INTERIOR OF GREAT TEMPLE AT ESNEH.
We hired donkeys and a good guide, and then set off to see the quarries of Syene. From these quarries the obelisks were cut which adorned the cities of Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis thousands of years ago. We passed the ruins of a burying-ground belonging to an old Saracen town which was desolated by the plague some hundreds of years ago, and very gloomy these ruins looked.
On our way back we rode through the bazaar. There was nothing very gay for sale, but the people interested us. We saw a great many Berbers, a people quite unlike either the Arabs or the negroes. The Berbers live in Lower Nubia, and are a wild, fine-looking race. The men wear but little clothing; they all carry a small dagger, which is bound with a red leather bracelet round the left arm, above the elbow. They also wear a fetish, or charm, enclosed in a little red leather case. The women uncover their faces, and wear nose rings of either brass or bone. They also wear quantities of coloured bead necklaces and bracelets, brass ear-rings and finger-rings; and whenever they can get them, they wear gold or silver coins hanging on the foreheads. They tattoo their chins and dye their under-lips blue, which looks very ugly.
To-day we crossed to the island of Elephanta. We went to the quarries, visited groups of tombs of sheikhs and dervishes, and the mosque of Amer. We had a delightful row round the island. Its groves of palms and its granite rocks are picturesque. But we were disappointed to see no flowers. The Nubian children offered us some pretty baskets for sale, and some Egyptian agates. We are bringing some of them back with us: amongst them a lovely little basket of palm leaves for Lucy.
We sailed towards the cataract with a stiff breeze. The scenery was wild and beautiful. On the western side the sands of the Great Desert, yellow as gold, came to the water's edge, with dark masses of rock rising from them here and there. On the east, granite rocks rose one above the other in strange forms.
With the help of about fifty Arabs, who shouted at the top of their voices as they hauled us by a thick rope, we passed the first little fall of the cataract. Then we passed a succession of rapids. It was an exciting passage. Great masses of granite towered round our little boat; sometimes we even struck against them, but not so as to do us any harm. The groups of Nubians were picturesque. Miss Roper has sketches of some of them swimming on palm logs.
At length we came to the grand fall. At first our boat seemed to grow faint-hearted, and to make as though she would go back to Assouan. But our cataract reis was prepared for this. He seemed to be everywhere at once. He had thrown off his turban and looser clothes, and the activity with which he darted from place to place was wonderful. One minute he was in the boat, at another on shore pulling with the Arabs at the rope; the next, he was mounted on a rock in the middle of the rapids shouting to the Arabs and boatmen. Wherever there was danger, there was the reis ready to ward it off. At last the boat was clear of the last projecting rock; one long, strong pull from the men on shore, and she shot forward like an arrow into the smooth water.
We anchored for the night at Mahatta, glad to be at peace from all the screaming and yelling which made the chorus during our passage through the rapids.
At Mahatta we had a touching scene.
Early in the morning a large boat laden with slaves came alongside of us. Mohammed told us that they were to be landed here, and to march to Assouan, to save the trouble of taking them down the cataract. At Assouan they will be put on board a boat for Cairo. There must have been at least fifty: men, women, children, and even little babies. About half-a-dozen Egyptian soldiers had them in charge. Poor things! they looked very miserable. Some were black and very ugly; some of a bronze colour: these were not so ugly, and many of the women were very graceful.