Year: 1870

|
tier is VIM. c. Prime, who is both practiced


traveller in Oriental countries and Il polished


writer. His descriptions are, many of them,


surprisingly beautiful, as for example the


following extract:


Never was night moro holy than that.


when l found myself again fairly away for


the voyage up the father of rivers. 1t was
still, so still that the silence seemed oppres-
sve. But the very silence well beftted the
scene. West OF us, close at hand, We're the
hills Of Chizeh and Sakhara, where lie the
innumerable dead of ancient Memphis
doubt not that to-day millions of the inhabi-


tants of ancient Egypt lie in their grave
clothes under those yellow sands, waiting
the resurrection in whose hope they slept
thousands of years ago. There lie men who


knew Plato and who knew Joseph, and men


who knew Moses We talk at home of the
sleep of DEATH but somehow that sleep
always seems to me more easily realized
here in Egypt where men lie at rest in form


and feature as when friends left them in the
tomb twenty or thirty centuries ago. Sitting
on deck that night endeavored to imagine the
resurrection on yonder hills, when the men


of all the centuries should stand up together


and look in one anothers faces The success
siye races that have inhabited this land. and


who rest in the rocky hillsides, had little fore


sight, but perhaps quite as much as we have


in America in the nineteenth century They
did not imagine who would succeed them in
their possessions. nor do We Their glory
SurpaSses ours almost as much rs ours sur
passes that of our aboriginal predecessors
They built temples to which our proudest
structures are as toy houses and strangers
came to worship in them. and then other
strangers came to wonder who built them.


and to what gods they were dedicated So
passes the strength of man, and the grandeur
of empires. What visions one can have in II
moonlight night on the Nile


1t would be hardly possible to make q boat
more comfortable for travellers than the Nile
Dahabeeh. Devise any plan you will for q
vessel on which to live for some months and
you will not excel this old Egyptian plan,
Improvements might be made in the arrange


ments, but the shape of the cabins the height
between decks and the amount of room all
make the boat superior to any yacht or other
vessel of the same tonnage in any country.
We had no need to look after our provis-
ions, for Abd-el-Ath always takes care that


his table shall be as good as the best Euro
pean hotel can furnish. There is no great
variety of meats in Egypt, and mutton, chick
ems and turkeys are the main stays of life
here. These are intermingled with such
birds as our daily walks on shore gun in
hand, can provide. and withal we have abun-


dance Of ham, smoked beef and preserved


meats. We are fortunate in a good cook
He has his faults, and the other day came


near catching severe thrashing from the in
|dignant dragomen, an escape which seems to


have done him good since the bread has


been better tor that, or some other cause.
| Life on the Nile is, to my notion, the most
perfect luxury in this world. ! am always
! up before the sun. The beauty of the early
lmorning is indescribable. How many times
that word must be used in writing about thi.
! life! The bursting OF the dawn into full day
| is swift, and within q few minutes we have
| every gorgeous color of our American sun
sets, one color rapidly succeeding another.
splendor following splendor, until the sun
rushes up over the gray eastern hills, and
pours its warm floods of light into the lux
uriant valley. The world seems to me very
old each morning as see this scene repeat
ed, and think how often that same sun has
| travelled across the desert and looked down
over those hills into this valley and what
generations Of men and their works he has
seen there.


We take coffee on rising. and go ashore for
| Il while, usually shooting a dozen or two
pigeons before return, and join the ladies
| for breakfast at nine. After breakfast and II
| pipe, if there is any wind it generally makes
| its appearance, say about ten O'Clock. 1t
there is no wind, the men track the boat, and
| in that case, OF If the wind be light, we again
90 ON shore and walk, sometimes for miles,
across fields and through palm groves, occa-
sionally coming on board to rest for awhile,
always carrying our guns and generally max
| ing pretty fair bags of game The ladies
pass the day with books and embroidery.
We dine at three O'Clock, and rise from the
table in time to enjoy the most delicious hour
of the day, that which precedes and that
which follows the sunset. At seven o'clock
we have tea and chocolate, and the saloon is
| then bright with lights. and the evening
passes rapidly. When all the rest are asleep
| 90 on deck and lie on one of the sofas and
| look at the stars In the clear air of this
| country there are apparently three stars visi-
| BILE where one is seen in America. In other
| days have counted eleven stars in the Plei-


AIDES with my naked eye. Tonight and last
night | could count only ten. Farther up the
river l shall see the eleven The air is
always rich and strong, never cold nor hot,
except in the direct sunshine. If the boat is
sailing rapidly we lie on deck on the sofas
under an awning, watching the hills and
groves as we rush by them, taking no note OF
time, always surprised when the dinner hour
arrives


This which have described is our life on
the trip up the RIVER. We 90 not stop TO look


at ruins until the return voyage.


Ny object in this letter is only to describe,
for the benefit of those who do not know it,


the manner of life on the Nile. Yet every


one who reads this must have read the same
story before. For books of Nile travel are
innumerable, and life on the Nile boat is
always the same, and | fancy always was
much the same. This evening after the sun


had set. | was strnck as 'otten before. with


the effect of figures of men walking on the
river bank, relieved against the bright west


ern sky. They resembled so exactly the stiff
sculptures of the monuments that one cannot
but be convinced that in ancient times the


artists saw Just such figures of men, in Just
such dresses, in evening lights, and copied
them with minute care. Nor in this little
thing alone does modern Egypt resemble


ancient Egypt. Doubtless many of the man
ners and customs of the people are the same


now as In old times, though the people have
changed, and the old race is utterly lost.
An exceedingly queer story concerning
the New York Tribune was related as n fact
by Rev. DIR. Jessup, in argument for the need
h,l-a