The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-27

advanced to the centre of the boat with a
certain symmetry that was in harmony
WIN the music. As they took their
places they threw off their sinners and
commenced the movement, keeping time to the
notes of the roed-pipe, and accompaniment with
the clapping of castanets which were fastened
10 the thumb and fore-fnger of each hand.
mere were three of them young and beautiful;
me Others were hideous. with rats eyes
haccld cheeks and tattoocd chins, so | con
Tented myself with watching the most agreeable.
lhey danced in groups of two or four, and then
oglatlng their copper cymbals around and above
'nclr heads, they advanced right and left
cTclng, curVing and retreating. until sort of
prelude was finished when joining the orchcs-
ira, VINO set up dismal melancholy song, they
began movement of the body almost impOs-
siDle to describe. Their limbs seemed to be
selzed with trembling, but they moved not
from their position, while the upper parts of the
Dody sWayed and turned in "a sort of dancing
reputation becoming more and more agitatcd
IN time to the music and wild singing; and their
breasts teigned with immodesty the most SEN
sual physical emotions, until they seemed almost
to exhaust themselves in an audaciOus CCstacy.
The delight of following the Idlcr through the
lands where boundless fertility and eternal sun
shine or starlight invite to Incidence and repose
Is only second to his own. Then we escape the
| beggars and the Arabs and the hcas, which he
did not escape. and we discover with him that
in the idlest travel there is much to see and to
know. Peculiarly is this rs we are propelled
by sails and oars up the Nile, which is sometimes
a calm lake. and again rushing torrent, and
where the slaves of to-day toll rs did Israel i'm
! their bondage, beneath the shadows of those
! grand temples which, perhaps, the children of
Israel helped to build. Finally the oars and the
! sails carry the ldler and his companions beyond
the fertile valley which is yearly baptized by the
soil-laden torrents from the lakes Of the Noun
! tains of the Moon, and they glide between the
sandy deserts and the palms where once the
kingdom of Nubia formed a part of Egvpt's
double crown. At last Egypt recedes from view
and they are nearing Ethiopia.
THE FIRST CATARACT.
The river narrowed between the black crags,
and the water boiled in the curviug channels
Sometimes rocky pyramid uprose from the
shining desert plain; sometimes our sight was
shut out from the barren hills by some spot of
vivid Verdure, shadowed by acacas. palms. or
sycamores; at other moments the sloping, sandy
honows were of deep gold and seemed to be
held in the crucible of rocks. whose volcanic
origin caused the latter to shine like polished
copper in the sun; sometimes the wastes of sand
| were white, and looked like snowy tracts lying
under the moon. Past all these Kaleidoscope
changes, we entered upon the seething waters
and, resting at the foot Of the first fall. which
| the natives call the Little Door we beheld
sight so strange that my pen can but imperfectly
! depict it to you.
As fer as the eye could reach. on every brown
| jagged rock, amid the boiling waters, and along
the distant winding shore, Uprose, as if by
magic, hundreds of naked natives, of all ages
| and sizes, WhO having evidently waited for our
fastening
| strong hawsers to our dahabcch accompanying
| their labor by songs, shouts, and curses. and
| making confusion which he only who has
| travelled in the Ori ant can understand. Scores
of men and boys dashed into the foaming tor
| rent, some on little round logs, and some with
ont, all beating the waves with their feeble arms
! They somehow cOntriycd to steer themselves
! through the fOamy cataract and reach our boat,
ON which they clambered, dripping, grnning,
| and naked, shouting "Backshishi backshish."
behed with amazement, one after another
of these Nubians spring into the flood, shoot
down the rapids as if it was only sport to them
and, padding with either hand, reach any given
rock. Many of them trust themselves without
their log, and they apparently stand upright in
the waters which whirl them past on the back
of some mad foaming charger these fello VS.
fasten their only garment Cthe waistband or
girdle) on their heads, in the form Of turban
! when they go into "Ei-Bdb," or the smaller
cataracts, and then they seemed to me like great
! black painted idols, which, in the crash of the
worlds millennium, were being hurried on by
some Scamander to join the SphinXes in a strange
! inferno. What forms they had! As they came on
! deck dripping with water and their skins shining
! like some dark polished metal, each would have
| been a worthy model for the sculptor But |
| had no time to notice further these strange
| beings, for our good Bund had recOied at the
| foot of fall, and the ropes were brought in
| play to pull her up and over it: the foam was
thrown over her bows as she was dragged
through the waters, and if, for an instant, the
ropes had given way, we would have been dashed
into splinters against the rocks in the flood.
''Wallah wallah!' "Fallough fallough ~
! shouted the chiefs on the tops of the rocks, and
the dark, surging masses of NubIans on each
| side, answered in chorus "Hdylee SGb!" God
| helpD Now we were below ledge, over which
it seemed impossible to drag our large boat; the
waters were heaped up over it, rs upon a cata-
ract's brink, for q final plunge, and our craft
trembled but moved not over it; every nerve
was strained the hawsers were twisted around
the rocks ahead of us but we gained not an
inch; the shouts of the unearthly figures around
us, the wild motions and shrieks of the two res'
of the cataracts, with the roar of the waters,
made up n scene of savage strangeness impossi-
BILE to depict. just at this critical juncture, and
at a point where dahabeeh had been
| wrecked two years before, our left bOW-hawser
gave way from the rocks (having been too
quickly and insecurely fastened by the mem,
and, like shot, we yeered round, the waters
dashed over our deck and we only hung trem-
bling by our one rope; if that had gone, we
should have been precipitated against the rocks.
The shouts of the natives were deafening; the
gestures of the chiefs frantic - fifty athletes
dashed into the cataract and swan for the miss
ing rope, and finally, one old man brought forth
the end in his teeth like great grizzly dog-it
was soon again fastened, and we were safe.
Another pull, 'Hdyiee sab, hayIee sab" and we
felt ourselves slowly ascending the steep, though
sight and sounds were overwhelmed by the rush
of waters which sparkled over and thundered
around us. One minute mOre-painful suspense
sustained struggle-and we were over, and
tied to the rocks in the minor falls.