The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-05-06

bank and lrrigatinG his little field with the
| same old-fashioned sweep and bucket ar
Fangement that was In use when Joseph
came over to Egypt and attracted the at
tcntion of PotipharS wife The Egyptian
farmer Is called feliah. The clothing
that he wears would wad a gun-that IS,
llne, not a shotgun. He puts in at least
fourteen hours n day and his pay is from
| 10 TO 20 cents Mr.. Pcasley told a tourist
the other day that the song, Hes a Jolly
! Good Fellah' originated In Egypt during
! the time of the Ptolemies. This is a
sample Of the kind OF idlotio observation
that is supposed TO cnliVen a so-called
| pleasure trip
| =. But let US get back to the river. for in
| Egypt one must get back to the river at
/ least once every twenty minutes. The Nile
! is Egypt and Egypt is the Nile, All this
description may sound like a few pages
/ from the trusty red guide book and vet
the word Egypt Will have no meaning
! to the reader who does not get clear
panoramic vision OF this wonderfully Slim
waIsted country Nearly six hundred miles
long and yet containing only 1850 square
mlleS-about the size of Maryland
The strip OF black land which Yields the
plentiful crops Is nowhere more than ten
Inlles VIDE, mere fringe OF fertility
ldtion: Anywhere along the river II you
! VIII climb TO the rocky plateau. you VIII
see the slow moving river. probably a half
mile wide as CLASSY thread on which
are strung fields OF living green. bordered
by the drearE upliftS or desert The trav-
clCr who goes by boat from Cairo to AS
souan secs all OF Egyut The cities and
temples and tOmbS of olden times were
perchcd on the high spots or planted I'm
the bare hills, so as 10 be safe from the
annual rise OF waters. Anything worth
seeing in the whole country IS within an
easy donkey ride of the river bank The
river is the only artery of travel There
Is u railway, but 1t follows the river all
the way up TO Assouan.
IL would seem that the country was
especially laid out and punctuated with
sights" for the convenience OF the mod
ern traveller, for the visitor who goes up
tho Nile and stops off at the right spots
can do clean Job of sight seeing without
doubling on his tracks.
Until few years ago the tourist going
up the Nile bad to take q dIhdbeah. This
sounds like the name OF a disease, but IT
Is really big. roomy, nat-bottomed sail
boat The dahdbeuh moves only when tho
wind Is In the right direction, and to 20
tIom CAIRO TO Assouan requires the great
cr part o. a lifetime. Those travellers who
have money 10 burn and who are content
TO settle down 10 many weeks OF rest and
Incidence charter the private dahabeahs
When L traveller goes aboard N dahabeah
he tears up the calendar and let's his
watch run down Those who have more
money and are In hurry use the private
steam dahabeahs
a majority OF travellers 20 by passenger
boats The tourist steamers devote three
weeks TO loallnG voyage up TO Assouan
and back. with daily excursions TO the
graveyards and ruins The express steam
crS, carrying freight and native pas
sengerS, take less time Tor the round trip
as they skip some OF the less interesting
antiquities. We took an express steamer
thereby missing many of the tomhs and
temples, but still getting enough of them
to last us for the next hundred years
or SO.
Our steamer Is fraIl ur'aIr. double
dc cckcd and OF no draught worth mention
iug. II resembles the old style OF Mis-
sCuri river boat. built TO run on a heavy
dew. There arc thirty passengers who
devote most of their time to lolling on
deck waiting for the next meal Mud