FROM ASSOUAN TO ALEXANDRIA.—FAREWELL TO EGYPT.
A part of the next day was passed on the island of Elephantine, opposite Assouan. By reference to the books in their possession, Frank and Fred learned that Elephantine was a place of considerable importance two or three thousand years ago, and a large town once stood there. Its ruins are now covered by a modern village, whose inhabitants are all Nubians; in fact, there are no Arabs living on the island, and it is said that Elephantine has been the home of none but Nubians from time immemorial. Frank asked for the elephants, but could not learn that any had ever been seen there; he concluded that the island received its name from the entire absence of the largest of animals, or even of any fossil remains of him.
AN ANCIENT POULTRY-SHOP.
There were two temples, or rather their ruins, on the island at the beginning of the present century—but they were destroyed in order that the stone could be utilized for building the houses of Assouan. A gate-way of one of them is yet standing, and there are some walls built by the Romans, who are said to have made Elephantine a military post.
The Nubians offered Roman coins, polished stones, and other curiosities for sale; the coins were supposed to have been dug up on the island, but there was an appearance of newness about them which revealed their falsity. The quantity of false coins increases year by year, and in many instances the Arabs do not take the trouble to submit them to the action of acids, in order to give them an antiquated look. The manufacturers of antiquities in Cairo and Luxor generally manage to make their goods have an appearance of genuineness; but sometimes the demand is unexpectedly great, and they rush off their fabrications in a hurry. On several occasions Roman coins were offered to our friends that did not appear to have been out of the mint more than a day or two. One of them bought a copper denarius of the time of the Emperor Hadrian that was bright and fresh as though stamped an hour before; it was so new that the oil used for facilitating its passage through the mint had not been worn off, and was easily perceptible to the fingers.
The boys regretted their inability to go farther than the first cataract of the Nile, and as the steamer headed down the river they gave a longing and lingering look behind them. They were consoled with the reflection that they had seen a great deal in their journey from Cairo, and were farther relieved when Doctor Bronson informed them that comparatively few travellers ever went beyond the first cataract. "Down to within twenty years," said he, "the island of Philæ was the Ultima Thule of nearly all tourists on the Nile, and any one who had penetrated farther was regarded as a sort of Mungo Park or Dr. Livingstone. Once in a while somebody went to the second cataract, two hundred and forty miles above the first, and on rare occasions an Englishman or other foreigner visited Khartoom, at the junction of the Blue and White Nile. Bayard Taylor was one of these adventurous travellers, and he went some distance up the White Nile to the country of the Shillook negroes.
"In 1850," he continued, "very little was known of the Nile beyond the point reached by our enterprising countryman. Exploring parties had been up the river considerably beyond the Shillook region, but in most instances the explorers had died while beyond the limits of civilization, or their accounts were insignificant. For a long time it was supposed that the Blue Nile was the principal stream, and as its head-waters had been reached by the famous traveller Bruce, he was credited with the discovery of the sources of the mysterious river. But it was afterward found that the White Nile was the longer of the two and the greater in volume, and many lives were sacrificed in the attempt to find its origin. The discovery and exploration of the lakes of Central Africa, where the Nile rises, belongs to our day; and the names of Burton, Speke, Grant, Livingstone, Stanley, Baker, Long, and others, will go down in history for solving a mystery which has puzzled the world for centuries."
One of the boys asked what they would have seen in case they had been able to ascend the Nile a few hundred miles farther?
AN ARAB AND HIS CAMEL.
"That is a difficult question to answer," was the Doctor's reply, "but I will try to meet it. The second cataract is much like the first, and is a succession of rapids rather than a fall. It is two hundred and forty miles from Assouan to Wady Halfa, a village at the second cataract, and the point where nearly all tourists who go beyond here turn back. On the way thither you pass a few ruined temples and other remains of ancient Egypt; but there are none of great importance, with the exception of Abou Simbel, which ranks next after the pyramids and the temples of Thebes. There are two temples there hewn in the solid rock, and dating from the time of Rameses the Great. A good deal of the history of that monarch has been gathered from the sculptures in these temples, and the door-way of the principal one of them is guarded by a couple of enormous statues that recall the Sitting Colossi of Thebes. They have been pronounced the finest statues of their size in all Egypt, and certainly I do not know of any that can rival them in grandeur and beauty.
COLOSSAL HEADS IN FRONT OF THE TEMPLE OF ABOU SIMBEL.
"These statues were formed by cutting away the solid rock, just as the statues of the temples of Ellora, in India, were made. Like most of the royal statues of Egypt, they represent the king seated on his throne. They are partly covered with the sand that has drifted about them, and sometimes little more than the heads of the figures are visible. They are said to be sixty-six feet high without their pedestals. A friend of mine measured the head of one of them, and gave me the following notes: Length of the nose, 3 feet 5 inches; height of the forehead, 28 inches; width of the mouth, 8 feet; length of the ear, 3 feet.
"The head of the statue is twelve feet high, without including the cap or crown that covers it. Compare these figures with the measurements of the broken figure of Rameses at the Memnonium, and you will realize the grandeur of the work.
PUBLIC SQUARE AT KHARTOOM.PUBLIC SQUARE AT KHARTOOM.
"The second cataract is more difficult of passage than the first, and can only be accomplished when the Nile is at its full height. Above it the river makes a wide bend, and, as the navigation is difficult, the land route to the Upper Nile is preferable. Travellers leave the Nile at Korosko, nearly a hundred miles below Wady Halfa, and cross the desert to Khartoom. It is a journey of eight days by camels, and there is only one oasis on the route where water can be procured. Khartoom is a town of considerable size—about twenty thousand inhabitants—and has a curiously mixed population of Egyptians, Nubians, Turks, Arabs, and half a dozen other races and tribes. It has a fine trade in ivory, ostrich feathers, and other products of Central Africa, and formerly was the centre of the slave-trade between Egypt and the regions to the south. The situation is said to be quite picturesque, as it is on the angle between the Blue and White Nile, and the boats from both these rivers lie at its banks.
"From Khartoom there is good navigation on the Nile for a long distance, till the Sudd, or bank of reeds, is reached. The river is blocked by a great mass of aquatic plants, which have drifted down and accumulated so that they cover several miles of the course of the stream. Imagine a small brook in which a load of hay has been overturned, and you have an idea of what the Sudd is like.
EGYPTIAN SOLDIERS ON CAMELS.
"Beyond the Sudd the principal town is Gondokoro, in Abyssinia, and as we go farther up the Nile we enter the countries of the savage rulers of Central Africa. You can read about them in the works of Livingstone, Stanley, and other travellers who have gone there, and then—"
"Dinner is ready!" said one of the stewards, and the description of Africa by the Doctor was indefinitely postponed.
The return voyage to Cairo was quickly made, as the steamer halted but a few times, and then only briefly, at some of the principal points. There was no time for sight-seeing, as all of the visits to temples and tombs were planned for the upward journey. The principal incidents of the trip were a few slight quarrels among the passengers, growing out of the general lack of something to do, and a glimpse of a crocodile. Everybody had been on the lookout for crocodiles during the voyage up the river, but none had been seen. The presence of these inhabitants of the Nile had been nearly forgotten, when suddenly one afternoon somebody on deck called out,
"Crocodile!"
Instantly there was a rush from seats and lounging places, and those who happened to be in the cabin came out as though a shell had exploded among them. Some ran one way and some another, and several went to the wrong side of the boat.
The crocodile was lying on a sand-bank two hundred yards or more from the course of the steamer. He was evidently enjoying a sun-bath when disturbed by the sound of the paddle-wheels, and concluded that the wisest plan for him to follow was to drop into the water.
While he remained quiet he could easily have been mistaken for a blackened log, but as soon as he was in motion there was no doubt on the subject. Creeping rather than walking, he was soon at the edge of the water, and, without pausing to see what it was that disturbed him, he disappeared beneath the surface of the river.
The Doctor told the boys that many persons made the tour of the Nile nowadays without getting a single glimpse of a crocodile below the first cataract. Above Assouan crocodiles are more frequent, and beyond Khartoom they are so abundant that dozens of them may be counted in a single day. Thirty years ago they were numerous in the vicinity of Thebes and Keneh, and it was dangerous to venture into the water lest they might take a notion to a breakfast on humanity. On the upper part of the Nile, in the vicinity of Gondokoro, they are large and ferocious, and hardly a day passes that they do not carry off a native who has incautiously ventured into the river or near its edge.
It is the ambition of every tourist who ascends the Nile in a dahabeeah to bring back the skin of at least one crocodile as a trophy. The best way of killing this kind of game is to shoot him when he is taking his nap on a sand-bank; and if proper caution is observed, and the position is favorable, the sportsman may approach within forty or fifty yards without disturbing his prey. The scales of the reptile are so thick and hard that an ordinary rifle-ball glances off as from an iron plate. The only vulnerable point is behind the fore-leg, and a good chance for a shot is not always presented.
Of late years considerable havoc has been made among crocodiles by means of explosive bullets, which burst as they strike and tear a hole in the crocodile, in addition to making a general disturbance internally if the proper spot has been reached.
A large package of letters was at the hotel in Cairo for our friends, and they sat till far into the night perusing and discussing these welcome missives. Everybody at home was well, and there were lots of congratulations for Frank and Fred over the intelligent use they had made of their time, and their interesting accounts of what they had seen in their travels. The presents for Mary and Miss Effie were greatly admired by those young ladies as well as by their friends, and one of the letters contained a polite intimation that similar selections in future would be as cordially welcomed. There was a renewal of the suggestion that the letters and journals of the youths ought to go into a book. Mrs. Bassett said the village editor had printed all the letters in his paper, and they had been so highly praised that he was sure they ought to be preserved in a more permanent form.
"Well," said Fred, "it seems as though we were to become authors whether we want to or not."
"I don't see any harm in it," responded his cousin. "Authors may do some good in the world if they make good books, can't they?"
"Of course they can," was the reply; "and if we become authors we'll try to make books that nobody can object to."
"I'm afraid you are counting on an impossibility," said Doctor Bronson, who had overheard the conversation. "What will please one will not please another, and you can never do your work so that somebody will not find fault with it. And there are some critics who prefer to say spiteful things, and will search a book from beginning to end to find something they can object to. If you ever write a book you must expect abuse. Do your work well, satisfy your own conscience, give your book to the public, and leave the result to take care of itself."
When the perusal of the letters was over the youths went to bed and slept soundly, despite many dreams of friends at home, mingled with pyramids, temples, tombs, mummies, Arabs, deserts, valleys, and other things and places that had come under their observation since their arrival in Cairo. They were up in good time the next morning arranging for speedy departure from the City of the Caliphs, as the Doctor had informed them it was necessary to take the afternoon train for Alexandria.
"Here is our plan," said the Doctor, as they sat down to breakfast. "We will take the train at noon, and be in Alexandria four hours later; the distance is a hundred and twenty miles, and the train is a fast one. We will have a day in Alexandria, and then take the steamer for Jaffa. From Jaffa we will go to Jerusalem, and from that city make the tour of the Holy Land, arranging our route according to circumstances."
The boys were delighted with the proposal, and were ready at the appointed time. There were no incidents of consequence in the railway journey. The boys looked earnestly at the pyramids and the tall minarets of the Mosque of Mohammed Ali as the train bore them away toward the sea, and left Cairo behind them. They were bidding farewell to ancient Egypt, and we cannot wonder that they had many regrets in so doing.
THE BARRAGE OF THE NILE.
They passed near the "Barrage," an extensive structure which was intended for a dam across the Nile to check the overflow of water during the inundation, and retain it till it was wanted for purposes of irrigation after the falling of the river. This great work was projected and begun during the time of Mohammed Ali, and an immense amount of money has been expended upon it. It consists of a long line of arches across the river, and the plan was to arrange gates at the openings of the arches, so that the flow of the water could be checked or allowed at pleasure. It has never been completed: the engineers say there was an error in the original calculations, and if the arches were closed, so as to raise the river to the proposed height, the force of water would sweep away the entire structure.
The Barrage has been partially utilized, and it is said that the government contemplates its completion by strengthening the work, so that it will retain the water as desired. There is no doubt that it would be of great advantage to Lower Egypt, as it would largely increase its productiveness. There is a story that Abbas Pacha once suggested to a French engineer to pull down the pyramids and use the material for constructing the Barrage. The engineer was horrified at the idea, as he said it would cause him to be execrated by the whole world, and his name would go down to posterity covered with disgrace for having destroyed the finest monument of ancient Egypt.
Our friends passed through Tantah, a town of considerable importance, containing many handsome houses, and a palace where the Khedive occasionally passes a few days. Three times a year, in the months of January, April, and August, a fair is held at Tantah which lasts eight days. Sometimes as many as two hundred thousand people come to this fair; their ostensible object is to pray at the tomb of a Moslem saint, but the most of their time is passed in amusements and in trading. There is a large business in camels, horses, and general merchandise, and in former times a good many slaves were sold there. All around the town there are tents and booths devoted to singing and to the performances of jugglers, snake-charmers, and others whose living is derived from the amusement they furnish to the public.
The train swept along the bank of the Mahmoodieh Canal, which connects Alexandria with the Nile; it is fifty miles long and a hundred feet wide, and was built in less than a year by order of Mohammed Ali. Two hundred and fifty thousand men were employed upon it, and of this number twenty thousand died of hunger, plague, and cholera. For several miles the route of the railway lay through a marsh, and as they neared Alexandria our friends caught a glimpse of Lake Mareotis, a shallow body of water, whose principal use is to supply the Alexandria market with fish.
GENERAL VIEW OF ALEXANDRIA.
Pompey's Pillar came into view, and so did the domes and minarets of Alexandria. There was the usual crowd of porters, guides, and the like at the railway-station, and with some difficulty the Doctor and the youths made their way through the dense assemblage, and drove to the hotel. The boys found that the streets were paved with large blocks of stone, but the pavement was broken in many places, and had much need of repair. In rainy weather there are deep holes filled with mud, and the incautious pedestrian runs a great risk of taking an involuntary and very disagreeable bath.
The morning after their arrival the party started out to see Alexandria and engage passage for Jaffa. The passage was secured, and then there was leisure for visiting the points of interest in and around the city.
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE AT ALEXANDRIA.
There is comparatively little remaining of the great city of Alexandria, which once contained half a million inhabitants, and boasted of the finest library in the world. The library was burnt, the buildings disappeared, the city dwindled in importance, till at the end of the last century its population was barely six thousand. Since 1798 it has been steadily reviving, till it now contains nearly a quarter of a million inhabitants, of whom a fourth are Europeans. It is the commercial capital of Egypt, and the viceroy lives there during the summer. Of its ancient monuments Pompey's Pillar is almost all that can be found. There are some tombs near the city, but they are scarcely worth visiting: there were formerly two obelisks near the water's edge, but they have gone, one to England and the other to the United States. The latter was removed by Commander H. H. Gorringe, of the United States Navy—the cost of the work being paid by Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt—and has been set up in Central Park, New York. It was famous in history as Cleopatra's Needle; the obelisk that was taken to England and set up on the bank of the Thames above Waterloo Bridge had been lying prostrate for centuries.
POMPEY'S PILLAR.
Pompey's Pillar is a single shaft of red granite, seventy feet high and about ten in diameter, standing on a broad base and crowned with a capital, the whole rising a hundred feet from the ground. It is supposed that a statue once stood on the top, and there are some old pictures of Alexandria where a statue appears on the pillar.
Frank and Fred wanted to climb to the top of the column, but were unable to see how they could do so, as there is no ladder or stairway, and the shaft is polished like a pane of glass.
The Doctor told them it had been twice ascended in the present century—once by an enterprising woman, and once by a party of sailors. In each case a kite was flown so that it came against the top of the pillar, then the string was used to draw up a cord, the cord drew up a rope, and the rope drew up a ladder. The ascent is easy enough when the ladder is properly secured, but it trembles so much that a steady head and strong hand are requisite to insure safety.
After seeing the pillar the three visitors wandered through the bazaars, which repeated, on a small scale, the sights of the bazaars of Cairo. They spent an hour or more in the great square in the centre of the city, where there are several rows of shade-trees and some bronze statues, and they visited two or three private gardens, which were very pretty, and contained rare varieties of plants. They went to the celebrated "Pharos," which is one of the earliest light-houses ever known to mariners, and was built by Ptolemy Philadelphus at enormous expense. It is said to have been a square building of white marble in several stories, each smaller than the one below it. A winding road led to the top, and, according to history, Cleopatra once drove a pair of horses to the summit, and then drove them down again. The name of the "Pharos" is perpetuated in the French word for light-house (phare), but very little of the ancient structure exists to-day. It is still maintained as a light-house, and is a welcome sight to ships seeking the harbor of Alexandria.
At an early hour the next morning a procession left the door of the hotel and proceeded in the direction of the harbor. It was composed as follows:
Frank Bassett and Fred Bronson mounted on donkeys, and attended by the drivers of the little beasts.
Doctor Bronson similarly mounted and escorted.
A servant from the hotel superintending the transportation of the baggage of the trio on the backs of a couple of Arab porters.
A miscellaneous array of beggars, peddlers, and their kindred, shouting for backsheesh.
There were at least twenty individuals in the party, not counting the donkeys; but a good many of the beggars dropped off after a few dozen yards. Their places were taken by others, so that there was no material loss of numbers on arrival at the landing, where the baggage was placed in a boat, after a gift of a couple of francs to a customs official, to save it from inspection. From the shore to the boat was a short journey, and any possible monotony was prevented by the boatmen. They had made a bargain to carry our three friends on board the steamer for five francs; about half-way they stopped rowing and demanded ten francs, which were refused.
Then the fellows turned, and threatened to row to the shore again, but the Doctor prevented this performance by proposing to hand them over to the police. They did not proceed until he rose to his feet and shouted for the police-boat, and then they concluded it was best to do as they had agreed. The boatmen of Alexandria are worse than those of any other port of the Mediterranean, and it is a disgrace to the Egyptian Government that they are allowed to continue their practices.
VIEW OF ALEXANDRIA FROM THE SEA.
And now behold our friends safely on board the French steamer. The smoke pours from her funnels, the anchor is lifted, the engine throbs, the screw revolves, churning the water into foam—the entrance of the harbor is passed, the shore fades from sight, and Egypt is left behind.
Bon voyage!