"Gentlemen, prepare for sublime emotion!"
Of course due preparations were made, and when the grandeur of the hall was visible they gave utterance to the regulation number of "ohs!" and "ahs!" When these were ended, and silence came again, the guide looked at his watch and called out,
"Five minutes for sublime emotion!"
When time was up they moved on. At another place they had "five minutes for musing on the decayed glories of ancient Egypt," and at another they were requested to "think of the havoc that the centuries have wrought."
In travelling by dahabeeah you charter the boat, and make up your own party. In a general way you are your own master, and can say where, and for how long, you will stop. During the winter the wind blows pretty steadily from north to south, so that you sail up the Nile with the breeze in your favor. On the return the great sail is lowered, and the crew row the boat with the current. Their rowing is just enough to give steerage-way, and the flowing river brings you safely back to Cairo.
The steamboat fare to the first cataract and back is £50 ($250), and to the second cataract £80 ($400). This includes meals, guides, donkeys, and some of the fees for seeing temples and tombs, but does not include saddles for riding the aforesaid donkeys, nor does it embrace the use of a chair for the deck of the boat. There are constant demands for backsheesh for various things, and the passengers are expected to make up a liberal purse at the end of the voyage for distribution among the officers, crew, and servants. About £5 ($25) will be needed for these inevitable "extras."
The dahabeeah journey will usually cost $1500 for two persons to the first cataract and back, and $2000 for four persons; about $500 should be added in each case for the second cataract. For these figures you can get a large, well-fitted boat, and will be entitled to live with every possible comfort. Smaller and plainer boats may be had for less money, and the food supplied by the dragoman will be correspondingly less luxurious. Prices vary according to the season, and the number of travellers desiring to make the journey, and it sometimes happens that a good boat may be had for less than the figures named above.
The dahabeeah journey can be made by time or by the course; either way is not altogether satisfactory, and a traveller who has made it by one method generally advises his friends to try the other. If you go by time, the dragoman manages to delay you as much as he can, and will invent unheard-of excuses for stopping the boat; if you go by the course, he hurries you along altogether too rapidly, and you often find that you have sailed by a place you specially desired to visit. All things considered, the best plan is to charter the boat by the course, with a stipulation for a certain number of days for stoppages at the interesting points. From fourteen to twenty days are the ordinary stipulations for stoppages, and the whole journey can be made from Cairo to the first cataract and back in about fifty days. [For forms of contract see Murray's "Hand-book for Egypt.">[
A dahabeeah journey would have made our friends too late for their contemplated trip to Palestine and Syria, and so they decided to go by steamboat.