
OF the noblesportsman' S aim. Notthat BADGER
is bad shot, but he fires at seldom less than
two hundred yards distance, and with shot
three sizes too small the consequence is. that
he furries wild geese, chips pieces out of
crows wings, staggers vultures, frightens
cormorants, but brings little to the bag, though
the Nile shores are lined with cranes, purple
geese, peicans, and herons, ranged as if
drawn up to be drilled by the king of the birds
As for our sailors, they are good humOred
drudges enough, but sad, sluggish, chattering,
tussy old women in the hour of danger.-if the
Isis gets wound about in a whirlpool eddy,
and the tow-rope breaks, or if sudden fierce
blasts OF wind were to come raging down from
the i-lbyan Mountains or the Birds Hill. They
are lean brown fellows. wearing, when on
duty, little but long blue night-gowns and
tawny felt skull caps. Often | awake and see
their strong backs to ease us off a crocodile
haunted sand-bar; often see them tie their
gowns upon their head and 'splashing in a
quarter Of q mile to Shore to take their turn
at dragging at the sacred boat, the Isis, for a
burning four hours spell. Once round their
supper bowl, beating the drum-head strained
over the earthen jar, or sounding the double
pipe, and they are happy and free from caro-
as children. Their chief peculiarly is their
love Of Joking, and their extreme proclivity to
sleep.
Their captain is a sullen stately man. in a
red turban, and q coarse black cloak. who
stalks with bare feet about the deck like an
Othello, and whom, for the first three weeks,
honored as a patriarch and a born monarch
OF the Nile; but who. on a subsequent mis-
understanding about a shirt of mine and q
hshng-Ilne, never quite accounted for, sank
sadly IN my opinion, and whom subsequent
lubberly hugglng the shore, dread of darkness.
and tear OF wind have completely deposed from
all claim to myadmiration. Indeed. apyramid
Of gold would never induce me to cross the
Red Sea with such captain. ! ct to see HIM
touch MS breast, lips, and forehead, and with
sulen bashtulness not unseemly murmur to
me his morning salutations, you woald tbinj,
nm Aaron OF Rosetta the commander of the
Faithful himself; but then, after all tbe
Oriental lubber is, it must be confessed y
grander being than the lqbber of our colder
and less favored cline
The HeIs shouts, commands "emsig'' and
''rooha, and such hoarse CULTURAL Arabic
eNhortat0ns, but he does nothing else himself
but occasionally pull the boat from the muddy
bank in moments Of emergency; and this he
does wlththe regal condescensiono Sesostris.
though | dare say he would haggle for the last
para in bargain. Achmed. his second In
command, is fine handsome Misraimite.
with Jaunty green turban,-for he is q de
scendant OF the Prophet, and quite as great
rascal, he has sly halfshut black eyes, rather
peermg, from the habit Of often looking at the
sun in steering; crisp, shining black beard.
and full liberal features; he holds the lone
helm with the dignity OF II Ptole.ny, but have
ceased to regard him with the respect of
carrier days, since l find he sits down to steer.
smokes hls chlbOUk while at the helm. holds
cultural dlScpSaionS with the crew as to the
whereabouts OF the vessel, doZes while at his
posi-, and breaks his frewood over his own
head. He has a bameable tendency. too. of
always humping the vessel on land, Just as we
get into our first sleep.
But let me describe an average day in
Nile boat, say from near Gibbel Tayr or the
Birds Hill to Minieh.
At about six O clock, noise as of 4 wagon
load Of tirewood and Il ton of rope beiua
tumbled about the deck (which means. beip@.
interpreted, that some naval manGuvre il
taking place., awakeS me and Badger. and we
leap simultaneously out of bed like two mani
nous harlequins. The boat is generally inst
on or just off q sand-bar. The crew are NJ,
shore towing, all in a row, with halters round
their necks, as if they were prisoners of war
doomed to the gallQGs, or are putting their
brawny backs to It and heaying the Isis out of
some difficulty, or they are swimming across
q creek, or perhaps wadIng in the fat Nile
mud up to their knees, or even q trile higher
a cry from Badger, who Is struggling with
Sliding wlndow-shutter, makes me turn
round. There is an enormous pelican with
big pouch parchmenty and haccid, floating ,,v
gravely a hundred yards or so off. Bang irnes
| Badger gun, tearing up the water 'Gitb n
scratching splash ten yards or so from the
pompous emblem of charity, VINO gives g
seml-comic hop and then flaps his great gray
and uninterrupted wings and is away: or, it may
be- there IS long, quivering cord of chattering
| wild geese that Badger scatters and utterly
routs; or perhaps, a little dark feet of wild
duck. You may be sure he always "stops''
them, or turns them, or ''knocks some
feathers out, and they are as pleased as
Badger; doubtless he hits them hard, but yet
he does not bring them to bag. Badger loads
crafty dragoman, says, ''too far up stairs -
| by which he means that the birds were out OF
| reach; at which Badger SCOTS, curls the lip OF
| pride, dputs on coppercap onthe blackened
nipple Of the gun, which is smoking like a
little fairy chimney.
look out then, hearing a grinding sound,
and see the ship boy grinding coffee, and the
mate roasting some in a little frying pan over
| the fire.
Gracious. how he grinds it in small mortar,
! With huge wooden pestc five feet long and
| thicker than bed-post. No wonder the brown
| seeds cracble and crush helplcssly under this
| tremendous instrument
And the river, of what color is it, and the
bank, of what aspect? The great river, or
| the ocean" as the Arabs call it, is of muddy
| brown color, holding perpetual mud in solu-
| ton, but it washes past in pretty glittering
waves this breezy morning, when the wind
ruHles it. And the bank is now green wave
| OF sugar-canes, now a strip Of deser, sand,-
now patch Of millet, mile of acacia
| groves.
ITO be continued
:. ~