In Roman times water-stations appear to have been maintained at frequent intervals on the desert roads between the oases and the Nile Valley, and a great development of the water-supply took place. After the Arab invasion, however, no attention seems to have been given to irrigation works, the wells, owing to silting, becoming gradually choked up. As the result of this neglect the water-supply diminished to such an extent that a large portion of the population was compelled to emigrate to the Nile Valley, and even the remaining inhabitants were scarce able to raise sufficient supplies for their maintenance. Within the last fifty years a considerable number of new wells have been made by means of simple hand-boring appliances sent out by the Egyptian Government; most of the new bores have been very successful, but latterly, through want of effective supervision, a great deal of harm has been done by promiscuous boring. Moreover, a very large amount of water is wasted owing to the wells not being fitted with regulating and closing appliances; the water, when not required for irrigation, continues to run, finding its way to the low-lying lands, and forming swamps which furnish ideal breeding-grounds for fever-carrying mosquitoes.
Within the last year or two this part of Egypt has received renewed attention; extensive boring operations and land reclamation works have been commenced, and the oasis of Kharga has been brought into railway communication with the rest of Egypt.
The floor-level of the oases varies considerably, but in general the cultivated lands lie between 30 and 120 metres above sea-level. The exact area under cultivation is only known very approximately, but it is certain that with an increased water-supply it could be very much augmented. The existing water-supply is totally insufficient to irrigate the available lands, and such portions of the latter as are tilled are generally left fallow in alternate years, and in many cases are only under crops once every four or five years. Now that an attempt is being made to restore the oases to their former prosperity, the question of ownership of land has become of the greatest importance, and it is one bristling with difficulties. As a general rule the wells are owned collectively, the different proprietors having the right to utilize the flow for periods corresponding to the extent of their holdings in the well. Individual shares may amount to as much as one-third or one-half of the well, or be only the merest fraction; in the latter case the small holders combine so as to obtain control of the flow for an appreciable period. Frequently the whole of the land irrigated by a well is cultivated collectively, the crop on reaping being divided among the owners in portions corresponding to their shares of the water. The question of ownerships is further complicated by there being persons who own water but no land, and by others who claim land but own no water.
CHAPTER II
EARLY RECORDS
Travellers’ Names inscribed on the Monuments — Poncet passes through Kharga en route for Ethiopia — Browne — Cailliaud’s Extensive Researches — Drovetti — Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bart., discovers Dakhla Oasis — Hoskins — Exaggerated Opinions of Ancients regarding the Oases — Names of Explorers on the Walls of Hibis — Rohlfs’ Expedition — Zittel’s Geological Work — The words ‘Oasis,’ ‘Wah,’ ‘Otu,’ and ‘Set-ament’ — A Theban Myth — Dr. Schweinfurth — Brugsch Bey — Captain H. G. Lyons — Government Survey of the Oases — Dr. John Ball.
Inscribed on the walls of the ancient monuments in the oasis one frequently comes across the names of travellers who visited the same scenes fifty, a hundred, or even two hundred years ago. Many of these explorers wrote descriptions of their travels and experiences, and such early records are naturally of the greatest interest and importance; unfortunately they are now out of print and somewhat difficult to procure, so that I make no apology for briefly referring to those which I have been able to examine. Most of these early records are extremely quaint, and although they are chiefly descriptive of the personal experiences and impressions of the writers, in some cases numerous observations are recorded in a sufficiently exact manner to be of permanent scientific value.
A French physician, Monsieur Poncet, who passed through Kharga in 1698, en route for Abyssinia, appears to have been the only traveller who left any written records of the Great Oasis between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. A translation of the account of his travels was published in English in 1709 (‘A Voyage to Æthiopia’). Accompanied by one Hagi Ali, an officer of the Abyssinian Emperor, and by a Jesuit missionary, Father Charles Francis Xaverius de Brevedent, Poncet set out from the town of Manfalut in the Nile Valley, and travelled along the Derb el Arbaîn, the well-known caravan route to the south. His description of this portion of the journey is as follows:
“We set forward on the 2d of October early in the Morning, and from that very Day we enter’d a frightful Desart. These Desarts are extremely dangerous, because the Sands being moving are rais’d by the least Wind which darken the Air, and falling afterwards in Clouds, Passingers are often buried in them, or at least lose the Route, which they ought to keep.”
Poncet refers to the oasis as ‘Helaoue,’ but although his caravan rested there four days, before proceeding to Dongola, via Shebb and Selîma, he makes no reference to the antiquities; in fact, his remarks on this region are extremely meagre. To quote his own words: “We Arriv’d on the 6th of October at Helaoue; ’Tis a pretty large Borough, and the last that is under the Grand Signior’ Jurisdiction. There is a Garrison in it of 500 Janisaries and 300 Spahi’s under the Command of an Officer whom in that Country they call Kachif. Helaoue is very pleasant, and answers fully its Name, which signifies a Country of Sweetness. Here are to be seen a great Number of Gardens water’d with Brooks, and a World of Palm-trees, which preserve a continual Verdure, Coloquintida is to be found there, and all the Fields are fill’d with Senna, which grows upon a Shrub, about three Foot High. This Drug which is so esteem’d in Europe, is of no use in the Country hereabouts. The Inhabitants of Helaoue in their Illnesses, make only Use of the Root of Ezula, which for a whole Night they infuse in Milk, and take the day after, having first Strain’d it thro’ a Sieve. This Medicine is very Violent, but ’tis what they like and commend very much. The Ezula is a thick Tree, the Blossom of which is blue; it grows into a sort of Ball, of an Oval Figure, full of Cotton, of which the People of that Country make pretty fine Cloth.”
Referring to the deserts which surround the oases, Poncet remarks: “Those vast Wildernesses, where there is neither to be found Bird, nor wild Beast, nor Herbs, no nor so much as a little Fly, and where nothing is to be seen but Mountains of Sand, and the Carcasses, and Bones of Camels, Imprint a certain horrour in the Mind, which makes this Voyage very tedious and disagreeable. It wou’d be a hard matter, to Cross those frightful Desarts without the Assistance of Camels. These Animals will continue six or seven Days, without either eating or drinking, which I cou’d never have believ’d, if I had not observ’d it very particularly.” Poncet further relates that he was assured by a venerable old gentleman of his caravan that camels had been known to cover a desert journey of forty days and nights without either food or water. Although it is to be feared that the ‘ship of the desert’ at the present day is scarcely so abstemious as formerly, we must admit that Poncet’s description of the sterility of the Libyan Desert is little, if at all, exaggerated. One may, indeed, travel for hours without seeing bird, beast, or herb; and even ‘the little fly,’ which seldom fails to make known its presence for some time after leaving the inhabited districts, generally forsakes one before the caravan has proceeded far into the depths of the desert.