THE RIVER NILE.
At length I gaze on the Nile—that marvellous river, the sources of which,
though many have tried to find them, have only been discovered in our
day. The history of Egypt is the oldest known to us. A large portion of
its history can be constructed from the native records of the Egyptians,
and those records are all to be found on the banks of the Nile. Four
thousand four hundred years before Christ, Mena, the first King of Egypt
of whom we have a record, founded Memphis, having turned aside the course
of the Nile and established a temple service there. In the reign of
Ammenehat, 2,300 years before Christ, special attention was paid to the
rise of the Nile, and canals were made and sluices dug for irrigating the
country; the rise of the Nile was marked on wells at Semnah, about
thirty-five miles above the second cataract, and the inscriptions are
visible to this day. A thousand years later Seti I. is said to have
built a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea. Under the Roman Emperor
Trajan the Nile and Red Sea Canal was reopened. Egypt proper terminates
at Syene: the territory south of that town and each side of the new Nile
is called Nubia. All Egypt depends upon the Nile; where the Nile does
not flow all is barrenness—nothing but sand and rock.
The area of the land in Egypt available for cultivation is about 11,500
square miles; the Delta contains about 6,500 square miles, and the Nile
Valley about 5,000. The country seems to have been taken possession of
by a people from the East about 5,000 years before Christ. They found
there an aboriginal people, with a dark skin and complexion. The
Egyptians generally called their land black (Kanit), and the term is
appropriate, if we consider the dark rich colour of the cultivated land.
In the Bible Egypt is known as Ham. All nations have held the land, and
have sent their people thither. But it is a curious fact that the
physical type of the Egyptian fellah is exactly what it was in the
earliest dynasties.
The river Nile is one of the largest rivers in the world. It is formed
by the junction of two great arms, the Blue Nile and the White; one rises
in Abyssinia, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet above the level of the
sea; the other, the true Nile, has its fountain-head in the Victoria
Nyanza, a huge basin far below the level of the country. The course of
the Nile has been explored about 3,500 miles. From Khartoum to Cairo the
Nile falls about 400 yards; its width in its widest part is about 1,100
yards. After entering Egypt, the Nile flows in a steady stream always to
the north, and deposits the mud which is the life of Egypt. The breadth
of the Nile Valley varies from four to ten miles in Nubia, and from
fifteen to thirty in Egypt. The width of the area of cultivated land on
each bank of the river in Egypt is never more than eight or nine miles.
The inundation caused by the descent of rain on the Abyssinian mountains
commences at the cataracts in June, and in July makes a great show. The
rise of the Nile continues till the end of September when it remains
stationary about three weeks. In October it rises again, and attains its
highest level. When I saw it in November the waters had subsided, and
the peasants were hard at work, making the best of their opportunity.
The ground was still too wet for ploughing, but gangs were turning up the
soil with hoes, and sowing the seed. It seemed to be simple work, under
the blue sky and the bright sun. There was no need for high farming;
Nature did everything, and the toil of the labourer was richly rewarded.
It made me think of what Douglas Jerrold said of Australia—that it was a
country so fertile that ‘if you but tickle her with a hoe she laughs with
a harvest.’ And the harvest is wonderful. Commercially, the Nile is a
fortune to Cairo. It is estimated that if all the land watered by the
Nile were thoroughly cultivated, Egypt, for its size, would be one of the
richest countries in the world. Till the Cairo Waterworks were
established, the people of Cairo depended solely on the water of the
Nile; and in Cairo, as in Jerusalem, the water-carrier is still to be
seen, bearing on his back a large black goatskin filled with water from
the river. At the Cairo railway-station he is always in evidence
watering the platform and keeping down the dust. The short legs of the
goat cut off at the knee stick out in a most grotesque manner when the
skin is full and round. The neck forms the spout, and is held firmly in
the left hand, to enable the carrier to sprinkle the contents where
desired. The weight of some of these large skins must be very
considerable. The skins used for wine are identical in form with these.
In ancient times there were near Cairo no less than seven branches of the
Nile; only two now remain. Very busy are the people who have to do with
the Nile in the vicinity of Cairo. A large open space at the end of one
of the bridges is selected for the collection of the octroi duties levied
upon all food and produce entering the city. Here the fellaheen assemble
daily, with their camels and asses laden with produce, or with droves of
buffaloes and oxen, and flocks of sheep and goats. The scene there is
almost picturesque and animated. Another bridge carried over a wide
canal, which forms an important backwater to the hill, connects the
western shore. From this point roads radiate north, west, and south,
each shaded by avenues of the acacia, so common in Egypt. The Ghizeh
road is the southern one, following the course of the river, always alive
with boats with large triangular sails, always redolent of busy life.
Egypt without the Nile would be a desert. ‘Anyone,’ says old Herodotus,
the father of history, the truth of whose narrative every day becomes
more apparent to everyone who sees Egypt, without having heard a word
about it before, ‘must perceive, if he has only common powers of
observation, that the Egypt to which the Greeks go in their ships is an
acquired country, the gift of the Nile.’
The prosperity of the country depends upon its inundation: if it should
prove excessive, and becomes what is termed a high Nile, towns and
villages are sometimes swept away; if it should not rise above a certain
height, it is called a low Nile—a large area will be left uncovered, and
deficient crops will be the result. Fortunately, a low Nile is of rare
occurrence. At one time, the only way of going up the Nile was by the
dahabeah, a kind of yacht fitted up for the convenience of travellers, an
expensive and dilatory mode of conveyance. Now Mr. John Cook has a line
of fine steamers, and the Nile and the journey up and down is done as
safely and expeditiously as the trip by the _Clacton Belle_ steamers up
and down the Thames. The voyage to Assouan and back is done in three
weeks. Facilities are afforded the traveller for the extension of his
voyage to the second cataract.
Of course, the ancient Egyptians worshipped the Nile. Hapi, the god of
the Nile, is represented wearing a cluster of flowers on his head; he is
coloured red and green, probably to represent the colours of the water of
the Nile immediately before and just after the beginning of the
inundation. An illustration of this worship occurs upon a wall in
Thebes, where a priest, in his painted robe, is offering incense, while
others play on a harp, a guitar, and two reed pipes. This is the song of
one of the priests who lived 1,400 years before Christ:
‘Adoration to the Nile! Hail, to thee, O Nile! who manifesteth
thyself over this land, and comest to give life to Egypt; mysterious
is the coming forth from the darkness, watering the orchards created
by Ra (the sun-god), to cause all the cattle to live. Thou givest
the earth to drink, inexhaustible one. Thou createst the corn; thou
bringest forth the barley, causing the temples to keep holiday. If
thou ceasest thy toil and thy work, then all that exists is in
anguish. . . . None [Picture: A Tourist Streamer—Cook’s Nile
Flotilla] know the place where he dwells; none discover his retreat
by the aid of a written spell. All is changed by the inundation. It
is a healing balm for all mankind. A festal song is raised for the
harp with the accompaniments of the hand,’ etc.
In a valuable work on the Nile, written by Wallis Budge, Acting Assistant
Secretary in the department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British
Museum, and published by Thomas Cook and Son, we have a beautiful
illustration of the practical side of Egyptian theology, written by a
scribe called Ani, who gives his son advice for behaviour in all the
varied scenes of life. It is taken from one of the papyri in the
Egyptian Museum at Ghizeh:
‘If a man cometh to seek thy counsel, let this drive thee to look for
information.
‘Enter not into the house of another; if a man asks thee into his
house, it is an honour for thee.
‘Spy not upon the acts of another from thy house.
‘Be not the first to enter or leave an assembly, that thy name be not
tarnished.
‘The sanctuary of God abhorreth noisy declamations. Pray humbly, and
with a loving heart whose words are spoken silently; God will then
protect thee, and hear thy petitions, and accept thy offerings.
‘Consider what hath been. Set before thee a correct rule of life as
an example to follow. The messenger of death will come to thee, as
to others, to carry thee away; yea, he standeth ready. Words will
profit thee nothing, for he cometh—he is ready. Say not, “I am a
child; wouldst thou in very truth bear me away?” Thou knowest not
how thou wilt die. Death cometh to meet the babe at his mother’s
breast, even as he meeteth the old man who hath finished his course.
‘Take heed with all diligence that thou woundest no man with thy
words.
‘Keep one faithful steward only and watch his deeds, and let thy hand
protect the man who hath charge of thy house and property.
‘The man who hath received much and giveth little is as one who
committeth an injury.
‘Be not ungrateful to God, for He giveth thee existence.
‘Sit not while another standeth, if he be older than thou or if he is
thy superior.
‘Whosoever speaketh evil receiveth no good.’