Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-11-06

these wondrous waters and betwean the
banks crowned with the story OF empires.
According to the lead pencil marx in my
Bible it was Thanksgiving day morning,
November 20, 1899, that with my family
and friends We stepped aboard the steamer
on the Nile. The Mohamm edan call to
prayers had been sounded by the priests or
that religion, the MuazZins, from the four
hundred mosques of Cairo as the cry went
out: ''God is great. / bear witness that
there is no God but God. 1 bear witness
that Mohammed is the apostle OF God. Come
to prayers. Come to salvation. God IS great.
There is no other but God. Prayers are Det-
ter than Sleep"
The sky and city and palm groves and river
shipping were bathed in the light. 1t was
not much of a craft that we boarded. Ii
would not be hailed on any of our rivers
with any rapture of admiration. IL tortu-
nately had but little speed, for twice we ran
aground and the sailors jumped into the
water and on their shoulders pushed her out:
But what yacht Of gayest sportsman, Wnat
deck Of swiftest ocean queen could give such
thrill of rapture as sail on the Nile! Inc
pyramids in sight, the remains OF cities that
are now only name, the villages thronged
with population. Both banks crowded Win
historical deeds Of forty or sixty centuries
Un, what a DOCK the Bible Is when read on
the Nilel
Az we slowly move up the majestic river
I see on each bauk the wheels, the pumps ne
buckets for irrigation, and see man WIN
his foot on the Greadle Of a wheel that Ietcnes
up the water for garden, and tnen LOT 1ne
first time 1 understand that passage III
Deuteronomy wnlcu says or Jne LsraenCes
after they had got back from Egypt, 'Ihe
land whittier thou goest in to possess It's not
as the land of Eyypt. from whence ye came
out, where thou sowedst Inv seed, ana
wateredst it with thy foot" Then under
stood how the land could be watered with
the foot How do you suppose felt when
on the deck of that steamer ON the Nile l
looked off upon the canals and bitches and
stu1ces through which the fields are irrt-
gated by that river, and then read in Isaiah,
1.-THE burden of Egypt-the river shall be
wasted and dried up and they shall turn the
rivers far away and the BROOKS or defense
shall be emptied and dried up; and they
shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all
that make suices and ponds for fish,
While sailing on this river or stopping at
one of the villages, we see people on the
hanks who verify the Bible description. for
tnev are now as tueY were in Bible times.
Shoes are now taken of in reverence to
sacred places Children carried astr1de the
mothers shoulder as in Hagars time. Wo-
men with profusion of jewery as when he
becca was affianced. Lentils shelled into the
pottage as when Esau sold his O1rthrlgnt to
get such a dish. The same habits OF saluta-
ton as when Joseph and his brethren fell on
each others necks. Courts Of law held I'M
der big trees in olden times. People max
DrlCKS WlCQOuC straw, COulOCliou Wy
circumstances to use stubble instead OF
straw
FLYING over or standing on the banks as in
Scripture days are famingoes, ospreys,
eagles, pelicans, herons cuckoos and bull
finches On all sides of this river sepulchers.
Villages of sepulchers. Cities OF sepulchers.
Nations of sepuchers. And one IS tempted
to call it an empire of tombs. never saw
such place as Egypt is for graves. And
now we understand the complaining sarcasm
of the Israelites when they were on the way
from Egypt to Canaan, Because there are
no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away
to die in the wilderness" Down the river
bank come the buffalo and the cattle of kline
to drink. And 1T was the ancestors Of these
cattle that inspired Pharoahs dream Of the
lean kline and the fat kline.
Here disembark a little while for
Memphis off the Nile to the right, Memphis
founded by the first king of Egypt and for
long time the capital A city Of marble and
gold. Home of the Pharaohs. City of nine
teen miles in circumference. Vast colon
nades through which imposing professions
marched. Here stood the Temple of tha
! Sun. itself in brilliancy sun shone on by
! another Thebes in power over thou
sand and hundred years, or nearly ten times
as long as the United States have existed.
Here is recumbent statue seventy-fve feet
| long. Bronzed gateways. A metropolis
called ''the haven of tho best" Here
Joseph was prime minister. Here Pharaoh
received Jacob. All possible splendors were
built up into this royal city. Hosea, Ezekiel
| Jeremiah ana Isaiah speak of it as some
thing wonderful.
Never did visit a city with such exalted
anticipations, and never did my anticipa-
! tions drop so fat. Not pillar stands. Not
a wall is unbroken. Not foundation losses
in the sun. Even the ruins have been ruined
and all that remains are chips of marble,
small pieces of fractured sculpture and spin.
tered human bones. Here and there a letter
of some elaborate inscription, toe cal
of statue that once stood in niche of palace
wall. Ezekiel prophesied its blotting out,
aud the prophecy has been fulfilled. ''Ride
on" said to our party, land don't wait fol-
me-" And as / stood there alone the city Of
Memphis in the glory Of past centuries re
turned. And heard the rush of her chart
OTIS, and the dash of her fountains and the
conviviality Of her palaces, and saw thu
drunken mobiles roll on the floors Of racsaic
galities of the place l saw Pharaoh look uI
into the face of aged rustic Jacob, the shep
herd, saying, "How old art thou"'
But back to the Nile and on and 10 till yor
reach Thebes, in Scripture called the City OF
; No. Hundred gated. Thebes. A quadran
; gular city four miles from limit. TO limit
Four great temples, two of then Karnac
and Luxor, once mountains Of exquisite
| sculpture and gorgeous dreams soliditie1 il
! stone. Statue of Rameses H. eight hundred
and eighty-seven tons in weight and seven
ty-fve feet high, but now fallen and scat
tered. Walls abloom with the battlefelds Of
centuries
The surrounding hills of rock hollowoc
, into sepulchers on the wall of which ar
, chiseled in picture and hieroglyphics thu
, confirmation of Bible story in regard to tn,
treatment of the Israelites in Egypt 50 that
as explorations go on with tne work, tn
walls of these sepulchers become com
mentaries of the Bible the Scripture