The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-17

to attend a fantasia at the house of
the American consul, who resided in
the near neighborhood of our land
ing.
The fantasia illustrates the chronic
Incidence of the East 1t is dance, but
the guests do not bestir themselves.
They sit and observe the curious move
ments of the ghawazee, or dancing wo-
men. These consist, in part of muscu-
lar contortions, which suggest nothing
of grace or beauty. Now and then
they whirl a little, clashing their cas-
tanets. AS they pass the gentlemen,
they covertly present hand which
signifies backsheesh as plainly as words
spoken could do it.
At last the chief one among them
prepares for what may be called her
great act" A glass bottle is placed up
on her head, and in it is set lighted
candle. She goes through many gyra-
tions without displacing this danger
Gus burden, and finally lies down upon
the floor a small cushion, adroitly
placed, helping her to keep her head in
a perpendicular position. This feat con-
cludes the evenings entertainment
The next morning saw us early in
the saddle intent upon exploring the
wonders of Luxor. These are so well
known that 1 will accord them but a
brief mention.
First of all rises in my memory the
two enormous statues which stand on
| the broad sands at some distance from
the river. The place which they occupy
| is called the Memnoneum, one of the
statues having anciently borne the
name of Memnon. The musical sounds
once supposed to issue from it are
heard no more, and the only music it
suggests is that of Mr.. Emerson's lines:
"And the morning opes with haste
her lids
To gaze upon the pyramids"
The beautiful Egyptian morning
lights up, with wondrous tints, these
| marvellous figures, the height of which,
with their pedestals, are nearly sixty
feet Remounting our animals, we Wis
tied one great temple after another,
wondering at the more than colossal
statue of Rameses, a monoith sixty
feet in length,-which once was height
now broken in several peices.
In the most majestic of the temples,
we grouped ourselves for a photo
! graph The contrast between the ST.
lent majesty of the ruins and our mod
ern stir and chatter comes back to me,
as l think of the mighy columns which
So many centuries have spared, and
of our busy and eager group. In the
shade of the most sacred penetralia we
ATE our IuncneO0.
Our whole mornings ramble was ac-
companied by little girls, each carrying
on her head a jar of water for our re-
| freshment. Although scantily dressed,
| they managed to wear pewter ear
rings and necklaces of glass beads. One
little girl had adorned herself with a
necklace make of bits of dried orange
peel. Like the donkey boys they had
mastered a few words of English and
one of them more than once cried to
me:
English lady, give me backsheesh'
We met here some Boston friends
who invited us to take our Christmas
dinner with them on board their da-
habieh, but the gentlemen of our COM
pany had made arrangements for din
ner at the Thebes hotel, and we felt
obliged to stand by them. So the de-
lightful day closed with a very toler-
able symposium on terra firma, after
which short speeches were in order,
and the Star Spangled Banner" was
sung in chorus.
A Christmas with no possibilities of
high mass, nor of Anglican service!
Yet, l ask, were these needed? The
grand old river preached to us of the
Hebrew infant who so narrowly es-
capped death by its waves to become
the lawgiver of the civilized world
and this lesson called up the image of
that other babe, whose record has ad-
ded to the ancient tradition a glory de-
stined to survive all the wrecks of his
tory undimmed and unsurpassed.