GIRGEH AND KENEH.—THE TEMPLES OF ABYDUS AND DENDERAH.—AN EGYPTIAN DANCE.
GIRGEH.
The first halting-place above Sioot was Girgeh, which may be considered the Arabic for George, as the place was named in honor of the saint whose history is intimately connected with the dragon. St. George is the patron saint of the Christians of Egypt, and there was a Coptic convent at Girgeh, four or five centuries ago, that was named after him. It supported two hundred monks and had a large revenue; but its inhabitants died during a visitation of the plague, and for some time the buildings were without tenants. At present there is a small convent or monastery at Girgeh, and it is said to be the oldest establishment of the kind in Egypt. The superior is a European, but the rest of the members are native Egyptians. Formerly the town was some distance back from the river, but the Nile has so changed its course that Girgeh is now on the very brink of the stream, and some of its houses have been washed away.
It was announced that the party would land at Girgeh to visit the ruins of the ancient Abydus, or Thinis, twelve miles away; during their absence the boat would proceed to Bellianeh, where they would find it at the end of their excursion. The start was made immediately after breakfast, not without considerable opposition on the part of the donkeys, and a wrangle with the natives over the question of backsheesh.
SCENE DURING THE INUNDATION.
The road lay through fields of sugar-cane, pease, beans, and other products of the Egyptian soil; many of them were in blossom, and the boys thought the scene was the richest they had yet encountered during their visit to the country. Frank remarked the great contrast between the luxuriant fields and the miserable villages of the natives. The villages here, as elsewhere in the valley, are generally built on mounds, so as to keep them out of the reach of the water when the river overflows its banks. During the season of the inundation the whole country is overflowed, and the natives cannot go from their villages except in boats, or unless they choose to swim. Cattle seek the mounds for safety; and sometimes, when the banks give way, and the river rises suddenly, many of them are drowned. The people go out with boats to secure their goats, cows, and oxen, and the scene is a very active one. Until the water subsides the villages are indiscriminately filled with live stock and their owners, and sometimes there is an animated contest between them for the right of occupation.
At every village the children came out and begged for backsheesh, and their appearance was quite in keeping with the squalid aspect of the mud huts where they lived. Frank wondered that they managed to reach the age of ten years in such habitations, and the Doctor replied that it was a proof that the human race is capable of living anywhere, if it will only try.
A CAMEL ON HIS WAY TO PASTURE.
There was the usual excitement among the cows and chickens at the presence of the strangers; in two or three cases the cows broke the ropes by which they were tethered, and scampered into the villages as though they feared immediate conversion into beef. The boys observed that the cows were required to cut their own fodder; they were tethered in the rich grass, and required to eat the spot entirely clean before their locations were changed. Evidently it was not the custom to allow them to run loose and help themselves. Now and then the tall form of a camel was visible, either carrying a burden of some sort or tethered out, like the cows and oxen.
A ride of three hours brought the party to the object of their excursion, the Temple of Abydus. Frank and Fred will tell us about it.
"The Temple of Abydus is one of the most interesting in Egypt, as it is quite extensive, and its architectural character is excellent. We admired its vast proportions, the massive pillars covered with sculptures, and the walls that were everywhere blazing with hieroglyphics representing scenes of the country's glory. And while we were studying all these things we looked around for the Doctor, and could not find him.
"Pretty soon he re-appeared, and said the historical interest of the place was in a narrow passage-way leading from the second hall to a small inner chamber.
"We went there with him, and he pointed to the eastern wall of the passage. There were some hieroglyphics we could not understand, and we asked what they were.
HEADS OF CAPTIVES OF RAMESES II.
"'They are the names of seventy-six kings,' said the Doctor, 'to whom Sethi I., the founder and builder of the temple, and father of Rameses II., is offering homage. The list begins with Menes, the founder of the first dynasty, and ends with the name of Sethi. Rameses II. is offering homage with his father, and for this reason it has been supposed that the list was made by Rameses after Sethi's death. The list is called "The Tablet of Abydus," and is of great value to the writers on Egyptian history; a similar list, but badly mutilated, was found in a temple near here, and carried to the British Museum. There is some dispute as to whether it is a full or only partial list of the kings of Egypt, but in either case it is of great historical interest.'
"Abydus was second only to Thebes in importance, and was for a long time the capital of Egypt. Several temples, or rather their ruins, have been discovered here, and it is thought that others are still buried in the sand. A great many tombs have been opened, and where their contents were of any consequence they were carried to the museum at Cairo, or sent to the large collections in Europe.
"One of the temples that we visited was in a very ruined state; it must have been a magnificent structure in the days of its perfection, as the walls were lined with alabaster and covered with beautiful sculptures, all painted in colors that still remain. Some of the smaller rooms in the great temple were roofed with large stones placed on their edges, an arch was made in the stones, and then the whole of the cut surface was covered with hieroglyphics, which are as perfect as the day they were made. The sand that buried these temples for so many centuries was in one way their preserver.
A LUNCH-PARTY OF OTHER DAYS.
"We took our lunch in the great hall of the temple, and it was an odd sight to see a group of Americans, English, and other modern people seated among the columns of this ancient edifice, engaged in picking the flesh from the bones of chickens, or devouring sandwiches, or slices of cold beef. Doctor Bronson leaned against one of the columns, and his hunger made him quite forget that his shoulders pressed upon the feet of a sculptured king, who had been patient and chickenless for many hundred years, and was totally unmoved by the incidents of modern days. Wonder if they had sandwiches and kindred things in the time of Sethi I., and is it possible that they used silver-plated knives and forks, or drank cold tea from glass tumblers?
"Of the great city that once stood here nothing remains but heaps of rubbish, ruined temples and tombs, and a miserable village with a few dozen inhabitants, who live by what they can extort from visitors.
"We returned to the steamer at Bellianeh by a road only half as long as that from Girgeh. The route was pretty much the same, as it lay through richly-tilled fields, and passed near several small villages of mud huts and muddy inhabitants. At Bellianeh there was the usual crowd of beggars, and we varied the monotony by throwing copper coins into heaps of dust, where the children scrambled for them.
"Just by the stern of the boat there was a dust-heap about forty feet high, and very steep on the sides; one of the passengers threw a coin so that it struck about midway from top to bottom of the heap, and what a scramble there was for it! Those at the top rolled down, and those below climbed up. During the struggle they raised a perfect cloud, and several of them tumbled into the river.
"Somebody got the money, and then they made signs for trying it again. Another copper was thrown, and then another, and the children evidently enjoyed the fun, and wanted it kept up as long as the boat remained.
"While they were in the midst of the sport two or three men, who appeared to be elders of the village, came with whips and ordered the boys away. The passengers sent the conductor to argue with them to let the sport go on; his argument was very short, and consisted in giving each man a franc to go away. They accepted the money and walked off. The instant they were out of sight the performance was renewed, and it continued till the boat swung out and moved up the river. We had several swimming matches, like those we had farther down the Nile. Some of the boys were very expert swimmers, and seemed as much adapted for the water as for the land."
From Bellianeh the steamer proceeded to Keneh, an important town on the east bank of the Nile, and the terminus of a caravan road from Kosseir, on the Red Sea. Formerly it had a considerable trade with the Red Sea, but since the opening of the Suez Canal, and the facilities it affords for steam communication with Alexandria, the business has declined very greatly. At one time it supplied a large part of the Arabian coast with corn, which was carried on camels to Kosseir, and then shipped to the points where it was wanted.
The town stands a couple of miles back from the river, and is on the site of an ancient city, though it contains no ruins of any consequence. At the landing-place Frank saw a large pile of jars or water-bottles made of porous clay, and, on asking about them, he learned that a considerable trade in these articles was carried on from Keneh, which had the reputation of making them better than any other place on the Nile.
Of course this assertion excited his curiosity, and led him to wonder why the potters of Keneh should be more expert than other men in the same occupation.
"It is not the potters, but the material they work with," replied the Doctor, "that makes the superiority of the water-bottles of Keneh."
"How is that?"
"Close to the town there is a bed of clay," was the response, "which is said to be peculiarly adapted to the manufacture of these bottles. It is mixed with the ashes of halfa grass in certain proportions, and must be well mixed while both substances are in a dry state. Then the mixture is moistened, and is ready for the potter. We will see one of the establishments where the work is performed."
On their way to the town our friends visited a shed where several potters were engaged at their trade. The soft clay was placed on a horizontal wheel, which was turned rapidly either by the hand or the foot of the workman; while it revolved with its plastic burden the fingers of the potter gave the bottle its shape, and the whole operation was very quickly accomplished. Then the bottle was carefully removed, and placed where it could dry in the open air, and the wheel was ready for fashioning another.
ANCIENT POTTERS AT WORK.
The Doctor explained that the modes of making these bottles had changed very little in five thousand years, as they could see by the pictures on the walls of the tombs. The ancient Egyptians were familiar with the wheel and its uses; the potter of the time of Rameses II. manipulated the clay in the same manner as his descendant of to-day, and he doubtless knew the necessary proportions of clay and sifted ashes for making his composition.
ANCIENT VASES, CUPS, AND WATER-JARS.
The boys had already observed the porous character of the Egyptian water-bottle. It allows the water to pass through so freely that the outside is constantly wet; in the dry air of Egypt this outside water evaporates rapidly, and every student of natural philosophy knows that evaporation produces coolness. Especially is this the case if the bottle is placed where there is a current of air, as the evaporation is greatly increased by the action of the wind. One day the boys made an experiment with one of these bottles with the following result:
The temperature of the air was 81° Fahrenheit, and so was that of the water with which the bottle was filled. It was hung in a shady place, where there was a good draught, and in half an hour a thermometer lowered into the bottle showed that the water had fallen to 63°, or eighteen less than the surrounding temperature.
This process, or a similar one, is in use in all hot countries. Doctor Bronson told the youths that he had seen bottles very like the Egyptian ones in Mexico and South America. In some cases, where the material was not porous, the coolness was produced by wrapping a piece of cloth around a bottle, and keeping it constantly wet while hanging in a current of air.
DATE-PALMS, NEAR KENEH.
Another feature of Keneh that attracted attention was the remarkably fine dates that were offered for sale. The dates of Keneh have an excellent reputation in the markets of Cairo and Alexandria, and generally bring a high price. They are not pressed into a solid mass, like most of the dates sold in America, but each one is separate from the others, and only the best are selected for packing. Our friends bought several boxes of these dates, and kept them in their rooms on the steamboat with the intention of taking them to Cairo; but, like many other good intentions, their scheme fell through, as the sweetness and delicate flavor of the contents of the boxes were temptations that could not be resisted. Continual dropping is said to wear away stone, and Fred remarked that continual nibbling would wear away the best box of dates ever known.
The boat was to remain at the landing during the night and until the greater part of the following day, and so our friends had the evening for seeing Keneh. An invitation came for some of the passengers to visit the German Consulate, and witness a characteristic dance of the country. The invitation included Doctor Bronson, and Frank, and Fred, and at the appointed hour the party set out. On reaching the Consulate, they were ushered into a large hall that seemed to have been fitted up for the special entertainment of Europeans, as it was furnished with chairs instead of divans, and the consul, though a native, was in European dress.
ANCIENT DANCERS AND MUSICIANS.
After a little delay the dance was announced, and the dancers made their appearance. There were four of them, and they were accompanied by two musicians, one playing the nay, and the other the darabookah, both of which have been already described. The musicians settled on the floor in one corner of the apartment, and the dancers stepped to the middle of the room. At a signal from the master of the house the dance began.
A MODERN MUSICIAN.
The dancers were young women, who were rather fantastically dressed. They wore "rings on their fingers and bells on their toes," as the old nursery rhyme has it, and their heads and necks were covered with a profusion of jewellery, consisting principally of gold and silver coins strung closely together, and so arranged that they jingled every time the wearers moved. A richly embroidered jacket, and a long skirt which nearly touched the floor, were the outer garments worn by the dancers. The dresses of the four were precisely alike, and the Doctor said the costume was pretty much the same all through Egypt, where fashions rarely change from one year to another.
The boys had read of the wonderful beauty of the Egyptian dancers, and the great novelty of the scene they were about to witness. The Doctor said nothing, but there was a smile on his features when the dance began. He knew that the youths were doomed to be disappointed, and in the first pause of the dance he asked them what they thought of it.
"If that is what they call dancing," said Frank, "I'm glad to know it. It seems more like the efforts of people learning to skate."
"About as lively as the performance of the figures on a hand-organ," Fred remarked. "I wonder why travellers have written so much nonsense about it."
"Some travellers have described the Egyptian dance in the most enthusiastic language," answered the Doctor, "and others thought they must do the same. It requires considerable courage to fly in the face of opinions that have been given over and over again by others, and consequently the fashion that was set long and long ago has been kept up.
"I have seen a good many dances in Egypt," he continued, "and never yet knew one that approached the most of the descriptions I have read. Sometimes the girls are fairly pretty, but the great majority are of an ordinary type, and the dancing consists of that gliding and sliding from side to side which you have just witnessed. It is more suggestive of skating than of what is called dancing in Western countries."
The dance was resumed after a brief rest, and it continued with several intermissions for something over an hour. Coffee was served two or three times in the course of the evening, and when the entertainment was ended our friends returned to the steamer. Before they retired the conductor collected five francs from each passenger who had attended the dance, in order to remunerate the consul for his outlay. He said the consul went through the form of inviting strangers to an entertainment, but expected them to pay for it in a roundabout way.
"Not at all unusual in the East," the Doctor remarked, "and certainly no one could expect a consul to spend his money in the entertainment of every party of strangers that comes along. We can imagine we were his guests, and forget that we have paid for what we saw. The illusion is very thin, but it does no harm to any one."
AN EGYPTIAN KING ON HIS THRONE.
The next day was devoted to an excursion to the Temple of Denderah, which is on the opposite side of the Nile from Keneh, and a ride of about an hour from the landing. The party was ferried over in the ordinary boats of the natives, and found donkeys waiting on the bank with the usual crowd of importunate natives.
The Temple of Denderah is the most modern in all Egypt, as it was built less than two thousand years ago. After one is accustomed to the pyramids, and similar structures of forty or fifty centuries, and comes to the Temple of Denderah, he hesitates to rub against it for fear the paint is not sufficiently dried.
But however much he may dislike the newness of the building, he can hardly fail to admire its solidity, and the magnificence of its halls and porticos. It is the best preserved of all the temples, as its walls and columns are practically uninjured, and the roof is almost entire. A mound of rubbish extends quite around it, and from a little distance the entrance of the temple is quite invisible.
FRONT OF THE TEMPLE AT DENDERAH.
The entrance is through a fine portico of twenty-four columns. On the ceiling of this portico is a zodiac, which has been the subject of a great deal of discussion, as it was supposed to show that the signs of the zodiac were used by the ancient Egyptians. Recent discoveries show that it is of Roman origin, and less ancient than was at first believed. Every student of Egyptology has had something to say about it, and we may safely remark that there are more opinions on the subject than there are signs in the zodiac itself.
Considerable time was spent in the inspection of the temple, and in admiring the sculptures on the walls. Among them is a portrait of Cleopatra, which is supposed to have been made in the lifetime of that historic lady, and may therefore be regarded as a fair likeness of her. It does not represent her as a pretty woman, and therefore we may doubt whether she was as handsome as the artists of modern times have tried to make her. Some of those who wish to believe she was very pretty say the portrait at Denderah was made by an artist who never saw her, and did his work from an inaccurate likeness.
EGYPTIAN PRINCE CARRIED IN A PALANQUIN.