The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1876-11-11

ON THE NILE.
An Arabian Nights Story-Abdallah'l
Eventfal E1Perienee-He smites .
Genie and Takes . Bide ON the Back 81
aA Eagle
from the San Francisco Chronicle.l
DAHABEEH s.NIrErIs" ON THE NILE,
September l, 1876.-As the novelty Of
our voyage wears off we begin to looh
forward to the choice hours of the day
with joyful anticipation. The world i:
forgotten. We never speak of it now I'M
less in recalling some episode in oul
past life, which seems to us like 9
dream. Doubtless the state of the wealth
er has much to do with this spiritual re-
pose which we enjoy in common at in
tervals. Meanwhile there are occasion
al bursts of enthusiasm on the part Of
some one member of onr party that
seem to us unwarranted, not to say in
excusable. Some folk are as sensitive
as hair-trigger's, and they not infre
quently ago off haf-cocked." Hap
PLY, l don't travel with a mouth full Of
exclamation points, and the equilibrium
is preserved on board. Dinner is an
event in our lives these days, but dinner
happens to reach its crisis just at twi
light, and there is nothing in all Egypt
better than sunset, and the after-glo
and the divine night that followf Last
night the sun went down in q yellow
mist, that hung over the desert like 8
vail. 1t seemed as If the ancient mys
teries were concealed behind it, and
that all the glow was the flames and
the lurid smoke of sacrifcial fires.
fancy it would not be very difficult to
turn heather
IN THIS HEATHENIsH LAND.
Its superstitions begin to tell upon some
of us already, in spite of two clerical
fellow-voyagers who are supposed tt
stand between US and perdition. After
that sunset came the exquisite twilight
and one of the landscapes peculiar tc
the Nile coast. Looking east over the
water, which was as blue as the sea,
the eye fell first upon q strip of juicy
green meadow land. Beyond it, q few
miles back-two or three, perhaps
rises a low range of hills as bare as
chalk and of the color of dust-powered
snow. The sky Just above the hills
they were the Arabian hills-was of the
brightest blue, with a silver luster over
it all. There was a soft, rose colored
cliff to the left, and above, in the mid.
die distance, in the midst of the plain
beyond the meadow, stood solitary
tomb, with its low dome and one mel,
ancholy palm beside it, the tomb and
the palm as brown as chocolate, and
not living or moving thing in all that
half of the visible world. By and By, a
thin, filmy haze gathered over the scene
and absorbed it in tranquil and pathetic
silence. The immense stars came forth
suddenly and seemed to float in mid.
air, very close to US. You might al.
most have
HEARD THEM TWINKLE,
they were so big and so brilliant. There
were subdued voices in the cabin. Busy
pens flew over the paper inditing letters
to that tedious world we have turned
our backs upon, or filling up page after
page of the Nile journals, that shall
hereafter wiring our hearts with too fond
memories of these shores. The crew
were doing on the deck below me as
curled up in the corner of deep divan
with my cigar alight, waiting for the
late moonrise. The shadow of the big
stars plunged in the river, or threw
long golden wakes on the water tina
reached to the other shore. Barge.
drifted by us-mysterious barges that
came like phantoms out of the shadow
and resolved their colors into shadow
again-but not until we had hailed then
and learned from their confession how
the changeable bars lay among the cur
rents just above US. Sometimes an an
mated conversation was continued Ions
after the passing barge had faded away
in darkness, and the voices returned t.
US out of the air, growing fainter ant
fainter, like the oft-repeated echoes
There was wild gorge in the Arabian
hills, where the chain drew near thu
shore. As we approached it l saw>tha
it was
FLOODED WITH MELLOW LIGHT
Soft breezes bore US slowly against tbs
nroachad tho mnn,b ~ tho Caves az,
Taie Of Wind anchantm . Esnta.t;,
craos leaned into Tho or ond hnn~ sms
nenSed bv some m;@h,u merle Re-
t,1ao, 49, ~ oIJan aISs .L - 10 -.
the vallev a orove nj nalma rustloi
their plumes in the delicious air, and
Just above these palms rose the splen
did moon. Every leaf was lustrous in
its light; every rock sparkled family,
and out of the mouth of the valley
poured a deluge of light, in which We
were all crowned with glory and trans