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

humorously false and hagltious excuses to
linger at a pleasant spot and cause our
social arrangements to hit III with their
own, for they had friends at every station.
But as we were in no sort of hurry their
stratagems suited our idle programme
vol, and very quickly We all got on
together quite perfectly. They would do
anything and everything at last for the
Slit and Sittina, and since my Turkish
decorations gave me the status of pacha,
they were full of the necessary respect for
the ''effendi."
Three or four among their number
gained our especial favor: a strong good
tempered Arab named "Salim"-who We
almost instantly re-christened THE
Buffalo"-a tall, graceful lad, called
Nova" a one-eycd Egyptian sailor,
known as Hassan, who wore a red
loin cloth, and was dubbed Scarlet
Fever" the hoy Mustapha and Ali. the
body servant. There came, moreover, a
black kitten on board. called 'Sheitan, or
the devil. to which the sailors objected as
being unlucky, but this point was over
ruled. As for the weather, that indispens-
ihle factor IN happy water trip, there was
no need to be anxious about 1t. The
Egyptian winter is splendid for steady
brilliancy of SKY and pieasantness of tenn
perature, q little too much cooled, perhaps,
each morning when the north wind blows.
But this breeze lulls as the sun draws
westward, and evening after evening the
sunsets on the Nile are beyond all descrip-
ton lovely and inexhauSilble in comhina-
ton of tender and beautiful tints. Night
after night the ancient god Ra sank to his
couch in robes of more glorious maSnii-
cence than we had before seen, SO that the
hour of his declination and departure was
a regular rendezvous on the upper
deck for US all, and while Lady
Arnold would seek to fix some of
the divine blendinss of gold and crimson,
amber and purple. turquoise green and
silvery gray painting the west, the refs
was on his knees and nose saying his even
ing PRAYER toward Mecca, and half the
crew would be cooking the last meal, while
the other half tramped the broken nank
with the tow rope over their brown
shoulders singing some song. OF the Nile
not always too decent II faithfully trans
lated.
1t is the golden dream OF travelling, say,
to glide along day after day upon that an
tique water channel between the two STRIPS
of brilliant fertility which mark the range
OF the yearly inundation which creates
and recreates Egypt. Justly has the cid
chroncler Herodo;us said that Egypt IS
the gift of the Nile" Exactly so much OF
the desert valley lying between the yellow
sunburned hills as the wave OF the lie.
giving stream can touch. by dood or arm
fetal irrigation, it transforms as II pY
magic from a waste to paradise. One
does not realize what water Is to the earth
until many n stroll has been taken along
those emerald strips of barley and miilet
fields and those long. waving groves OF
palm trees which embroider the Nile all
The way from Cairo to the second
cataract and, indeed, much higher
In 4. thousand spots You may
stand in Middle and Upper Egypt with
one foot deep in rich, verdant gro"
crops and the other buried IN barren
sands The line is As sharp between the
fertility and the s.eriity rs between the
water and the bank; III truth, the mo
river itself IS accompanied throughout us
course by these two sister streams OF eter-
nal fecunG!ty, and Egypt Is that ever
cleaning ribbon OF blue with green eGses,
now widening, now diminishing. when
meanders always bright and glad. IN the
heart Of the hot desert. from korosko 10
the Delta.
It IS i supreme pleasure, t repeat 70
make your way day after dav up the grand
old river IN = we'll found Nile boat, Win
pleasant company and a good, wlihng,
friendly crew. In the early morning, pc
fore the sun has cleared the halls when
shut us from the Red sea, the dams
beeah spreads the great white wing
Of her @tr.ukeet" If there be any ser
viceabie breeze ana gracefully resumes
her daily task OF Stemmlng the perpetual
downward current O! the river. The scene
IS then lovely. The fsir Egyptian dawn
has broken. pearly and roseate. Inc
stream is alive with water hirds-cranes,
pelicans, Wild geese and lbls-whose happy