El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-09-24

1HeTe are out lew trees TO De seen
Now and then an acacia grows along
the roadway, and here and there over
| the country are clumps of date palms
There are occasional fruit gardens
| and one frequently passes an orchard
loaded with oranges.
The roads are usually high above the
rest of the country. They run along
the canals, and consist of the dirt built
up to hold back the waters. The side
| roads are chiefly camel paths or foot
paths, and one sees everywhere the
| traffic moving along through the
| fields. Even on the chief roads there
are very few wagons. The most of the
| freight is carried on dOnkeys and cam
els, and they form the chief riding
animals as we'll bong legged Egyp-
tians in turbans and gowns sit on the
rumps of little dOnkeys, their feet al
most dragging; fierce looking Be
-doulns, their headdresses tied on with
| ropes, bob up and down as they ride
! on their camels, their heads apparent
~ bowling at every step of the beast.
| There are camelS loaded with alfalfa
the grass so covering them that they
| look like miniature haystacks walking
| along There are donkeys with boxes
and bags and mules and bullocks car
rying freight Of one kind or other. Out
| III NA-O AAOAOo OLS HOW anu IHon sees a
buffalo with a half-naked boy sitting on
it, and at nightfan the paths are lined
with men coming from the fields rid
| ing these ungainly beasts, and balanc-
| ing their one-handled plows in front OF
them as they move slowly on.
The City of the Cat.
1t was here in Goshen that the Is
| raelites worked after they were en-
| shaved by the Egyptians They went
from here also to build cities and
towns in various parts of the Nile val
ley. The Psychologists who are now
| excavating in Egypt tell me that they
frequently find bricks which were
! probably made by them, and assert
that the sun-dried bricks of today are
practically the same as those which
the children of Israel nodded under
the lash Of their taskmasters.
This is the case in the ruins of the
Bubastis, or the city of the worship OF
the cat This town was situated within
a stones throw of the Zagazig of to-
day, and its buildings Of mud brick
nave crumbled almost to dust but here
and there the walls are plainly visible
BubaStis dates back to the time
when the pyramids were young 1t is
supposed to have been built by the
Israelites, and was a great city until
1t was captured by the Persians about
S52 B. c. Bubastis was noted for its
temples devoted to the car-hcaGei
goddess. This lady had the form of 4
lioness with the head of a cat and she
held in one hand a lotus leaf as q
scepter- HerOdotus speaks of her and
this city. saying that the temples were
gorgeous and that the stone road lead
ing to them was 1900 feet long He
says that the people came in crowds
mere to worship. and at the annual res-
t1vals something like 100000 strangers
were present. He relates that MANY of
the Worshipers were women who often
danced and acted otherwise, in an
unseemly manner" leading us to be-
neve that they We're by no means SO
good as they should be-
Egyptian Brickmakers of 1910.
Riding out to Bubastis. 1 found there
brickyard in full swing 1t was stu
ated right on the edge of the ruins
and the Fellaheen of today were mold
ing the clay used by the IsraeIites of
tho past into building material for
1910. As 1 looked at them nv mind
went back to the days of the Pharaohs
when Moses was still living and saw
his people labOring under the lash.
THESE men and women are working I'M
DER taskmasters or overseers Their
half-clad persons were burnt black by
the tropical sun overhead and they
looked not unlike slaves Here thew
were grinding the mud, there thew
were molding it into bricks and further
over they were piling up the bricks
winch had been dried in the sun The
carrying of the bricks was largely
zone by young girls, who labored un-
der a burly negro with a stick in his
02n0 dirao+541
the bricks on their heads and carried
them off on the trot. I got a photo
graph of this scene by bribing the
negro; and 1 doubt not my picture was
fair type of that which went on in
those long ago days, when Pharaoh
drove the Israelites to similar work
without straw.
with the Virgin Mary in Egypt.
1t was down through Goshen that
} oSeph and Mary came with the infant
saviour when they fled from the horrid
Herod who slaughtered the innocents
This was then the chief highway from
Palestine to Egypt, and there is NO |
doubt that they stopped at Bubastfs as
they went on to HeliopoIis. whe-a the |
temple and college still existed at the |
time Christ was born. There is a tree
not Tar from the Qbelisk of HeIiopolis
OAANOA " NASAA -holy anu Joseph and the |
young Jesus are said to have rested IT |
is about five miles from Cairo and |
guide books speak of it as one of the |
stock sights of Egypt 1 doubt the |
reliability of their statements. The |
tree may be the descendant of one |
which stood there in the time of Christ |
1t is an old sycamore, gnarled with |
many years and SCARED with the names |
OF tourists 1t is on one of the estates |
Of the khedive, and it may be seen
through the bars of a fence, which has
been built around it to keen off the
relic hunters. During my visit there |
tried TO climb the fence in order to get
a photograph of it. but some of the
khedives servants came up and warn
ed me not to go in. The tree is sur
rounded by orange orchards. which are
irrigated by sakiyehs drawn bv water
puffaIoes with blankets over their
eyes.
AS L went by I stopped at one OF
these saklyehS and the men brought
me some oranges from the khediva.s
orchard and sold them at the rate of |
elght for 10 cents. They were won
derIully refreshing. and as T sat in tho
SHdQo or the trees OnfSida a.