The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-06


ranges of square, black holes hewn in the
limestone or granite, which are entrances
to ancient tombs, and where these are
numerous or famous you will probably
land to examine some of them. Then viii
you perceive-cimhing from the palm
grove TO the breast OF the yellow crag--
what a faith those ancient Egyptians of
the Pharaohs had in the immortal life of
the soul. Otherwise they would not have
cut away the solid rock so palently into
smooth, vast, imperishable chambers to
deposit therein two or three bodies at
most, against such times as their respec-
tive souls, all fated wanderings COM
pleted, should come back to look for and
to resume the earthly tenement. Joy
Gus and confident paintings on the tomb
wall, as fresh in this dry, pure air
as though drawn and colored week and
not 5000 years ago, symbolic the happy
future of the justified dead. The tombs
are now all rined and the patient mum
mics are gone-some to museums, some to
be manure or pigments for artists, for
there is quite large trade done today in
Nile mummy dust; for fertilizing and for
special brown tint much employed by
oil painters. Yet the significances of these
antique, rock-hewn graves is the same. 1t
was the land of a resolute belief, the land
of an assured and universal conviction
that mans real existence is eternal, of
which every one OF these deliberately ex-
cavated sepulchres is a monument, noble
and pathetic. As | myself have written to
the mummy of an Egyptian lady. whose
burial chest we opened, to find only her
dust and slippers
You were born in the Egypt that did not doubt:
You were never sad with our new-fashioned
soTrows;
You Were sure, when your playtimes on earth
ran out,
OF playtmes to come, as we of our moIrows,
OH wise little maid of the Delta!
The pyramids themselves are mighty
witnesses of the same firm belief, being,
as they were. gigantic caskets, with astro-
nomical and geodetical meanings, con-
structed to preserve the dead body of the
king, until his majesty's soul had need of
it for new earthly existence.
What, with such occasional landings to
explore tombs, to shoot hares and palm
doves, and to get necessary exercise; and
what with the strong current and the
SLOW pace OF these broad-beamed, fat
bottomed Nile boats, it is not very much
progress that you will make in any one
day. From twenty-five to forty-fiye miles
may be taken as the rate, and this absence
of hurry and this daily sedate advance
suit well the genius of the land and the
atmosphere of peace and philosophy
which surrounds the dahabeeah. Never
for a moment is the properly constituted
mind bored upon that marvellous
and delightful river. You can read
or sketch or write sitting on the
upper deck under the striped avn
Ing, with the pretty water-wagtails of the
Nile running about between your feet, and
the solemn Refs ascending now and again
to say his prayers toward Mecca, at noon,
or at the ''Azan," which ls our II o'clock
tea" The crew alone would be 4 perpetu-
ally interesting study To Il close observer;
ours certainly proved go, especially when
they found out that We liked them to
dance and be happy in their own way. If,
as often happens, there IS no wind, over
board go half a dozen of the brown
hands" rolling up their blue coats to
their armplts, and the tow rope is rugged
and hauled for hours and hours. Should
n lively puff of breeze arise, helter-skelter
they rush for the boat, leap and scramble
on board, hoist the huge latteen sail, and
away the little ship buzzes once more,
churnlng the Nile into cream below her
allow the main sheet to be made fast.
A trusted sailor must constantly
squat on the deck holding that in his
hands. with half a hitch only round the
cleat, and at the moment when the helms
man cries "hbajjsi' Colosseum he must
let the sheet run. Otherwise the ia
hahea2h viii surely capSiEe. | was very
point, being an old yaChtsman, and il was
not from any neglect as to the main sheet
that our catastrophe, soon 10 be related, be-
fell.
In the delicious afternoon. as the sun
sinks nearer the western horizon, casting
lon: shadows from the PAIN stems, the
river grows more and more enhancing.
The north winds, which ofItimes blows
hard and even cold in the forenoons, is
lulIed. The chief work of the "shCdoufS"
the water wheels-is done. and their
shriil creaking no longer SO much grieves
the sensitive ear. The bCffa!os, released
from the slow toll of turning the pole, go
homeward with the goats and chickens.
Long lines of wild geese. damingoes, peli-
cans and vast iiocks OF blue pigeons
streak or cloud the sky, now gradually as
Stunning toward It's western border lovely
tint OF turquoise green-nay, more de-
c{ded!v green than that-a ver.ta5!e tci5 lie
NJ color, upon which the gathering cloud
LET'S of the early evening lie IN soft masses
of silver and gold and violet. The cook
begins 10 be bQsy with his charcoal fires
and the Arab crew gets ready the mooTing
ropes and pins. Down drops the last
faint breeze, and some Of them must
plunge overheard again 10 cTag the dana
beeah to her berth Tor the night, under the
Mains Of the village. As We pull and poe
The Sluggish vessel to her resting place the
ever crumbling bank Of the river tumhles
in large HAT masses Of black soil. wlth loud
smash. into that current which IS always
eating at the Egypt that it has created.
The shin is laid aionrsi the shore, pegs
are driven into the bank and ropes made
fast 10 them stem and stern; plank Is
cast from the deck 10 the land and your
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