The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-04-21

human form,-and so back to our hotel
again.
BY Rail to Cairo.
Two trains leave Alexandria daily for
the capital. We preferred the slow train
to the express, because of the better op-
portunities it afforded of seeing the coun-
try through which we were to pass. The
distance is 130 miles In former times
the journey was made by water through
the great canal which connects Alexan-
dria with the Rosetta branch of the Nile,
and then by the river itself to Cairo. On
the steamer it required twelve hours, on
a Dahabeah (Nile-boat) three days Now
the trip is made by the slow train in
seven hours, by the express in five hours
1t has an odd look at starting, to see
conductors and all the officials clad in the
native costume; TO have tickets stamped
with Arabic characters, and to find ones
self in cushioned railway carriage, in
the land where the only train that seems
appropriate is the caravan, with its long
line of slow, patient, spongy footed drom-
edaries. But the bell tinkles, the steam
whistle gives an asthmatic little wheeze,
and we are off From Alexandria to
Damanhour, the first large town on the
road, the scenery changes as we leave
Lake Mareotis, with its marshy, rush
covered shores, and endless focks of
herons, king-fshers, pelicans, and storks,
and enter the Delta, running by little
canals Oh whose banks are strings of i'm
passible camels, following each other in
long files, bearing enormous bales of fresh
grass-interspersed with men riding on
diminutive donkeys, their loose garments
so bulged out by the wind as almost to
hide the little beasts-and women on
foot with child balanced on one shoul-
der and great bundle on the other, or
water-Jars on their heads; while on
either side, as far as the eye can reach,
lies the level plain, rank with bush grass
OF emerald green, dotted here and there
with Fellah (peasant) villages, made of
sun-dried bricks or mud, looking for all
the world, like magnifed wasp-nests.
Occasionally we would see the vast
green expanse broken by freshly ploughed
fields of richest loan, the sight of which
would make Major Drewry clap his hands
and DIR. Pollard cut pigeon-wing. All
that is necessary is to tickle this alluvial
soil with wooden plough and presto a
luxurant crop waves upon it-bearded
wheat, barley maize, cotton, rice, lentils,
beans, and clover.
These broad, green plains, intersected
with canals, level as the sea-line, con-
stantly reminded me of Holland. All
that they need is irrigation, and where
the Nile does not supply that by its over
flow, the steam-pump or the water-wheel
OF rudest construction, or the well, with.
the old-fashioned sweep, such as NAV still
be seen occasionally in Virginia, furnishes
the necessary supply, when conducted in
troughs and little bitches, making a glis-
tenlng net work over the level surface.
The train crosses the Rosetta arm of
the Nile by long iron bridge at Kafrez-
Zalat and the Damietta arm at Benha.
where the red oranges and the fragrant
mandarlns grow, which are so much
valued at Cairo. Then on the east the
Arabian hills come into view. while on
the west the Libyan range is seen; then
groves of tamarisk, olive, and acacia trees
appear; gardens and villages become
more numerous; then the tapering min
arets OF the citadel shoot up like golden
rays into the air, the station is entered
and rapid carriage ride lands us at the
Grand New Hotel on the Ezbekesyeh
square, and we are in Cairo, the young
crescent moon appropriately shining in
the clear sky just as dusk falls over the
land.
The world has been overAowed with
letters descriptive of this city, like inun-
datlons of the Nile, without their fertility
and L am not going to add to the number,
cannot undertake to portray to YOU the
Citadel where Mohammed Ali DESTROYED
the power Of the Mamelukes by treacb-
erous massacre of their chiefs in 1911
nor the magnificent Mosque in which is the
alabaster tomb of the clear-headed, hard
hearted old tyrant nor the tombs of the
CallPhs with their exquisite Saracenic
reached by an avenue more than four miles
architecture; nor the Shoobra gardens.
long, shaded by interlacing lubbek trees
and thronged by the gaiiy caparisoned
camels of the Khedive, and the eouipapes
OF the rich every afternoon; nor the Isle
OF Rhoda, with its wonderful Nilometer.
by which the inundations of the river are
measured nor Of the Gate of Victory
through which Bonaparte entered the
city, riding on black charger after the
battle Of the Pyramids nor of the Epyp-
tan Museum, the most valuable IN the