At the hotel gate stood the usual fifty donkeys, their drivers all shrieking out to you to take their donkeys. “My donkey good donkey, sah; his name, Mrs. Langtry.” “‘Dis donkey, Sir Roggar (sic) Tichborne, sah; he go gentle.” You have to push through the crowd of men and animals as you best can. The never-ceasing word backsheesh, or its abbreviation ’sheesh, hissing in your ear all the way. On suddenly turning a corner you may come upon a lot of children or grown-up people engaged in play or other occupation, but they are always ready. Their hands are immediately stretched out, and the cry is on their lips, ’sheesh! ’sheesh! nor do they seem surprised if you fail to respond. Sometimes I vary it by putting out my own hand, with temporary success as far as checking their begging goes, but they are soon equal to the occasion, and with mock gravity will offer a quarter piastre—about a halfpenny—and then you laugh and they laugh.
I had often read, that properly to understand Biblical allusions it is necessary to travel in the East. This constant extending of the hand for backsheesh gave me an entirely new appreciation of the passage, “Ethiopia shall yet stretch forth her hand.”
After much excitement the train at last starts, and a mob accompanied it as far as they can keep up by running, hoping against hope that you will at length relent and throw them some money. Once I offered a beggar a new penny, but he handed it back very gravely, saying “No good—piastre” (meaning that he wanted a piastre); but I pretended to be offended, and did not give him anything.
Every little station on the road is infested with crowds of natives hoping for backsheesh, and it is wonderful what vast numbers of people there are who have nothing to do. At most stations you will see an ill-favoured fellow with a goat-skin across his back, filled with water, but I should have to be very thirsty indeed before I could drink from it. An hour after leaving Suez we saw our old friend the s.s. Orient in the Canal close alongside, having taken twenty-four hours to accomplish this distance.
At Ismailia we stopped some time, and a lad wanted to clean my boots which, however, did not require cleaning, so I told him to black the bare feet of a brown boy who was standing by. This he proceeded to do in the presence of a crowd of grinning spectators of all colours—yellow, brown, coffee-coloured, and jet black. The lad whose feet were blacked seemed to enjoy the fun very much, and when it was over appeared to think he was entitled to a half piastre as well as the operator, so he got it. The shoeblack then brought an ebony Nubian, whose skin was already a shining black. He asked me if he might do his feet, but I made him understand it was quite unnecessary. A grave-looking Turk observing the proceedings gave a look which seemed to say, “Mad English again.”
At Zagazig we stayed two hours for luncheon, and were much interested with the infinite variety of costume and feature among the crowds thronging the station. About half an hour before reaching Cairo, on looking through the window, we had our first view of the Pyramids. On our arrival at Cairo we were greeted with a chorus of the usual kind, but having “wired” to the hotel a porter was awaiting us with an omnibus, and we were soon comfortably located in the new Grand Hotel.
A walk to the Nile Bridge gave us a good view of the river. The road to the Pyramids passes for some distance through a fine avenue of trees, and the river having encroached on the soil too near to the roots, we saw for the first time a phase of Egyptian life which is not pleasant—viz., forced labour. About 1,500 men were engaged in piling up earth against the roots, forming a thick, deep embankment against the river. The soil is carried in baskets, and from the elevation where we stood the men looked like a swarm of ants. These men are provided by the Sheiks of the villages on the demand of the Government, who pay nothing whatever for the labour. The men receive neither wages nor food, but each village looks after the families of its absentees, and attends to their work until their return. The men certainly seemed to labour with a will.
The Nile begins to rise about the end of June, reaching its greatest height about the end of September, continuing for about fifteen days at twenty-four feet above low-water level. If the rise be thirty feet great damage is done, and if it fail to reach eighteen feet famine ensues.