where there are interesting things to be seen, and then all the tourists
troop off and mount the excellent donkeys, who seem to think nothing of
the heaviest weights, but canter off to the Tombs or the Temples as
though they quite enjoyed it.
I had a very good ride on a big donkey called Mahomet to the Tombs of
Beni Hassan, and another day I went ashore and had a good look round
Assiout.
On the morning of November 23 I had a long ride out to see the Temple
of Dinderah (a very beautiful temple), and then the same evening we
reached Luxor just at sunset, and walked up an avenue of palm-trees to
the hotel, which just at this season is very empty, so we have large
rooms on the ground floor, and there is a delightful garden, where at
present we spend most of the day. We have a little house just across the
road facing the hotel, and I am very busy getting it ready. As I am the
only nurse here, if any visitors should come up ill, I should have to
look after them; but so far people are behaving nicely.
We have secured two good Arab boys as servants--Hassan and Girgus.
Hassan can speak a little English, but Girgus cannot, and it takes a
long time to get much work out of people when you can't talk to them!
You would be amused to see me wrestling with Arab carpenters, who seem
quite incapable of putting anything up straight, and with Arab painters,
who never get the same colour for two days together.
The chaplain's wife, who came up the river with us, has gone on to
Assouan for a few days, and as she has left me her donkey to use, I get
a little exercise every afternoon.
The other day I had rather an amusing time. I had ridden out to Karnak
with Miss L. to see the temple: it was very dusty, and we were very hot;
and when we got into the shade of the temple we saw a party of people
having tea, with two men in very gorgeous uniforms waiting upon them and
a dignified dragoman standing by. I recognised the dragoman as one of
Cook's men who had helped us in Cairo, and he gave me a sweeping bow as
we passed. I said to Miss L. as we moved away, "I am sure that nice
dragoman would like to offer us some tea, and I do want some very
badly," and we had not gone very far when the dragoman came after us
with a visiting card and "Sir G. N.'s compliments, and would the ladies
accept a cup of tea?" so we joined the party and had a most pleasant
tea, the dragoman having evidently explained who we were.
They had come up on a dahabeah, and were staying only for one night now,
but may return later on. They told us they thought they _must_ ride
camels in Egypt, so at Keneh they all started off on camels, each with a
boy attendant on a donkey, but all except one of the party returned on
the donkeys, with the boys on the camels!
The Karnak Temple is very beautiful; I have been to see it several times
now, and find something new to gaze at every time I go; once I visited
it by moonlight, and then it was most solemn.
There is a very nice little hospital for natives in Luxor, where they do
a good many eye and other operations. The native doctor in charge has
been most kind in lending me his horse, a perfect little Arab that goes
like the wind, and I have had some delightful gallops on the desert.
All the houses in Luxor are built of mud, or mud bricks, the bigger ones
being colour-washed over, but often you see a little bit of straw
sticking through the colour-wash just to remind you that it is "a house
of straw."
We are building a little summer-house out at Karnak, and sometimes drive
out there with our lunch and spend the day--the air is fresher away from
the village and the cultivated land; and one of the engineers who is
building the railway from Cairo to Assouan sometimes lends us his
trolley on the line, and a couple of Arabs shove us (with Hassan in
attendance) several miles out into the desert. We also do some sailing
on the Nile when there is any wind.
_Rameses III._ stayed here a few days on her way down the river, and
most of the passengers came to look us up. One evening they had a fancy
dress ball on board. I went down for a little while, and it was such a
pretty sight; the boat was moored close in, so that they could dance on
deck and then stroll in the hotel grounds, and it was all lit up with
Japanese lanterns, and looked so pretty with the palms waving above.
There was a gymkhana one day, and it was very good fun; camel races and
buffalo races and all varieties of donkey races; one very amusing race
was for gentlemen riding one donkey and driving another with long reins
in front of him. The leaders would seldom go straight, and they got
hopelessly mixed up in the reins, and had to be disentangled several
times.
A favourite amusement here is to play hare and hounds on donkeys. They
have quite a big meet of hounds near the hotel, and the hares (three of
them) have a long start to give them time to ride out to Karnak, and
then they have to try to ride back to the racecourse without being
caught.
The hounds are divided into three packs--the fast, the medium, and the
slow; the master has to be a man of tact: he sends off with the fast
pack the keen young tourists, many of them Americans, the men riding in
their shirt sleeves, and they gallop out to the boundary to drive the
hares in; then the medium pack trot out in a business-like way, ladies
and gentlemen, who are probably very correct in their costume for
riding in the Row, and who would not think of riding at home without a
top-hat; and, lastly, the slow pack, consisting of people who (in some
cases) hardly know a horse from a donkey, and who solemnly jog down to
the racecourse and then loiter about to see the fun when the hares come
in.
The natives take a great interest in this sport, and call it "hunting
the Mahdi," but their sympathies seem to be entirely with the hares, and
they give them every assistance by scouting about for the hounds, and
secreting the hares and their donkeys in their mud houses when there is
danger about.
Dr. R. and I were the hares one day, and we had a most exciting ride,
but were caught at last just as we reached the racecourse. At one point
I was hustled into a native house (just mud walls with no proper roof),
and found a buffalo being milked in one corner and a baby lying on the
ground in another, and from there I watched half-a-dozen hounds gallop
past, thinking they were close on my heels, and when they got out of
sight I doubled off in another direction.
The donkeys seem quite to enter into the fun of the thing, and do their
best, but sometimes they get excited and bray--inexcusable behaviour,
which is most disconcerting when you are trying to hide in a patch of
sugar-cane!
XXI
LUXOR, UPPER EGYPT,
_January 1898_.
It was difficult for us to realise the snow and cold that you had for
Christmas, while we were enjoying perpetual sunshine here.
My patient is now established in his little mud house, just across the
road from this hotel. I am thankful to say his mother and brother have
arrived, so we share the nursing between us.
It has been downhill work lately, and now he seldom leaves his bedroom,
a large "upper chamber" with a nice view over the palm-trees to the
Nile.
The nurse from Assouan has come down to be with him at night, as I have
been annexed by a poor lady in the hotel who is desperately ill; she
came up from Cairo with a very bad throat, and now that is better, but
she is still very ill, and it is not quite clear whether it is typhoid
fever or general pyæmia, but I am afraid, whatever it is, her strength
cannot hold out much longer.
I am with her for all the nights and part of the days, and go backwards
and forwards to the house, and get some sleep in just when I can.
There has been much excitement here about the rumour of war in the
Soudan, and now it is more than rumour, and the troops are being pushed
up country as fast as they can.
Cook's people are in great trouble, as all their tourists going down to
Cairo have had to be turned off the boats at Naghamadi (the present
railroad head), and they have to go the rest of the way down by train,
while the boats turn back to take the troops up to Assouan. Some
regiments are being sent all the way by rail, in spite of the line not
being yet finished.
The engineers are working day and night. I met one of them just now, who
said he was up to his eyes in work, and that he had twenty telegrams in
his pocket, all different orders, and each contradicting the one before;
so I said I supposed he did what he thought was right and hoped for the
best!
They have been busy here with an old tub of a steamer that has been used
for years as a landing stage; with much tinkering at last they got the
engines to work, and now she has gone wobbling down the Nile to bring up
stores. It was exciting when they first lit up the fires, as I hear she
ran away and knocked pieces out of the road on the front.
The Oxfordshire and Lincolnshire Regiments have gone past, the men
packed like sardines in the boats.
I badly want to go up with them, but at present they don't seem to be
sending any sisters, and my work is cut out for me here just at present.
All the steamers that come up, besides being heavily loaded, are towing
large barges with either men or stores in them, so there is a good deal
of delay about our mails, &c.
I expect you hear more of what is going on at the front than we do, as
all the wires are blocked with service messages, and we hear only
rumours; to-day we hear our troops have had a bad smash up near Berber,
and that they have lost a gunboat, but whether there is any truth in it
or not is very doubtful.
To-day the Camerons are passing through here, and the natives are much
excited at the kilts. I think they rather imagine that England has run
out of men and has begun to send the women!
Somehow life seems very strange here just now; for one thing, there is
the rustle and bustle of war in the air, then, at the same time, in this
little place we are already having a stern fight against the enemy of
disease, and all the time there are tourists filling up the hotel and
making merry, and you hear them talk of the Luxor Meet of the Sporting
Club, and which donkey they will secure as their mount, as though it was
the most important thing in the world.
Until last week I still went for a ride now and then by way of
refreshment. There is a doctor here who rides an enormous white Syrian
horse, and he was most kind in bringing me a beautiful little Arab, and
taking me out for a gallop when I could get away; the Arab was too quick
for the Syrian, and often, having let it go, I had to wait for him
afterwards. One day we were coming in from the desert and passed our
chaplain, who afterwards amused my friends by telling them that I had
passed him at such a pace on the Arab that the wind I made nearly blew
him off his donkey, and then about a mile behind something thundered
past that at first he thought was a white elephant but afterwards
concluded it was a watering-pot of a new fashion, as it left such a
track of damp on the sand!
One day the German Consul took me to see his collection of curios (I
believe he does a good deal of trading in them): he has got a splendid
collection. I had to drink native coffee--which I can't abide--but
before I left he gave me a beautiful little "antique," a little blue
image that was found in a tomb near here, and probably dates from about
3000 B.C., so I forgave him the coffee!
The other day Miss C., the housekeeper at the hotel, knocked up with
dysentery, and was very seedy for a few days. Before she got well again
there was an urgent call for more steamers for troops; so the steamer
_Rameses the Great_, that happened to be moored here (meaning to stay
four days while the passengers explored the place), suddenly had to turn
all her passengers and their baggage off into the hotels and leave them
there, while she did a trip up to Assouan and back. The hotel was simply
packed for five days, and the noise was very bad for our sick ones; poor
Miss C. was frantic at not being able to get about and see about rooms,
&c., for all these people, so I had to do what I could to help her, but
I was frightfully busy with so many ill.
The Nile is getting very low and "smelly," and we hear that they have
several cases of dysentery at Assouan, and there is a poor lady
somewhere up the river on a dahabeah very ill with it, and there is no
nurse within reach free to go to her.
With all this urgent traffic on the river it is difficult to get things
up from Cairo (even urgent "medical comforts"), and you cannot imagine
how many things one finds lacking for the sick ones from day to day,
when you are 450 miles from the nearest chemist's shop, with uncertain
communication by post or telegraph.
I am always making raids on the little hospital, and the doctor there is
most kind in helping us, but he is short of some things that he needs
himself and cannot get--for one thing, the supply of chloroform is very
nearly exhausted. We sent an urgent message (telegraph not available) by
the last boat going up to Assouan, and we hope the doctor there may be
able to lend us some for the present.
It seems weeks since I have had a night in bed; my poor lady is so ill
that I can hardly leave her, and I just sleep in an arm-chair in her
room when her husband sits by her for a time.
The Arab servants, especially Hassan and Girgus, are wonderfully
attentive and good--in fact, all help us as much as they possibly can;
but with people so desperately ill one does long for London, and the
best physicians, and the best nurses to help one. It is not possible to
do all one would wish for several patients at once both night and day;
and having had so little sleep of late I am afraid of forgetting things,
and I have to write all the orders down and tick them off as I carry
them out.
This letter has been written in scraps, and I am finishing it as I sit
by poor Mrs. ----; I must keep awake somehow till her husband wakes,
then he will watch while I have a nap. I fear it is quite hopeless, and
she has been unconscious for some hours now, so I cannot leave the poor
man alone with her.
XXII
PARIS,
_March 1898_.
You would gather from my last letter that we were having a sad and
trying time at Luxor, and after I posted to you we had so much more of
sadness and sorrow that it seems like a bad dream, and I can't write
much about it.
The poor lady died of pyæmia, and a few days later my patient was laid
to rest in the little cemetery out in the desert that he loved so well.
All the winter the tourists had been so fit and well up the Nile
(fortunately for me), but in January every one seemed to get ill, and
they had quite an outbreak of dysentery. It began up at Assouan, but two
poor young ladies (travelling with a young brother) became very ill
between Assouan and Luxor, and were carried ashore and brought to the
hotel. Our night nurse went off to nurse them, and as soon as I was free
I had to go straight on to help her, as they were both desperately ill.
It was my first experience of tropical dysentery, and in some ways it
seemed almost more like cholera--nothing seemed to check it. A very good
physician came up from Cairo, and stayed some days trying everything to
save them, and nurse and I were working night and day, but it was no
use, and they both died within twenty-four hours of each other.
Then others got bad, and we had to go from room to room doing what we
could for them, and wishing we either had half-a-dozen nurses, or else
had all our patients in one hospital ward. Gradually the others all
began to improve, and we were beginning to think of going home, when I
was telegraphed for to go up to Assouan to nurse the Bishop of ----, who
was very ill; the nurse who was stationed up there also being laid up
with dysentery.
I was not pleased at having to go, as we were just packing up to travel
home, clearing up the house, &c., and I was feeling very done up, but I
could not well refuse, as there was no other nurse within reach; so I
went off by the post boat, and spent most of the two days on board in
sleeping, as I did not know how much work might be waiting for me, and I
had a good deal to make up in the way of sleep. I find from my diary
that between the 16th of January and the 3rd of February I had never had
a complete night in bed, and sometimes even the odd hours of sleep were
very few and far between.
But when I got to Assouan I found that every one was on the mend, and
they hardly needed a nurse, so I stayed only a few days to help (and
managed to explore Philæ one afternoon), and then I left again by post
boat for Cairo, the doctor putting a lady, who had been very ill with
dysentery, under my care, and giving me a little stock of medicines to
use at my discretion, as the post boats--unlike the tourist boats--carry
no doctor.
We stayed an hour or two at Luxor, so that I managed to collect my
baggage and said many good-byes. All the inhabitants--including the
servant boys and the donkey boys--seemed to be there to see us off, and
they had all been so very kind to me through a very trying winter that
I felt as though I had known them for years.
There were pleasant people on board the boat, and the gentleman sitting
next to me at table knew Kimberley well, and knew my brother out there,
so we had much talk about South Africa.
The boat was simply packed; and, as it was getting very hot, every one
wanted to rush down the river at the same time. There were supposed to
be thirty-two first-class berths, and the manager told me that there
were fifty-five passengers on board--men sleeping in all the bathrooms,
and the saloon full at night.
I had a sort of little dog-kennel to myself in the second-class--not a
bad little hole when I got there, but to get to it each time I had to
cross the lower deck, where all the native passengers live and sleep.
My sick lady improved as we got down the river, and it was very lucky
she did, as before we reached Cairo I became seedy with dysentery
myself, and had to consume some of the drugs the Assouan doctor had
given me in case of need.
The last day on board was exciting, as the Nile was so low we kept
banging on to sandbanks, and all the glasses were broken; and as many of
the passengers had only just allowed time to catch their ship at
Alexandria, there was much anxiety lest we should stick fast.
I saw my lady patient safely into good hands at Mena House, and then
just caught my friends in Cairo (they had gone down from Luxor when I
went up to Assouan), and after getting some advice from one of our good
medical friends there, we went straight on to join our ship at
Alexandria.
When I got on board I felt so absolutely done up, I had to turn
straight into my berth, and the ship's doctor took me in charge. I
believe he rather thought I was in for typhoid, and wanted us to go on
to Venice with them, so that he could look after me for a bit longer (as
they stay some days at Venice), but three days' rest at sea and some
medicines pulled me together a bit, and I did not want to upset plans.
We landed at Brindisi, and spent an uncomfortable night in a hotel,
because we found the sheets were very wet, and felt obliged to sleep in
blankets, a thing I never enjoy.
From there we had a train journey of eleven hours to Naples, and we did
an idiotic thing, for which we have not forgiven ourselves yet: we got
up at 4.30 A.M., thinking our train started at 6 A.M., and when we got
to the station found that our tickets were made out to travel by another
route, and the train did not leave till 9.30 A.M.!
Naples was perfectly beautiful; from our windows such a glorious view of
the bay and of Vesuvius in the distance. We could not go up Vesuvius as
he was rather "active" just then, and some people who went up the day we
arrived nearly got burnt with some hot lava.
We went one day by steamer to Sorrento (a place I should like to stay at
some day), and then over to Capri, and we explored the wonderful Blue
Grotto there. Capri is a sweet place, with such lovely flowers and
ferns.
Another day we spent at Pompeii, and wished we could spare more time for
exploring the Museum in Naples, where most of the best things from
Pompeii are now shown; and then a drive we took along the bay to
Posilipo is one of the most beautiful drives I have ever enjoyed.
From Naples we moved on to Rome. It is quite hopeless to try to "see"
Rome in anything under a month at least, so we did not try. The place
seemed to be full of our Egyptian friends, and we met them at every
turn, so we had a very pleasant time there, and of course we did see
_some_ of the sights.
We spent some time at St. Peter's and several more of the wonderful
churches, and we explored the Colosseum, and the Forum, and the Thermæ
Caracalla, and we went down some Catacombs (and were very glad to get
safely up again!); in fact, we saw just enough to make us wish to return
some day with time (and money) to enjoy it all more fully.
We then moved on to Florence and had a few most enjoyable days there;
the picture galleries were most fascinating--so many pictures that one
has known and loved all one's life (from photographs), and will now love
all the more for having seen the originals. The town is very
interesting, and the surrounding country is lovely.
Our last day in Florence was wet. This was disappointing, but as it was
the first rain I had seen since last September I could hardly complain.
We spent a night in the train, and then stayed a few hours in Milan,
just to see the very beautiful cathedral, and then got on board a
corridor train to cross the St. Gothard. Near Milan the fields were
thick with primroses and anemones, and it was quite hot, but we soon got
up amongst the snow, and then the scenery was simply grand.
We stayed a few days with some Swiss friends in Zürich. They have a
delightful house looking over the lake, and the snow mountains in the
distance are such a restful sight.
One day we went out by train, and then did a little climbing, and got
up amongst the snow: it was so funny after all the scorching we have had
just lately.
From there we travelled by night on to Paris; and now we have come to
the end of our "saunter" across the Continent, and I am sure it has done
us all good, and has been most refreshing.
I have just been out to get my hair shampooed, and I think I have now
got rid of the last remains of Egyptian dust. To-morrow we make tracks
for England, and then I don't quite know what is to be my next move, but
more work, I hope, of some kind or another.
XXIII
GENERAL HOSPITAL, LONDON,
_January 1899_.
I don't think I have written to you since I slipped back into my work
here.
We got back from Egypt in April, and I spent a little time at home and
paid a few visits, and then the Matron asked me if I would return to
take charge of one of the women's surgical wards for four months while
the sister was away on sick leave; so back I came at the beginning of
July, and it seems as though I am likely to remain. I had such a nice
welcome back from every one (from the surgeons down to the porters),
that I soon felt quite at home again.
At first it was rather strange, as they have changed the "off duty"
times, and all the nurses get more time off, so that means you have more
nurses, and when they were all on together it seemed such a crowd to me:
in that ward for twenty-two beds and four cots I had a staff nurse, a
senior probationer, and three other probationers, and two lady pupils,
seven besides myself on day duty and a staff nurse and a probationer on
night duty; but it is seldom they are all on at the same time, and I
have to run around and see that those who are on attend to the work of
those who are off, and that things are not neglected because "it is not
my work"!
It is nice for the nurses not to be so rushed as we used to be, but I am
not quite sure that it is such good training; I don't think they feel
quite so personally responsible for their patients' welfare as they did
when there was no one equally responsible with them; it is rather
difficult to explain exactly what I mean--for one thing, the staff
nurses now have two days off together each month, so we have a senior
probationer who takes over their work for those two days, and I find
they get much more out of touch with what has been ordered for the
patients than they did when they were away only for one day; but I am
getting used to it now.