Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-03-15
DAILY COMMERCIAL.
BALTIMORE, MD.
M y Nile Boat,
LConcludcl.l

That mud fort is the village of Golosany,
and those mud pillars are used for supporting
the Arab water-raisers counterpoise. That
intensely green strip Of ribbon is clover; that
endless black margin is Nile mud. Those
halEnaked brown men, with short and heavy
shipwright AIDES, are fellaheen, or peasants,
hoeing up the ground for a new crop Those
net wigwams are hung up there by fishermen,
and those big-headed fish, with long heads,
are their fnny spoil. Those long knotted
purple batons the children carry on their
shoulders. and which are three times as long
as themselves, are ripe sugar-canes, which all
young Egypt seems now to be munching,
munching.
Here, too, broadside down the river, driven
by three boughs instead of oars, comes one
Of the wonders Of Egypt, read of by me in
schOol-books so many long years ago. 1t is q
square raft from Balass, and contains some
thousand waterjars for the use of the women
OF Cairo; but why do [ say water jars? for
these are huge amphorR. That one, stopped
IN the Roman manner with adhesive earth,
will be used to hold oil, treacle butter, rice,
and other cohesive fluids and meltable solids.
How bran-new from the potter's fire thew
look, with their roughgreen whteness and
their tinges Of creamy white and red. They
are bound together firmly with palm-cord, are
packed neatly with dry palm-leaves, and are
driven bravely down the current by the strong
arms of those men of Balass, who strain at
the branches which they use as oars. To fill
those jars is the chief work of the blue-clad
Egyptian women in town or village.
Breakfast now. The smoking curry, the
granular rice, the 'mish-mishn or stewed
apricots, the conserve of vegetable marrow.
the Oven-hatched eggs, the pomegranates the
buflalo's miIk-butter in fiat cakes. are pleasant
after the smart walk on deck,-Badgers gun
is silent, and he is absorbed in the great and
mysterious process of digestion. The meal
safely over, we burn votive cigarettes in graft
tude to It's memory.
Then comes another stroll on deck, shot
at an ibis, a crack with a revolver at a hover
ing vulture or sacred hawk. Then a long
read aloud from Herodotus, who always knows
more than he will tell. and who narrates such
pleasant fables about the thief in the trap. and
the helmet cup. and the sandal OF Perseus, and
the fair but indiscreet Rhodope, and the blind,
king, and the two pyramid builders, and other
old friends of our boyhood; or we read the
"Arabian Nights" that some think were
written in Egypt; with the six hundred thou
sand Israeltes, we fly before the wrathfuI
chariots Of Pharaoh; we entangle ourselves in
hiero&Iyphics, or knock our heads against the
craven stone of Rosetta. Sometimes we forget
ourselves pleasantly in a novel; or growing
tired Of truth, we read history.
Fifteen miles of cliff already passed. calcined
rock, Nreous barren stone, where nothing
having life grows; carious bones of the old
earth, mere honey-comhed pumice-stone. with
every gorge, cleft, and hollow siftcd up with
dmtted desert sand, fine as that which fills an
hour-giass.
Do you see that mud wall, rising fort-like on
the very edge of that tremendous precipice?
hat Is the Copt convent Of Marian el Adra,
or Our Lady Mary the Virgin. Those
perllous perpendicular steps along the face of
the rock lead down to the water.
Badger will fire to arouse the monks in their
mud nest! Bang go the twin barrels; q
silence OF two long seconds, then comes the
bursting echo as of a Cyclops hammer falling
on the anvil Instantly two Or three dark
figures, no larger than those in Noah's ark,
appear on the rampartod cliff; those are two
Cophc brothers of our Lady Marv's convent.
Lucky for us the wind is high and the water
cold and stormy, or we should have those un-
clean men swimming of to us on swollen goat.
SKINS and hear them screaming out
Il also am Christian, o Howagee. Aims,
aims, O Howagee!'
No mud villages here, surrounded by white
locks OF doves; no more boSsy palm-trees
tufted with leaves, as Arab lances are with
ostrich feathers no more egg ovens, or
waverlng green sugar cane patches; no more
tracts Of punched millct; but now miles Of
calcined cliff, honey-combed with square
buriaI-vaults, the doors of which look from
here no larger than the doors Of dog-kennels.
NO more IlZard-haunted sands, or net wigwams
OF fishermen, but miles Of rock graves,-dens
where only the horned snake creeps, or the
vuIture stores its carriOn.
Dinner is ready. q ti1yino orisae IN +Lo
iutchen,-sure sign of commencing sunset A
pretty-crcstcd bird falls under Badger terrible
ana iar-reSOundlng gum great glory burns
out from the west; the eastern cliffs change
from pale dust color to q luminous rose: the.
green cloudy gray shrOud Of the MARTYR lay
turns to burning gold.
The cloud-crocodiIes, vapor- dragons, and
mysty monsters that point and gibber round
the sunset are suddenly drawn into the whirl
pool Of fame, and shrivel away to shreds of
.glittering tinsel,-rays from the rising orb fan
upward as from q martyrs crown.
\ moment more and the eastern cliffs are
ashy gray, tie rich clouds have dropped like
angels offerings into a martyrs grave. The
sky IS now Of ghostly green, melting into
cold purple; the atter-glow Is upon us for q
moment the palm-trees are dark against it
then night drops like the portcullS of an
Egyptian vault, and God speaks to US in
starry bierogyphcs.
As Badger fires the dinner gun, Abaol
Hoosayn bears in triumph soup tureen,
that smokes like an Arabian censor.
But what was that strange obiect. that sbone
for moment under the last glsam of sunset?
| saw it on that long wet "Trip of ribbv sand
where the greedy pelican sat and sulked. be,
cause he could not keep his pouch perpetuaIly
1t was a CHASTITY creature with scaly back,
long and terrible jaws, and small treacherous
eyes. 1t shone as if it was coated with gold
leaf, and it wadded back to the brown tide,
honored by royal salute from Badgers
doubebarrel. That was the first crocodile
We had seen, but it never came into Badgers
bag.