Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-06-26
Letter from Egypt.
CAIRO, May 22d, 1874.

Dear Journal:
NV last letter brought the narrative
of nv Journey to Abouhamed, named
after some Sheik whose father WAS
.Haned. for it is what the name means.
Abou-ou, shortened into Abou, means
his father, as Abon-ee means my
father; Abouk, thy father; Abourna,
our father, for in Arabic the possesslVe
pronouns are expressed by these ter
limitations. Abou is from the same
root as the Hebrew abba, father. AS
an example which may interest the
curious in philology, I give you TINS
illustration ,Kittab, book. Klttabee'
INV book; Kittabak, thy book; kltta-
bou, his book; Kittabna, our book;
Kittabkom, your book; klttabhom,
their book. While I am on the sub
iect of language, will say that 1t IS
amusing to hear the common people
carry on a warfare of words, which IS
generally the only kind they wage: L
heard q great deal of it on the Nile
for il is the amusement of the boatmen
as of all watermen to abuse IN more
or less iocular way all those they see
on the banks or on other boats. The
Latin scholars will remember how
Horace speaks of it in his account OF
the iourney to Brindusiun, the modern
R1indisi. The Mussulmans do not in
dulpe in that bitter and blasphemous
cursipg which, unfortunately, seems to
be distinctive of the Anglo-Saxon race.
A Mohammedan must be very nnusu-
ally angry indeed if he says Allah
yerzook-God forsake thee! Their
chief way of abusing each other always
has some reference to ancestry. 1t IS
a sort of retrospective cursing, as,
Nav the dogs defile thy fathers grave!
They say to each other AbOu kamzlr
thy father (was) hog. Abou mar
coub-thy father (was) an old shoe, &c.
After exhausting their ingenuity IN
these epithets, the next heaviest curse
they can fling is to say Abouk-whlch
means only thy father, but it IS an
elliptical formula which implies that
he was everything mean and detesta-
BILE. But the final climax beyond which
nothing can go is AbOukom-your
fathers-and this implies not only
YOUR father, but your fathers father
and all your forefathersto the remotest
generation were-what language fails
to express. Like the famous ''IuOs
Gao" in Virgil, the silence which fol-
lows is more eloquent than words.
Well, all this depression about Abou-
Hamed. Our orders were to go to
Berber. So after four days rest at
the former place, we took up our llne
of march. But now we had very dit
ferent time from what we had before.
Except when cutting off the bends OF
the river by going across the atmoor,
we were near the banks, which are
lined with villages and cultivated
lands. 1t was such a pleasing con-
trast too after travelling for two or
three hours in a perfect desert OF
gravel and rock, out of sight of the
river to come back to its fresh and
smiling banks, and to cast our eyes up
and down the beautiful stream studded
with islands bearing rich crops. 1t
was early il March and they were
harvesting the wheat and barley, to
be followed Immediately by other
crops. The beauty of the upper Nile
is perfectly gorgeous, and compared
to it the lower Nile seems tame. The
most beautiful spot that 7 beheld was
at and around the fifth Cat 4ract. Trav
elers never go up above the second be-
cause the Nile is not easily navigable
above, and the difficulties Of the and
route are too great, involving as they
do twelve days of caravan journey,
most of it over dreary deserts. But
whenever means of communications are
opened, crowds of tourists will be glad
to repair to the fifth Cataract. There
the river is interrupted in its course
by numerous rocky islands. Some of
these are mere lofty rocks rising in
grandeur right out of the river bed,
while tall cliffs tower right and left. [
never saw anything more beautiful in
my life than those curves of the Nile
all bordered with palm trees, the
swift ripples of the rapids glittering in
the early morning sun. There also
the river abounds in crocodiles driven
away by steamers from the lower Nile.
What was still more acceptable to us
was the abundance of wild geese, the
most beautiful bird of their kind, the
Uulpanser of the Upper Nile. They
were not very wild and we secured
several of them which made very
valuable addition to our mess
table. Several were killed and
fell in the rapids of the cataract where
the water rushes as in a mill-race, and
were swept away, beyond recovery, to
serve as food for the crocodiles below.
Four days camel riding, stopping
each night near the river bank,
brought us to Berber. While en- the
road we were continually meeting
caravans from the interior of Africa,
loaded with elephants tusks, gum
and hides, and the camels driven by
the genuine negro, of the purest blood
and the blacklist hue. Formerly, when
the slave trade existed here. they had
simple way of conveying the tusks
Each negro slave carried tusk on his
head, or sometimes two men carried
one tusk, and thus the "ebony" took
the ivory to market. But now the
Government has stopped that Many
slaves have been liberated by the Gov
eminent from the merchants who
bought them. At Stout there is a very
large and fine building where several
hundred of these boys and girls
brought from CentIa Africa, have
been gathered together and are in
structed in secular learning only by
American Missionaries, at the expense
of the Egyptian Government. The
camels which bring the ivory carry
from three to four on each side,
packed in canvass, and looking from
little distance, like great scythe blades.
They are from five to six feet long,
and the peaks hang like huge ores-
cents ON each side of the camel. The
quantity which comes is very great,
and 80, 900 tusks were said to be then
at Khartoom and above, awaiting
transportation. The quantity of gum
arabic which comes down is also very
and on both these articles
of trade immense profits are made, for
they are purchased in great part, with
glass beads, common iron ware, cot
ton cloths, &c. Strange as it may ap-
pear to you. the Nubian merchants at
Berber, &C., use the cleo
trio telegraph to ascertain the fiuctua-
lions of the market in Cairo and Alex
andria, just as Chicago merchants use
It to find the rise and fall of grain in
New York. Such is the progress of
A railroad is now being
Ii It, woich is to go from Assouan far
,ve Berber.
This latter is a town of some i'm
,ortance, because it is the terminus of |
caravan route from Suakin, on the |
Red Sea, to the Nile, and it is
ilso the point at which goods,