Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-03-02
CURRENT AFFAIRS.
TWO YANKhES ABROAD.
EXTRACTS FROM DIARIES KEPT DURING
ToUR THROUGH EGYPT AND PALESTINE IN
THE WINTER AND SPRING OF LAST YEAR

THE WINTER AND SPRING OF LAST YEAR.
No. w.
The Cruise of the Rnmeaes, or Woes
and Pleasures of Two CoOkists.
Luxor, February, 1887.
| ] ought to begin with essays list, on
Nile floods, loan deposits and irrigation
ID, on twenty six dynasties of Egyptian
kings 3D., on mummies, religion in old
times and modern times Christians and Pa
gaus 4th, on Copts, Muslims, Fellaheens
(name of actual Inhabitants, plural of Eel
lah), and ever so many others. Good read
ers, beloved readers, spare you You will
have enough to do TO peruse these long let
ters written from notes jotted down from
time TO time
February . we are at Keuch, and land t.
see the temple Of Denderah, distant only
half an hour-an easy tramp on big don
key with young man to push it, Like all
other temples, this one is half buried out
side and has been emptied inside. Every
year the Nile floods the land deposits hall
an inch Of mud In three or four hundred
years everything gets buried under those
successive layers, if not cleaned regularly
if bitches and canals are not kept open
Add the sand storms blowing periodically,
a population decimated by wars and fam
inc, and you have the whole story
Denderah is a modern temple, built by
! Cleopatra, who, too old to seduce Octa
vius, killed herself with serpents bite
lso says Legend. A temple only 200C
/ years old is a degenerate temple, its archi-
lecture is inferior in my case it is all the
same-'ig ignorance is bliss admire the
twenty four columns, the ceiling with the
celebrated zodiac the long halls decorated
with professions Of kings and priests
wonderful figures with the sun in their laps
all the gods Of Egypt represented with a
cows head, "A rams head an OK head or u
dogs head, etc Read up Denderah in your
encyclopedias. Thirty years ago Marettc
unburied this temple, and now bees cover
its walls with their combs, gathering no
honey, as it is spring or summer all the
| year through. We are led into small sub
terranean rooms, in which treasures were
| kept. Bats abound they avoid us as much
as we avoid them. For the sake of space,
ladies' have been led on one side, men on
another this simple fact is enough TO make
| each sex deslrous to 60 with the other. On
an outside wall we look at the figure of Cleo
| patra herself, but it is not at all like the
| handsome, winning, sensual Cleopatra Of
our readings, and, after all, she may be
/ only myth
We resume our slow journey. Our boat,
/ Hrntsc>, seems too long for the Nile or for
the pilots skill he bumps her nose against
/ innd and breaks two planks Of her wheel.
/ However, We reach Luxor before dark, and
are treated to most glorious sunset-an
/ immense peacock wing spread over half
the sky, with all the colors Of the rainbow
/ blended, melted together
| Luxor Is an insignificant village on high
1 bank on the site Of ancient Thebes, the
/ legendary city of Homer Either the Nile
/ has changed its course, or Thebes extended
| down both sides Of the river We have
/ read and heard 50 much Of Luxor that fin
| ally We have endowed it with all the virtues
and beauties Of Egypt. When at Luxor
all our troubles will be over we will revel
| in all the Incidence, sun, far Hiente, luxury
/ Of the East the most adorable women will
| execute our wishes, We will bask in their
smiles and deplore only that We are no
/ longer Young to fall in love with their heav-
/ enly shapes
/ Here the Lybian and Eastern hills run
| further apart, forming an immense prairie
surrounded by an amphitheatre of strong
| hills Our Mohamed, who dons every day
a new dress, sometimes two, and is as vain
as an old belle, announces that we must be
of at eight o'clock the following morning.
| So We are We embark in a big row boat,
| cross the Nile two men carry each of us
from the boat to the shore the water i.
very shallow. We give backshish a long
array of boys and donkeys form black line
in a most beautiful landscape, lit up by the
suns rays, with background of rich green
meadows and reddish bare hills | pick
out donkey; for better aud for worse my
fate is sealed for the day My animal is very
small but quite up TO its work. We trot
across sandy island, find another boat
other carriers. give a second backshish
Then, crossing wheat and lentl fields, ",
reach tine temple of Kooneh, contemplate a
number Of Rameses, "A legion of gods, and
are pounced upon by horde of sellers OF
antiquities, papyri, hands and feet of mum
mics plus Il band of girls carrying on Their
heads small jars of water plus troop OF
boys wanting to look at us, to hold oul
books plus a number Of guardians Will
brass numbers on their arms, and old rusty
guns, all claiming hackshish. This is thu
plague Of Egypt-the ten plaques concen
trnted into one, with modern improvements
and a maximum of dirt not described b,
Moses its accumulation is beyond descrip
ton My donkey-boy has rolled my shaw
round his head like a turban | shake i
carefully before using it again, in order {,
avoid undesirable friends.
For one hour we ride up small valley
between crumbling sandstone hills we fol
low the dry bed Of a torrent At time
clouds have burst here and flooded thes
gorges. or the winds have whirled sand an,
smoothcd the stones as water would do.
is hot, and for the first time in Egypt tn
professor is hot enough Finally we Iii,
mount at the tombs of the kings Tn
strong ones visit five of them; | an
more than satisfied with four, and, indeed
for the last one, which descends to the bow
els of the earth, accept the support of
benevolent guardian, who carries my can
de ami throws light on my steps OF cours,
he receives backshish so do many bin,
men we are the prey which attracts vul
lures and crows. These tombs have al
beautiful frescoes and images. Murray
guide book has twenty pages ON them; yol
may read them and receive my blessing
This is the tomb of Rameses "; then come
Rameses TX; more of the same name, Will
a Seti here and there, In one only is al
empty sarcophagus. At some time or othel
all these tombs were plundered To-day
they have guardians, who continue th'
plundering on a small scale. At the en-
trance of tomb number six we find lunch
spread on the ground, In the sun it is
bruing in the shade of the rock it il
chilly. We divide our lunch with our don
key boys. Mine, Mahomet SULLIVAN, is I
rascal he has inside his dark blue robe ,
pocket, in which disappears all that he re
ceives, and then he is in the market for
more Nerer enough is the rule for all thes'
miserable, cunning rapacious fellaheen