Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-20
BY Edgar
E.. Folk,
DID.
\ Southern Pilgrim in Eastern Lands
Egypt the Land of Mystery

| timOre! Chesapeake pay. why ash
ington? The Potomac. Why Chicago?
Lake Michigan. Why Cleveland? Lake
Erie. Why Huntsville, Ala? The spring.
Why Genoa? The harbor. Why Naples?
The bay. Why Rome? The Ttber why
Paris? The Seine. Why Liverpool? me
harbor? Why London? The Thames.
What is true of places is also true to a
large extent of lands. Why England?
| The seas Why Brazil? The Amazon
Why North America? The Mississippi.
why China? The Yangtse. Why India?
! The Ganges. Why Assyria? The Eu-
pirates. Why Egypt? The Nile. But
what the Mississippi is to North Amer
] lea, the Amazon to South America the
| Gauges to India, the Euphrates TO AS
syria, the Nile is tenfold more to Egypt
Egypt Is essentially the land not only of
! the river, but the land of one river. While
! 4062 miles in length. being exceeded by
the Mississippi by only so miles, yet for
| 500 miles above its mouth it has no
tributary. This includes the whole length
| of Egypt. which is something over l,OoO
miles. In breadth Egypt extends just as
| far as the waters of the Nile can be car
ried, and no farther. Beyond that is the
! Libyan desert on one side and the Arapl-
an desert on the other. This width
! varies in upper Egypt-from Cairo up
from a stones throw at its narrowest
! point to Is miles at its broadcast, the av-
erage width being about seven and one
| half or eight miles. Lower Egypt-from
| Cairo down to the Mediterranean sea
is called the delta because of its similar
| ity to the Greek letter by that name
II forms a triangle-or perhaps it would
! be more appropriate to say in Egypt
a pyramid-with almost equal sides, each
about LIS miles in length This delta Is
caused by the fact that just below Cairo
the Nile divides and has number OF
mouths through which 1t empties its
waters into the Mediterranean sea. And
thus Egypt, and particularly upper
/ Egypt, stands as an oasis between two
deserts, like a span of life between two
eternities. And the Nile makes the oasis.
Blot out the Nile and these two deserts
, would unite to blot out Egypt in short
order. They stand now like grim armies
encompassing Egypt on both sides ready
to spring upon and destroy her at the
first opportunity. But the Nile protects
her from them. That is her bull
wark, her very salvation, her life.
On it's waters depends all life
of man and beast and vegetation. 1t
furnishes water for drinking, for cook
ing, for washing for bathing-though 1t
would seem that not much is used in this
last named way-for irrigation of all
crops. On its broad and placid bosom
her commerce floats to the sea. The Nile,
der they almost worship it. No wonder
they speak of 1t affectionately as the
| graceful Nile" as our dragoman does
By graceful" he means not only that 1t
is graceful in it's gently flowing current,
but that 1t Is full Of grace, graciously
giving life and health and prosperity to
the 100000 people of Egypt. No won
der that about the time for the annual
overflow of the river the people would
! anxiously ask each other, What about
the Nile? Is it going to OVERFLOW" And
when the overflow came, they would just
as eagerly ask, How high is 1t likely to
go?' On the answer to these questions
depnded whether and when they should
plant their crops, and how much the
harvest would be, If any. To them this
annual overflow meant everything. and
1t is not surprising that they would dis
cuss 1t with even more eagerneSS than
our American farmers discuss the pros
poets of rain, of a drought, a flood, etc.
Every one knows that nthe dream of
Pharaoh, which was interpreted by Jo-
seph, the seven fat cows coming up out
of the river represented seven years of
plenty, when the Nile would overflow,
and the seven lean cows coming up out OF
the river represented seven years of fam
Inc, when 1t would not overflow.
This annual overflow Of the Nile mum
dating the country around and leaving
the rich alluvial soil on which crops
would grow in such abundance was all
the more remarkable to the Egyptians,
because for seven thousand years or more
1t was all a mystery to them. Why it
overlooked they did not know. All they
knew or cared to know was that it did
overflow. They were not able to trace the
Nile to its source, or sources, and so far
as we know did not attempt to do so, and
probably did not care. What interested
l
water came pouring down from some
where, and left it's life-giving results.
Knowing nothing of the true God for
many centuries 1t was a wonder they did
not worship the Nile, as the people Of
India did the Ganges.
1t remained for Livingstone and Stanley
and Baker and others in the nineteenth
century to discover the true source of the
Nile and to tell the world, including
Egypt, that there are two Niles. the
White Nile and the Blue Nile, besides
smaller tributary, the Athora, that the
White Nile takes it's rise in Lake Vic
toria Nyanza, and the Blue Nile and the
Athora in Abyssinia, and that the annual
ocerf1ow is caused by the heavy rains of
equatorial Africa, filling the lake and then
overlooking into the Nile. The White
and Blue Nile come together at Khar-
toum, forming one stream through Upper
Egypt to Cairo, and then divide into sew
eral mouths, forming the delta or Lower
Egypt.
This annual overflow begins at the end
Of June and subsidies by the last of No
vember. At first the overflow made one
great lake necessitating the building of
canals, dykes and reservoirs, thus teach
ing the Egyptians the science OF river en-
cheering, and also the science of survey
ing of lands, resulting in settled laws,
courts of Justice, etc. These facts will ac-
count for the early development of civili-
cation in Egypt including boat building
and commerce of various kinds.
And now having learned something OF
the country and OF the river which we
have come to visit, think that we are
prepared to land at Alexandria, which