At one place, the only one point where we stopped in the day time, I went ashore to see what was called a sacred tree. A young Christian Egyptian of about sixteen years, whose acquaintance I made here told me that the sacred tree had great healing power, and sick people would come and ask its help, and when cured would drive a nail into the tree as a memorial. The tree showed a great number of nails of all patterns, and it must not be forgotten that nails here are even scarcer than money. It is a live tree and nothing nice to look at, it rises from the ground about four feet straight and then lays over horizontally for about thirty feet, after which it turns up and throws out branches. The trunk is about one foot through and the bark is similar to that of our large thorn tree. Returning to the fleet I saw a young man lying in the dust on the side of the road, with his mouth open, his tongue out and his eyes, in fact his whole face a mass of flies, a horrible sight. A little girl bent over him, pointed to the sick and looked at me. My young Christian bade me come away saying it was a case of leprosy. My friend showed me a mosque and a bazaar. Coming out of the bazaar I noticed three men acting very queerly, walking around in front of a mud hut, talking dolefully or murmuring and constantly looking to the ground, and was told that there was a death in the family. My guide saw me back to the fleet and on the road asked me for a book, and I gave him one. His people lived in the place. The fertile strips along the river here are much narrower than in Lower Egypt, sometimes one-eighth of a mile wide sometimes only about two hundred feet, but to judge from the crops as well as the cattle and the food the latter find, the soil must be better.
I should say the river is from a third of a mile to half a mile wide on the average from Assiout to Assouan, and very shallow, as the steamer, which drew about five feet of water, got aground often. We reached Assouan at 10 a. m. on the 21st, not without regret at having had to pass such famous places as Thebes and Luxor. We camped quite close to Thebes and there were guides waiting with candles to show us over the place but we had no time to spare and so were not permitted to wander about.
We landed two miles below the city at Assouan the lower end of the track of the seven mile railway to Shellal passing behind Assouan. This railway is built to portage over the first cataract. Opposite Assouan, we passed the camp of the Black Watch. At Shellal, a steamer with forty whalers in tow received us and started at once towards Wady Halfa. We camped two or three miles above Shellal and were therefore deprived of any sight of the first cataract. Our fifty-six Caughnawaga Indians were given eight boats, which were towed four abreast and ten long, this was the first time we got into the boats. We soon made use of the awning provided for each. The country along the river here is all rock and as I was told, back of the rock all sand. Doctor Neilson informed me that we were now about crossing into the tropics. The natives here are considerably darker than the Egyptians and better built men. They were dressed similarly to the Egyptians. A navy pinnace overhauled us here bringing Abbe Bouchard who had stayed behind in Cairo. We went a good distance before we again met cultivated land and then only in strips, some of which were not twenty feet wide and they were utilized every inch. The natives follow the falling river with cultivation, as I discovered when coming back a little over three months afterwards, when I found crops of beans from one inch to a foot long, growing where there had been water. We passed miles of barren rock and then again narrow strips and altogether the country was poorer than Upper Egypt. Occasionally we would see a few date trees along the river and now and then a small mud-built village. Irrigation was going on the same as below, both by hand and by ox-power. We reached Korosko on the 24th of October the steamer was run with the bow on the shore, but the boats towed too far from shore for us to get out.
Korosko is a small fort occupied by both English and Egyptian soldiers. The river banks around are fifteen to twenty feet high. From my whaler I could see a small building near the beach with a sign over the door marked "poste Keden" Post office. We left Korosko after an hour's stoppage and beached in good season, to give us a chance to cook supper. At every night's camp we unavoidably did more or less damage to the crops, which must have caused serious loss to these poor people by whom, as I said before, every inch of the spare soil is utilized. We got under way at sunrise. The river up this far from Assouan is a series of very straight stretches from five to fifteen miles in length with no difficult bends and good for navigation everywhere. The current varys from three to five miles an hour. During this day I noticed a small screw tug bearing a foresail coming after us and trying hard to reach us. It proved to be a press steamer having on board the correspondent of an English paper, an engineer and a native pilot. They ran short of coal and wanted a tow, and all the coal they had left when reaching us, a man could have put in his vest pocket. We beached this night on the west side close to a temple, cut, as it appeared to me into the solid rock. Being called to receive stores and cholera belts for the men I was prevented from joining an exploring party, that set out, and was told, when the boys came back, that I had missed something worth seeing. I learnt afterwards that this place was Abu-Simbel, where there are two temples cut out of the rock which are said to be the oldest specimens of architecture in the world. The boys said they had seen stone figures of men with toes three feet long and I dare say they were not far out, as I learnt there are four seated figures in front of the largest temple supposed to represent Rameses the Great, which are sixty five feet in height. I was sorry that I had to stay behind to look after the stores. Talking about cholera belts, everybody engaged in the British service in Egypt had to wear these belts, soldiers and voyageurs were supplied with them and required to wear them. They are strips of flannel twelve or fifteen inches wide, and I was told by soldiers who had served in Egypt some time, that they are very effective in preventing cholera and dysentery.
BOAT FOR THE NILE EXPEDITION UNDER SAIL.
BOAT FOR THE NILE EXPEDITION SHOWING AWNING.