Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-10-27
LIFE ON 4 NILE pAHABEA4
A Charming Way to Sec 8 Part of Egypt
 if One is Not in Q Hurry.

more enjoyable in the way of travel
 than life for some months on board a
 dahabeah on the Nile. The Nile is sel.
 dom rough enough to cause discomfort even to the most timid, and at the Il worst the dahabeah can be moored | against the bank while the storm lasts. | Another great advantage of sailing on | the Nile is the steadiness of the wind. |
 From the beginning of winter to the | end of spring-that is, while the Nile is |
 navigable-the north wind blows stead ! fly up stream with sufficient force to | drive sailing boats against the current | at fair pace; while, on the other hand, l the current is strong enough to carry |
 boat without sails down against the | wind except when it blows gale. A pleasure daha beah under full sail | is beautiful sight. It has one great l sail, of lateen pattern, attached to a yard of enormous length. Small sails
 are added as occasion may require. | Over the cabins and saloon is rallied high poop, with easy chairs and
 lounges, and gay with plants and | flowers. To the east stretches the Arabian, to the west the Lybian desert,
 each flanked by range of bare hills, l which in a few places touch the river, l | miles back on either side. Ages before
 the pyramids the Nile filled the whole
 of the valley to the depth of some two
 hundred feet, and the yellow hills, now
 so bare, were clothed with luXuriant | vegeta ton, of which the evidence still
 remains in petrified forests and fos- l silized plants. It was plainly a period
 of heavy rainfall and impetuous tor | rents, carving outvast gorges and pour | ing their waters into the Nile.
 The Nile is a busy river, full of life
 and movement, dahabeahs, bent on | pleasure or on trade, passing up and down it's stream with scarcely any in remission, while it's banks are full of
 interest to the lover of the picturesque;
 crowds of women, with graceful forms
 and, not seldom, very comedy faces, fill
 ing heavy earthen jars with water, and
 carrying them home on their heads;
 men, with skins of bronze, toiling in re-
 lays of three hours each at the shadufs
 under burning sun, and singing the | while to relieve the monotony of their daily labor; boatmen floating with the stream or sailing against it, and they also singing weird, wailing chant, like
 the echo of a hopeless cry waited across
 the centuries from hard bondage under | Egyptian tasllmasters, such as the Israelites endured before the exodus;
 flocl1s of pelicans standing on the sand or maneuvering in the air like soldiers on the march; kingfshers, } now lowering over the water, now darting beneath it's surface in quest of passing fish. And then there is the mysterious Nile itself, mysterious still , though it's sources have been disclosed and it's long meanderings tracked
 from the uplands of central Africa to f the margin of the Midland sea. The voyager now, 1t is true, seldom sees a S crocodile, unless he goes beyond the g second cataract; still less has he a g chance of witnessing any of those fierce ] encounters between crOcodileS and r hippopotami, which arc sculptured on the walls of the temple of Edfu. In those ancient days, when the shores of the Nile down to Cairo were lined with f reeds and papyrus, the river aboundcd I with crocodiles and hippopotami, both = of which afforded excellcnt-albeit r sometimes perilous-sport to the dwell :, CTS on the banks Firearms and steam l. CTS have now driven those fierce mon-
 sters of the deep beyond the second e cataract.
 But, apart from it's inha abitants, the . Nile itself has a mystic interest of it's
 own. I do not wonder that in the my
 thology of ancient Egypt it was en-
 dowed with life, and received some sort e of divine honors. It's periodical inun- IT dations, while their causes were un- s known, placed it outside the category e of ordinary rivers, and invested it with 9 an atmosphere of mystery. And in the v youth of our race, when woods and ', glades and rivers were believed to own " appropriate denizens, it is easy to un- ], derstand how the Nile came to be re- e garded as endowed with more than ,r natural life. It is so full of sub-cur- 7. rents and eddies that the amphibious
 natives, who swim like fish, will not
 venture to cross it except astride on
 logs of wood. In the stiffness of night
 these edies gurgle and murmur past
 your dahabe like spirits from "the
 vasty deep" engaged in confidential
 talk.
 ,4 And who can adequately describe r' those splendid dawns and gorgeous sun rs sets which are among the commonplace E. of Nile scenery? I have often seen the IS whole sky, from the zenith to the hori IS zon, become one motion, mantling seq ], of color and fire, every ripple anC q. wave transfused in to unsullied, shadow
 less crimson and purple and scarlet an6 opalescent hues, shading off into colors
 for which our language supplies nc a, words and previous experience no oideas at This splendor of indescribable inter to mingling colors appears at sunset or at the western horizon, and followed by a Id soft sheen, as of moonlight, reflected III on the hills on the eastern bank of the - river.
 In short, life on the dahabeah is one
 perpetual picnic. You stop where you - please, and either enjoy the dolce fal
 niente of remaining on board or making
 excursions to old temples or tombs, ol nni taking part in a veritable picnic in the O. desert-and picnic in the desert, un s. der favorable auspices, is not likely tc ,d be eforgotten.-London Spectator.
 Il It is stated that at the Cabinet council - to be held in London to-day, Mr. John
 Morley, Chief Secretary for Ireland, will = propose the release of Irish political pris-