Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-03
WINTER ON THE NILE.
Wonders of Egypt Offer Refresh
ment for Mind and Body.
From the London Morning p

From the London Morning Post
Without doubt the pleasantest place in
which to spend a nonwintry winter is
Egypt-the banks Of the Nile. In Cairo,
perhaps. 1t is not quite correct to describe
the winter as nonwintry. for the early
morning and evening cold Is sufficient to
make itself very sensibly felt; but in As
suan and Luxor the winter is no winter
in the European sense OF the word.
BY Christmas the narcissus and the
violets. immense beds OF which grow in
the gardens, are already in bloom: while
by March. our early spring, the orange
blossom and the scarlet hibiscus are fully
out. the pink and white oleanders and
petunias are towering with a profusion
utterly unknown In European gardens,
and the long, lofty wall Of the winter
palace gardens in Luxor is hung with,
as it were, a tapestry of deep yellow
Marechal Mel roses and deep purple
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES color study of
tints, both rich and rare. Winter on the
Nile. indeed, is more like an ideal sum-
mer. with warm days, which are yet not
exhausting. and with cool evenings and
early mornings, which possess some
marvellous quality of freshness and in
MIGRATING power OF which evenings and
early mornings elsewhere seem bereft.
mind and body, think, after considerable
experience Of travel, that l should send
any one to Egypt in preference to any
other part of the world. l should not rec
as. interesting city though it is in the
older and native parts. it is not character
istically Egyptian. and does not. unless,
perchance. for the incorrigible town lover.
possess anything approaching to the
nameless charm of the Nile and upper
Egypt.
Throughout the entire journey, lasting
about fortnight from Cairo to Assuan.
this abundant life OF the Nile is cease
lessly in evidence. In summer. the dead
season. 1t might be less apparent, but in
winter or spring the signs Of people, hab-
itations, domestic animals, cultivation,
wherever the eye rests. are striking be-
yond all else in the Egyptian landscape.
watered and tended, and by early spring
the first OF these crops are ready for har-
vest.
Great golden masses Of corn are already
to be seen near LUXOR and barley already
bearded even near Cairo: tomatoes are fit
for gathering. great purple-black auber-
gines ripe for plucking, opium poppies in
flower, field after field of them Of all col
ors; and. above all. there are onions
everywhere, acres Of onions, lucerne and
grain.
The winter is not past, indeed, before
the fellah is planting in the uncovered
stretches OF rich black Nile mud and In
sandy splits where the larger wild birds
congregate the seeds Of the watermelons,
which in summer are almost the staff of
his life. To see those watermelon plants
from day to day used to remind US Of an
old nursery rhyme, three lines Of which
ran thus:
And with gardener man,
With the watering can,
Says, Gracious! how fast he grows.
For they grow almost visibly. fostered by
! the hot sunshine and nourished by the
| fat Nile mud.
| 1t is doubtless this ceaseless life and
activity OF the Nile and not merely the
sense OF vast limitless space. the bound
| less horizon, nor the atmospheric effects
changing with the time OF day, which
prevent the Egyptian scene from ever
wearying or becoming monotonous. I dc
not think l speak for myself alone when
l say that I have spent day after day in
! the bows of Nile steamer doing nothing
whatever but watching the scenes passed
through. without for a moment finding
! the days too long.
| Apart from the life actually on the
river with the passage of boats. bearing
| the peculiar long Nile sails, manned by
bawling Arabs and laden with strange
cargoes of water jugs, sugar cane and
maize there ID the life on the shore it.
self-the life Of a people unfamiliar and
| yet familiar, because they see;cl % have
come out of the pages of the family Bible
at whose illustrations we used to look in
our childhood. people doing things as
they did them thousands of years ago
| living a life which we see to be real be-
which yet seems a life of long ago.