Boats on the Nile. Our enjoyments on the river. Water of the Nile.
Villages. Ovens for hatching chickens. Egyptian bricks and case of
the Israelites. Singular costume of the females. Thievish boatmen.
First view of the Pyramids. Stupendous undertaking of Mohammed Ali at
the Barage. Approach to Cairo. Moonlight scene.
The boats of the canal are confined exclusively to its waters, and we
here found it necessary to look out for other conveyances, a necessity
to which our last night’s experience made us very gladly submit;
nor had we at any time occasion to find fault with the comfort or
cleanliness of the boats on the Nile. Those which we engaged had about
three fourths of the length of one of our canal boats, and about twice
the breadth, and drew from three to four feet water; near the stern
were a forward and an after cabin, the former of sufficient height to
allow us to stand upright. In front of it we spread awnings above, and
at the sides, so as to make a cool verandah or vestibule for eating
and sitting during the day; and, with the aid of curtains, a pleasant
sleeping apartment for the night. Towards the bow the deck ceased,
and gave place to an open area filled with sand, where our excellent
cook erected his throne, and chopped off as many heads as might have
satisfied even Mohammed Ali himself.
Our party, consisting of twenty-six persons exclusive of attendants,
engaged three of these boats. The Commodore and his family, and, by
invitation, ----, and the writer of this, occupied one of them; a
second was engaged by a party principally of lieutenants; and a third
by midshipmen from the two ships. We had on board of each boat a
person called a Cavass, an officer appointed by government to attend
on travellers; he goes well armed, and bears in addition, as a badge
of office, a long cane capped with silver or gold, to which dangle
chains of the same material. His presence places the party under the
protection of government, and gives it access to all public places to
which he may choose to lead.
We were all a happy party on that river. Our steward had laid in
abundantly, and provisions along the Nile were plentiful and cheap; we
had books and musical instruments, and chessmen and society. We changed
back and forward among the boats, and sometimes gave tea-parties;
and often landed for a stroll along the river banks, or among the
palm-groves of the villages. The officers unanimously voted that it was
far preferable to keeping watch on shipboard. Nor must I forget another
source of real and actual pleasure, in drinking the Nile water. It is a
delicious fluid, and the natives have a saying handed down from father
to son, “that if Mahomet had ever tasted the waters of the Nile, he
would have placed his Paradise along its banks.” An earthern vessel,
that would hold twenty or twenty-five gallons, was lashed at the stern
of our boat, and kept filled, so as to allow the sediment to subside.
The river, when we were ascending, was about one fourth advanced in the
yearly flood, and the waters were of a light yellow color; on being
allowed to rest in the jar, they took the color of lemonade, and were
the most agreeable we had ever tasted. We drank prodigious quantities,
but without having our health at all affected by them. The wind at this
season blows constantly up stream during the day, but subsides a little
after sunset, when we were obliged to come to and secure ourselves
to the shore for the night. Descending boats take advantage of this
interval of calm to drop down with the current.
We stopped first at Atfour, the city noticed above, where we found that
what had seemed to us a palace was a large manufactory of Egyptian caps
belonging to the Pasha. Thence we glided up the stream, the American
ensign at the peak of each of our high lateen yards, fluttering, and
seeming to rejoice as much as we at being on the Egyptian river. The
banks, villages, islands, and groves, slipped along by our sides,
presenting views sometimes highly picturesque, and always of a
strikingly oriental character. The country, however, is generally
at this season of the year tame and monotonous. The crops had been
gathered in, and the open plains (for there are no enclosures, except
occasionally to a garden) were burnt to a cinder by the fierce raging
sun; the earth was gaping, and seemed to pant under its fury; and,
except the neighborhood of the villages, and now and then a garden
watered by artificial means, there was not a speck of verdure to be
seen. The villages also, when we came to inspect them, we found to be
miserable in the extreme. They consist of one or two hundred houses,
made of bricks hardened in the sun and covered with domes of the same
material. The bricks retain the original color of the muddy deposite,
and the villages have a dull, gloomy appearance. Whitewash is never
used within; but on the outside a mottled appearance is sometimes
given to the houses by the custom of sticking cakes of camels’ ordure
against their front and sides to dry; this being the only fuel used in
the country. It is said to burn very well, and when thus prepared, to
have no disagreeable odour. If the reader will imagine a collection
of houses thus daubed on the outside, with earthern floors and bare
walls of mud, a small hole for a window, excessively filthy within, and
abounding in vermin; he will have an idea of an Egyptian village. He
must add also now and then a large, well-filled granary of the Pasha
in the neighborhood of the villages; and in the villages themselves
a number of dwellings in ruins; for the bricks often yield to the
operation of the weather, and the badly constructed domes tumble in. As
we sailed along, our attention was very often drawn to the houses for
hatching chickens, one or more of which may be seen in each of their
villages. They are formed by taking a number of pots, of the capacity
of about a gallon, contracted at the neck, which is turned towards the
exterior. About fifty or sixty of these are built up with bricks and
mud into an edifice like an elongated bee-hive, twelve or fifteen feet
in height. The eggs are small and the fowls diminutive, but of a very
pleasant flavor.
I examined the Egyptian bricks with reference to the complaint of the
Hebrews, that straw was not allowed them in the manufacture. A few here
have straw mixed up with them, and it will doubtless check the process
of disintegration to which they are exposed, but it does not seem at
present to be considered a necessary ingredient. But it is universally
employed in the process of manufacturing, or rather in drying the
bricks. They are in size like our bricks, and are cut with a spade
from the earth when moistened by the yearly floods. Fine straw is then
scattered on the adjoining grounds, and the bricks are spread over this
to dry; and were this precaution not used, the bricks in drying would
adhere to the earth and be spoiled. I conclude, then, that here was
occasioned the dilemma in which the Israelites soon found themselves;
they could make the tale of bricks, but when they came to remove them
at the close of their labors, they found them attached to the soil and
their labors lost. I frequently saw bricks exposed for drying, but
never without a layer of fine straw beneath.
Their villages occur at intervals of five or six miles; generally they
are on the river bank, but are often scattered over the interior, and
with the groves of the graceful palm-tree often formed pretty groupings
in the landscape. The natives are of a light ash color; and the men,
though rather slender, are remarkably well-formed, light, and active,
and capable of enduring fatigue. Their dress is sometimes like that
of the Turks, but often simply a long piece of white cloth, like the
Roman toga, wrapped around the body, with the ends thrown across the
shoulders or supported under the arm; it is a graceful, but not very
modest dress. But the women! How strange are the caprices of fashion,
and often how extravagant and silly! In Turkey a woman is not allowed
to show her face at all; a handkerchief drawn across the forehead,
and another just below this, so as to cover all the face, and leave
room only for the eyes to fall bashfully on the ground and pick out
the lady’s way, secures their modesty. In Egypt a lady may expose
all her face except the nose and mouth: these it would be the height
of indelicacy to exhibit, and she protects them by a strip of black
cotton stuff (black, think you!) about three feet in length and four
inches wide. One end of this is fastened by a string passing across
her forehead and tied at the back of her head; the cloth falls down
over her nose and mouth, and the lady’s modesty is secure. It would
be well for them to cover all the face, for a more ugly set of ladies
I have never met with in any country. The Turkish costume has at least
the advantage of making us _imagine_ beauty; and many a stranger is put
in raptures of love by a pair of flashing eyes glancing on him from
beneath the jealous muslins, when, if the covering was removed from the
face, he would be ungallant enough to turn with disgust from both face
and eyes. The Egyptian ladies show a want of taste in not adopting the
Turkish fashion.
At one of the villages, called Negila, we saw some of the dancing girls
of the country. They were dressed in the national costume, but were
decked off with beads and a great variety of tawdry ornaments, and were
disgusting objects. Here is a large granary belonging to the Pasha,
with vast stores of every kind; in our way to and from it we were beset
with beggars, whose appearance exhibited the utmost wretchedness.
The breeze was fresh and our boats were comfortable, and the banks
and the hours glided swiftly along. We had music, we played chess, we
read, we chatted, we dozed when we preferred doing so. When meal-time
came we slipped the leather trunks together for a table, and brought
good appetites to the repast. Cleopatra herself had not a more cheerful
party than ours.
Our boatmen often amused us by their agility. The sand banks at the
bends of the river are planted with water-melons, and as the flood
was beginning to reach the fruit, the inhabitants were busy gathering
it in, though it was not yet fully ripe. The Arabs of our boat would
often make a dash at these melons, and would have just time to select
the best when the owners would rush with cries to the scene of plunder.
Down they would all go together into the river, flouncing and tugging;
the one for revenge, the other, amid so many witnesses of his exploit,
struggling for fame as well as for the water-melon, and pushing it
before him with all his might. Sometimes they would grapple, and in
the consequent struggle of fierce passions the melon would escape from
both, and glide quietly down the river: but generally the boatman
succeeded in depositing it safely under the wing of the Cavass.
Towards evening of the 17th we came to a range of sand hills stretching
along on our right; they are the commencement of the chain that higher
up assists in forming the valley of the Nile. Up to this point our view
on either side took in an unbroken level as far as the eye could reach.
_The Pyramids._--It was with a thrill of joy that, on the morning of
the 18th, as we sat at breakfast, at an exclamation from one of our
party, we looked up, and saw before us the Pyramids. We were then
twenty-four miles distant, but, though thin and airy-like, they were
very distinct. These monuments are most impressive when the spectator
is either close beneath them or at a distance like this. On the
present occasion they produced a very powerful effect. Their regularity
of outline kept their impression clear on the mind as works of art;
their shadowy appearance showed them to be very distant, while their
great elevation at so remote a point affected the mind strongly with
their astonishing vastness. They were in sight, with brief intervals,
during the whole day, and to the last were grand and sublime objects.
About noon we found ourselves approaching a spot, in which, from the
representations of our Cavass, we had become highly interested. We were
near the head of the Delta, a place which Mohammed Ali has selected for
a work, which, if successful, will place him far above the constructors
of the Pyramids, and make him one of the greatest benefactors that
Egypt has ever known. The place opened upon us at length, but on
looking up our first impression was one of deep and unqualified
disgust. Before us was a busy scene. On the high bank at our left men
were appearing in great numbers, with baskets of earth in their hands,
and after discharging it down the bank, were retiring to give place
for others; but as they stood out in strong relief against the sky, we
could see others with whips, which they were using freely upon the poor
wretches, whose writhings and accelerated movements gave proof of the
smart.
We stopped on this occasion only to take a glance at the _Barage_,
for so this place is called; but on our return from Cairo gave it a
careful examination, and, by the politeness of the chief engineer, M.
Lenon, were furnished with plans and explanations.
The traveller along the Nile is everywhere struck with the great value
of irrigation to these lands. Water is frequently raised from the river
by wheels turned by oxen or camels, and sometimes by buckets swung
at the end of a pole and worked by men; and wherever this is done,
we found, even at midsummer, gardens of the most intense verdure and
of extreme luxuriance. It may be doubted, indeed, whether the annual
floods do not benefit the country quite as much by the irrigation as by
their muddy deposites. The object of the Pasha is, by means of dams, to
raise the waters of the river to the surface of the adjoining country,
and enable the cultivators to carry it by canals to any part, and to
irrigate the whole region freely, wherever they may choose, and the
place we were now at is the one which he has selected for this great
undertaking. The idea of this is not quite a novel one, but was first
grasped by the capacious mind of Buonaparte, between whose character
and that of the Egyptian monarch, there is, by the way, quite a strong
resemblance.
The reader will remember, that of the seven mouths by which the Nile
formerly discharged itself, only two remain; one, the eastern, passing
into the sea at Damietta; while the other, or western, discharges
itself in a similar way near Rosetta. The Delta, lying between them, is
of extreme fertility. Should he succeed, not only will the productions
of this be greatly increased, but, by leading the waters off east and
west of it, he will be able to redeem from the encroaching deserts an
immense extent of country now quite abandoned. But difficulties of an
alarming kind present themselves. The bottom of the river is loose and
unstable; and the shores are so friable, that if an attempt is made to
build a dam across it at once, the water will, in the mean time, be
working out for itself new channels along the sides. Minds like that
of Mohammed Ali, however, are only stimulated, not discouraged, by
serious obstacles. He has employed M. Lenon, a French gentleman, and
self-taught, but an engineer of superior abilities; and trusting the
whole matter to him, has given him, as a nominal superior, Mahmoud Bey,
the late governor of Cairo, one of the most wealthy men of the country,
and apparently an agreeable coadjutor in this great undertaking. The
subjoined plan is copied from one drawn for us by M. Lenon, and the
measurements were also furnished by him.
[Illustration]
In this _A_ represents the river before branching, _B B_ the Rosetta,
and _C C_ the Damietta branch. It is proposed to build a dam across
at _E_ and _e_, sufficiently high to elevate the waters nearly to the
level of the banks, which are here about thirty feet above the usual
surface of the river. The engineer commences with cutting the canals
_F F_ and _f f_, each thirteen hundred feet wide and thirty-two in
depth, leaving cross strips at _L_ and _l_, until the canal is ready
for use. Across these canals at _G_ and _g_ dams are to be constructed
forty-one feet in height, including the foundation, and a hundred
and twenty-eight in thickness; and in them are to be left sluices of
sufficient capacity to allow the passage of the entire river. When
these are completed, the sluices are left open, and the cross slips at
_L_ and _l_ being cut away, the river seeks the more direct passage,
and leaves the old channels _M_ and _m_ nearly dry. Piles are now to
be driven into the bottom of the river, and in these the dams _E_ and
_e_ are to be constructed; the former one thousand, and the latter
eight hundred and twenty feet in length, each thirty-four feet in
height. These being completed, the sluices are to be closed, and the
water is thus carried to the required height. By means of the canals
_I_, _I_ and _K_, it is to be carried over the Delta, and in a similar
manner is also led off to the east and west, as far as they may desire.
In this latter operation they will be assisted by the nature of the
ground; for here, as along the Mississippi and the Ganges, the ground
immediately adjoining the stream is higher than at places more remote.
At _K_ will be a gate for checking the flow of water, and at _H_ and
_h_ small canals, with locks, for boats passing up and down the river.
An immense water power will be thus created at the Barage; and it is in
contemplation to erect there mills and manufactories of every species;
and also to lay out a city after the European plan. Cairo will probably
find here a formidable rival.
This is a great undertaking, whether we consider the advantages which
it promises or the startling boldness of the design; for in our country
we can scarcely form an idea of the difficulties that beset it on every
side. Every thing, even the most trifling kind of tool necessary in
the operation, has first to be made. Mons. Lenon informed us that he
could not have found things less prepared for his hands, if he had
commenced operations in the midst of the African deserts. And, in
addition, both he and the sovereign have to encounter the ignorance and
the prejudices of the jealous officers of the court. They came once
to Mohammed Ali, complaining that the engineer was going to needless
expense in importing wood for piles when they had trees enough at home,
which, if spliced, would answer just as well. “Say you so,” replied
the Pasha, “the experiment shall be made forthwith;” and looking
out into his garden, he ordered trees at once to be cut down, and
sent the complainants to see them spliced and arranged to their own
satisfaction. This was done; the pile-driver was applied to them, and
at the first stroke they flew into shivers. Since that time they have
been more cautious in making complaints.
We found 10,000 men at work digging the canals; 6,000 on the Rosetta
side and the balance on the Darietta branch. Mons. Lenon says, that
if he can get men enough, he will finish it in three years: but at
the present mode of working, it will require six or seven. They broke
ground three months previous to our visit. One hundred great dredging
machines are to be employed, thirty of which are already on the ground.
These, as well as most of the tools, have to be imported from Europe.
In the latter they are yet very badly provided. The ground is broken
by hoes, and worked into baskets with shovels or fingers, as the case
may be: these are carried on the head to the side of the river, and
there emptied down its banks. The men are divided into companies of
from thirty to fifty each, with one or two drivers, who hasten their
operations by a free use of whips.
This inhumanity must not be laid to the charge of the engineer, who has
in several ways endeavored to soften the hardships of their condition.
We found him erecting hospitals, and conveniences for grinding corn and
cooking; and he has prevailed on the Pasha to allow them wages, a thing
heretofore quite unknown. They receive each thirty-six paras, or four
and a half cents per day, from which six paras are deducted for their
board. This in Egypt may be considered pretty handsome wages.
At our second visit we stopped at the tent of Mahmoud Bey, whom we
found to be a fine specimen of the Turkish gentleman. He is a venerable
looking man, with a splendid white beard falling over his breast. The
tent was of mammoth dimensions, carpeted, and ornamented within with
stripes of cotton or silken stuffs of gay colors, producing a rich and
pleasing effect. His attendants brought fruits, coffee, and pipes with
mouth-pieces set in diamonds. At Mons. Lenon’s tent we found the chief
of the St. Simonians, who had lately been banished from France, and had
taken refuge in this country.
Before dismissing the Barage, I should add a fact mentioned to us by
Mons. Lenon, that in digging here they have come to bricks at the depth
of sixty feet from the present surface of the ground.
But our boat is once more out upon the stream, and we are gazing
upward, expecting each moment to see Cairo open to our view. Instead
of the city however, came a hurricane, sweeping across from the western
desert, and filling the air with a blood-red color and our eyes with
sand. We took refuge under one of the high banks, and hugged the shore
closely till it had passed. Again a little after sunset we gained the
channel, and by the light of a dim moon glided onward towards the city.
On our left soon appeared a mass of white houses, forming the Pasha’s
summer palace of Shubra: it is surrounded by a garden forming a perfect
fairy scene, and is connected with Cairo, three miles distant, by an
avenue of noble trees. Of all this on the present occasion we got but
an imperfect view; soon after several other large white edifices came
in sight, and our imaginations, excited by the glimpses of splendor
which we had caught, by the time, and the country, worked each into
a scene of eastern enchantment, and we pictured in each of them fair
captives from other countries, gazing through the lattice, and sighing
for their distant native hills. The boat glided on, and presently our
sympathies were interrupted by the glancing lights of the busy little
town of Boulac, the port of Cairo. This city, as the reader is perhaps
aware, is not situated on the river, but about a mile and a half from
it on the west, and has at Boulac a landing-place and store-houses for
all goods coming from the north; Old Cairo, a few miles higher up,
answering a similar purpose for all vessels coming from up the river.
As it was too late to proceed to the city, we ran our boats across to
the shore opposite Boulac, and made fast for the night near a summer
palace and gardens. After tea we climbed the high bank over our boats
to get once more a view of the Pyramids, now about eight miles distant
on the west, but in the moonlight quite distinct.
There was something pleasing in being made to get our first impressions
of this ancient region by moonlight. We were now amid the scenes of
the earliest grandeur of Egypt. On one side of us, and but a few miles
distant, had once stood the great city of Heliopolis; and on the other
Memphis. Dim land of shadows and mystery, the pall of death hath been
laid upon thee; but instead of concealing, it only makes thy features
more solemn and more awful.
What a scene of life and bustle was once upon this now silent plain.
Ye buried ages, whose monuments stand yonder in the glimmering light, I
have received the wizard’s spell, by which the entombed are brought to
life once more; and lo, I spread it over you. Arise!
Ha, this is Memphis! And see how it stretches across, and covers all
the plain. Towering aloft, is many a grave but magnificent temple;
there stretches the deep shadowed and interminable colonade; here
frowns the massive tower for defence; and there lies concealed the
luxurious bower of the gay. Dwellings of the simple and the astute, the
noble and the lowly serf stretch around, far as the eye can reach,
and countless multitudes flock along thy streets; while here, closer
to us, in the city of mummies, lie an equally countless number in the
searments of the grave. City of many centuries and of stately grandeur,
we yield thee the reverence--but what noise is that? the buzz of the
multitude has suddenly changed, and now comes the sound of wailing on
the ear; and mark, how it increases in intensity, and spreads; and
now all the land is filled with woe. The cause--I have it now--their
god Apis is dead. A white bull, fed solemnly and reverently in their
temples, and to which all the land bowed down in worship, has suddenly
expired, and the houses are all filled with alarm and woe.--And here
comes a long procession, sweeping onward from one of the gates; these,
too, are mourners, and they seem to be touched with even deeper
grief. They are carrying a dozen singed cats to the place for solemn
embalming, previous to interment, with sacred rites. These animals had
been their peculiar household gods, and were kept in a sacred edifice,
well fed and carefully tended; but the building took fire, on which the
alarmed worshippers rushed into the flames, regardless of themselves,
and desirous only of extricating their gods. But the bewildered animals
in their fright escaped back to the fire, and numbers were burnt to
death; and the procession is now carrying their bodies to be embalmed.
And there is another procession passing onward along the streets;
they carry in solemn state a dog, their god, now dead, and which they
are transporting to the place for sacred washing, preparatory to its
removal in state to the city of Busiris for interment. Here, from out
the water gate, comes another crowd in the habiliments of woe, and with
sounds of grief. They are transporting, perhaps, a great benefactor
to their city, some one whose bounties have flowed largely upon the
poor, for such the mourners seem to be? No--these are two companies,
one carrying a dead shrew-mouse, and the other a dead hawk, to the
place of sacred burial. But see, here comes a couple of hogs, hooted
at and bewildered; and mark the alarm of the mourners as the animals
become entangled among their ranks; and see how they rush to the river,
and with their clothes on, plunge in to cleanse their souls from the
pollution caused by the swinish contact.[2]
Ancient Memphis! our spell has been too potent, and wrought too
effectually for the safety of our enthusiasm; and so we bid thee good
night. Thou art well where thou art--laid low in the dust and almost
forgotten.
FOOTNOTE:
[2] That this is not an overdrawn picture of Egyptian superstitions,
see the proof in Herodotus, Euterpe.