CHAPTER XLIII—LIFE ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE.—COPTS, JUGGLERS, AND THIEVES.—AMUSING EXPERIENCES.
Through an Arab village—Creating a Sensation—The “Doubter” alarmed—The li Professor perpetrates a hoax—The Egyptian Saratoga—An Oriental Post-Office—A queer Town—Specimens of Ancient Art—A wooden statue three thousand years old—A Coptic Convent—“Backsheesh, Howadji!”—Carrying money in their I mouths—Sturdy Beggars—An expert Swimmer—The Copts, who are they?—Skilful swindlers—Sugar Mills on the banks of the Nile—Egyptian Jugglers—A Snake-Charmer—Adroit Thieves—A Melancholy Experience in Donkey-riding.
I WAS up early on the first morning out from Cairo, and found the sun rising through a thin mist, which cleared away very speedily. Our dragoman went ashore to get a supply of milk for the breakfast table, from the village opposite, and Gustave and I followed him, and were soon in a tangle of narrow lanes, that were very crooked and would greatly puzzle a stranger to find his way among them.
Three or four times we brought up into culs-de-sac, or blind alleys, and had to force our way back and try again. Dogs barked and children gathered around us, and some buffalo cows took fright at the apparition of a couple of Europeans and fled into one of the houses. Chickens on a house top flew away, as if we had come to eat them, and some of the Arabs came out with expressions on their faces the reverse of pleasant, Evidently we had created a sensation, but not a very agreeable one.
The milk was soon obtained, and we obeyed the warning whistle and went on board. The voyage through the day was not specially interesting, as there are no ruins of interest on this part of the river, and the banks are rather monotonous. One hour was much like another, and the sights were nearly the same—crumbling banks, shadoofs, donkeys, camels and Arabs, sand-bars and islands, palm trees fringing the horizon or standing out in front of the grey hills of the desert, the sandy waste in the distance, and the river, covered more or less thickly with Arab boats.