"Wherever there was space to scratch or write a name on the walls, we found that previous travellers had not scrupled to convert the Temple of Philæ into an autograph album. Names of those who had come there in the last two hundred years were visible in great numbers; the most prominent memorial of this kind was a tablet recording the occupation of Philæ by General Desaix's army at the time Egypt was held by Napoleon I. This tablet was defaced by some Englishmen in 1848, but was afterward restored by French visitors, and has since been undisturbed.
"When it was time to leave the island we again entered our boat, and were taken to the cataract. The famous cataract of the Nile is nothing more than a rapid, or rather a succession of rapids, with an aggregate fall of not more than fifteen feet. The river divides into a series of channels among the rocks, and boats are taken through these channels without much trouble, though with a considerable expenditure of time and muscle, with the aid of tow-ropes and Arabs. The Arabs at the cataract are about as skilled in rascality as their brethren of the pyramids; they can easily take a boat up in a single day, but manage to consume three or four days in the operation, and extort a great deal of backsheesh for not being longer about it. The descent of the falls takes only a few minutes, as the principal rapid is about two hundred feet long by seventy wide: the water foams and rushes furiously, but with a skilful pilot there is no danger. Accidents happen occasionally, but they are almost invariably due to bad management.
"We stood on the bank and saw a dozen Arabs 'shoot the rapids,' which they did on the short logs they use as ferry-boats. It was apparently dangerous, and we did not grudge the backsheesh they demanded when the show was over. They slid down very gracefully, and probably the risk was no greater for a good swimmer than is the process of coasting downhill for a school-boy. Travellers' tales in the early part of the century represented the cataract of the Nile to be something like Niagara, when, in fact, it is not much worse than a large mill-race. The place is rather picturesque, on the whole, and we are very glad to have seen it.
"From Mahatta, a little village at the head of the falls, we returned by the bank of the river to Assouan. Our ascent of the Nile is ended, and we will now turn our faces to the northward."
[Chapter XX.]
FROM ASSOUAN TO ALEXANDRIA.—FAREWELL TO EGYPT.
A part of the next day was passed on the island of Elephantine, opposite Assouan. By reference to the books in their possession, Frank and Fred learned that Elephantine was a place of considerable importance two or three thousand years ago, and a large town once stood there. Its ruins are now covered by a modern village, whose inhabitants are all Nubians; in fact, there are no Arabs living on the island, and it is said that Elephantine has been the home of none but Nubians from time immemorial. Frank asked for the elephants, but could not learn that any had ever been seen there; he concluded that the island received its name from the entire absence of the largest of animals, or even of any fossil remains of him.