The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-05-06
fronvr,rh+. 1eos nv George AIDE.

Copyright, 1906, by George AIDE.
TYP THE NILE.-The dream or
many years has come true. we
are moving (outward) up tne
Nile. Like busy sandfies we are HIT
ting, almost daily, across white patches
of desert to burrow into ~cond-han
tombs and crick our necks looking up
at mutilated temples. We have learned
to spar with native peddlers and fight
them out of our way. We ride delirious
donkeys at pell-mell speed thru be-
wildered villages, while maniacal boys
run behind and yelp like coyotes. We
have adopted helmets, goggles, sun
umbrellas, cameras, guide books. witch
hazel and insect powder. We are letting
on to one another that we have got all
the dynasties Strengthened out IN our
minds and that we are beginning to
get the hang of the hieroglyph.
Ten years ago not one of us had ever
heard of Koti or Khuemhotep. Now we
refer to them in the most casual way,
as if We had roomed with them for
awhile. 1t is certainly a gay life we
are leading over the cemetery circuit.
Just think what rollicking fun it must
be to revel. day after day in s%arcophagi
and sepulchres, stumbling thru subter-
ranean passages and kicking up the
dust of departed kings, peering down
into mummy pits, also trying to stretch
the imagination like a rubber band so
that we may get the full significance
of what is meant by 5 B. G. People
come to Egypt to cure nervous depres-
sion and then spend nine-tenths OF their
time hanging around tombs. Why come
all the way to Egypt? Why not go out
to WOod1awn and run fOotraces from
one family vault to another7
+ \ =
Mr.. Peasley has no use for the tombs
we have seen up to date. At Beni-Has-
san we rode on donkeys and climbed
hills for half an hour to inspect sew
eral large cubes of dim atmosphere sur
rounded by limestone. At Assioot we
put in the best part of the afternoon
toiling up to another gloomy cavern,
the tomb of HapZefai (whoever he
was), trying to pump up some en-.
thusiasm, Mr.. P~easley mopped his brow
and declared himself.
"IM tell you what I can do he
said. 81 can take a hundred pounds
of dynamite and a gang of dagoes ano
60 anywhere along the Hudson anG
blow out a tomb in a weeks time that
will beat anything we we seen in Egypt
Then I'll hire a boy with a markin
brush to draw some one-legged men an6
some tall women with their heads
turned the wrong way, and III charge
Sc to go in, and make my f~ortune.'
The significance Of the "six dollars
Is that every traveller who wishes tc
visit the antiquities must pay a gov
ernment tax of 100 piastres. He re
must show to the guard before enter
ing any tomb or temple. ] regret te
say that the tickets are often passed
along by departing travellers to those
newly arrived. and as the guards d.
not read English, anything that looks
like a monument ticket will satisfy thu
man at the door. At Beni-Hassan MI
Peasley discovered, when he arrived a
the tombs, that he had left his tickle
at the boat. Fortunately, a fellow
traveller had an extra ticket with hir
and Mr.. Peasley had no difficulty i
gaining admission to all the tombs ur
der the name of "Miss Ella McPhel
son.
Before plunging into the details O
our voyage, it is only fair that tn
1ndulgent reader should know how an
why we came boating up the Nile. An
first Of all. he should know somethin
about this wonderful river. The Nil
has been described one million time
at q rough guess, and yet, at the ris
of dealing out superfuous information
i am going to insert some geography.
Total length, nearly 1000 mile
For thousands and thousands Of yea
it has supported a swarming popul'
ton along it's banks, and yet unit
fifty years e no one knew fro
whence it came. The inhabitants su
pected that it came from somewher
but they were too busy paying take
and building pyramids to worry abol
scientific discoveries. For 1900 mill
up stream from the delta outlet tt
Nile does not receive any tributar
It winds over a limestone base al
thru a r~ainless desert between high ar
barren table lands. Occasionally, whe:
there is a granite formation, the strea
is narrowed and forces it's way thu
rushing rapids, and these are know