The daily gazette., 1877-04-11
AN ORIENTAL SCENE.
A horuing walk I'm Egypt and Its
Sig hts phe Fellahs-Their1 Houses,
Children, Mud. Dirt and land.

pressed by the wonders of the land of
Egypt, avoids Denderah on his voyage
up the Nile. lie waits till he las seen
the great columns of Luxor and the py-
lon OF Karnac. Like the child who asks
you TO stand behind the door and frighten
him, he wants to be awe-struck if possi-
BILE. But the traveller who wishes to learn
cannot do better than to spend flew hours |
at Denderah before he sees Thebes, be-
cause he may there, without anything to |
disturb his mental balance, study the chief
features of Egyptian architecture in one
OF the most perfect examples remaining. |
Denderah has little of the majesty Of
Karnac. Its portico is half buried in
heaps of unburnt brick. You descend
TO the entrance, and can take in the de-
sign in few minutes. But it has many
advantages for the student, 1t stands
apart from any modern town, on the pc
ninsular formed by the bend of The
stream, short walk only from the bank,
and it is easy, by leaving the boat at the
beginning of the curve, to visit the ruins
aud overtake the boat again before it
reaches Kench. The green fields are full
of life, swarming with herds, birds and
children. Here half naked boy, with a
following of little brothers and sisters.
among whom one scanty suit OF clothes
seems to have been distributed, superin-
tends tie grazing of the family buffalo.
There woman shrouded in blue, with
an emaciated baby on her shoulder, en-
deavors to concentrate the attention of
flock of goats and sheep upon one patch
of grass. The sheep are brown, the goats
l,l hahn hI1t n nj nq
take of both colors. A causeway of earth
heaped up from the fiat fields on both
sides winds among groves of lofty palms
and under the shade of green tamarinds,
whose foliage has a soft, feathery outline
against the blue sky. A line of laughing
girls, each bearing on her head an enor-
nous earthen jar, causes you to stand
aside and make way for them on the mar
row path. They draw their hoods across
| their faces as they pass, but gaze at you
| with unfeigned interest out OF one black
eve. Very often the extemporized veil
drops and reveals brown, but not al
ways ugly face, set off with necklaces and
earrings of colored beads, and tattoed on
chin and forehead A smiling month and
rows Of magnificent white teeth redeem
/
and your salute is returned politely
without any disturbance of the we'll
balanced water jar. Next fellah vii
lage is reached, miserable heap of low
mud walls without doors, roofs or win
dows, but rising here and there into tall
pigeon tower formed of crooks embedded
tier over tier in the mud wall. Fallen
hot ses are frequent, where pots. whole Or
brol.ua, lie half hidden in the dust, and
the wild dove flies out, glanciDg in the
sunshine as you pass. 1t is pretty bird,
its colors bright and pleasing, and though
it "lies among the pots" the appropriate
ness of David's allusion is the more man
ifest. Neither doves nor pigeons appear
to be wholly domesticated the fellah
seldom indulges in animal food, but the
passing tourist is at liberty to shoot for
himself the materials Of pie without
the slightest opposition.
Close adjoining the village great
mounds of mingled earth and potsherds
mark the site of the ancient town and
present another example of the form
which Egyptian domestic ruins every
where take. The crude brick has crum-
bled away into dry brown dust, and
though stone and burnt brick may in
some places be concealed, digging among
such heaps seldom reveals anything to re-
pay the trouble of the task. The natives
gather the mould and sift or wash it for
the nitre with which it is imprenated, ,and
great flat basins fol evaporation are near
the mounds. Naked Arabs on donkeys
canter past you with their panniers, or
overtake you from the ruins laden with
the nitrous dust. One of them probably
OPS to offer you some s'antka" which
he has found, or whispers sentence in
which you only distinguish "scarabee"
and .baksheesh." The donkeys are now
and then varied by camel, which looks
more at home with his soft cushioned
feet, his noiseless, solemn tread, and the
sneer which nature has imprinted on his
dry, dun colored face. He snarles like a
dog when his master touches him, and
shows his formidable teeth if the stranger
comes too near. He is ugly, cross, un-
tameable, discentented, but to the north
ern traveller always interesting. Far
away, beyond the green fields, where the
stone heights come down in great but
tresses to the strip of sandy desert attheir
feet,you see two or three young camels at
home. They trot or even gallop through
the burning sunshine, chase each other
for miles along the glowing waste, throw
ing up behind them clouds of binding
dust, till they look like ghosts gliding
through land of shadows. There is
something strangely fascinating about
them-so unlike other animals, yet so ev-
identity suited to the country to which
they belong. Just as wild, but far less
interesting are the dogs. They rush out
at you from every corner, and, in Upper
Egypt, at least, are often as fierce as they
are hideous. In Cairo they are down.
lrodden race, but in the country they
show more independence. South of
Thebes, indeed, they are to a certain ex-
tent domesticated, and even as low as
Denderah they help to guard, if not to
guide, the flocks. Between them andthe
children there is kind of alliance. On
the village dirt heap both sleep side by
side in the shade of the same wall. The
same flies creep round the eyes of each,
but of the two the dog is the cleaner and
the less disgusting.
The question has frequently been dis
L