I left Cairo with regret, as I left Thebes and the White Nile, and every other place which gives one all that he came to seek. Moreover, I left behind me my faithful dragoman, Achmet. He had found a new son in his home, but also an invalid wife, who demanded his care, and so he was obliged to give up the journey with me through Syria. He had quite endeared himself to me by his constant devotion, his activity, honesty and intelligence, and I had always treated him rather as a friend than servant. I believe the man really loved me, for he turned pale under all the darkness of his skin, when we parted at Boulak.
I took the steamer for Alexandria, and two or three days afterwards sailed for fresh adventures in another Continent. If the reader, who has been my companion during the journey which is now closed, should experience no more fatigue than I did, we may hereafter share also in those adventures.
FINIS.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Burckhardt gives the following account of the same custom, in his travels in Nubia: “In two hours and a half we came to a plain on the top of the mountain called Akabet el Benat, the Rocks of the Girls. Here the Arabs who serve as guides through these mountains have devised a singular mode of extorting presents from the traveller; they alight at certain spots in the Akabet el Benat, and beg a present; if it is refused, they collect a heap of sand, and mould it into the form of a diminutive tomb, and then placing a stone at each of the extremities, they apprise the traveller that his tomb is made; meaning, that henceforward, there will be no security for him, in this rocky wilderness. Most persons pay a trifling contribution, rather than have their graves made before their eyes; there were, however, several tombs of this description dispersed over the plain.”
[2] The following record of the temperature, from the time of leaving Korosko to the date of the accident which deprived me of the thermometer, is interesting, as it shows a variation fully equal to that of our own climate:
| 7 A. M. | 12 M. | 2 P. M. | |||
| Korosko, | Dec. 21st | 59° | 75° | 80° | |
| Desert, | ” 22 | 50° | 74° | 80° | |
| ” | ” 23 | 55° | 75° | (Bahr bela Ma) | 85° |
| ” | ” 24 | 51° | 70° | 78° | |
| ” | ” 25 | 54° | 78° | 85° | |
| ” | ” 26 | 60° | 91° | 100° | |
| ” | ” 27 | 55° | — | 95° | |
| ” | ” 28 | 59° | — | 90° | |
| Abou-Hammed | ” 29 | 61° | — | 90° | |
| The Nile | ” 30 | 59° | — | 85° | |
| ” | ” 31 | 52° | 78° | 84° | |
| ” | Jan. 1st, 1852 | 47° | 70° | 68° |
[3] In the Letters of Lepsius, which were not published until after my return from Africa, I find the following passage, the truth of which is supported by all the evidence we possess: “The Ethiopian name comprehended much that was dissimilar, among the ancients. The ancient population of the whole Nile Valley as far as Khartoum, and perhaps, also, along the Blue River, as well as the tribes of the Desert to the east of the Nile, and the Abyssinian nations, were in former times probably even more distinctly separated from the negroes than now, and belonged to the Caucasian Race.”
[4] Capt. Peel, who measured the volume of water in the two rivers, gives the following result: Breadth of the Blue Nile at Khartoum, 768 yards; average depth, 16.11 feet; average current, 1.564 knots; volume of water, 5,820,600 cubic feet per minute. Breadth of the White Nile, immediately above the junction, 483 yards; average depth, 13.92 feet; average current, 1.47 knots; volume of water, 2,985,400 feet per minute. Breadth of the Nile below the junction, 1107 yards; average depth, 14.38 feet; average current, 2 knots; volume of water, 9,526,700 cubic feet per minute. This measurement was made in the latter part of October, 1851. It can hardly be considered conclusive, as during the preceding summer the rains had been unusually heavy in the mountains of Abyssinia, which may have occasioned a greater disproportion than usual, in the volume of the two rivers.