CARPENTER’S
WORLD TRAVELS
_Familiar Talks About Countries
and Peoples_
WITH THE AUTHOR ON THE SPOT AND
THE READER IN HIS HOME, BASED
ON THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND
MILES OF TRAVEL
OVER THE GLOBE
CAIRO TO KISUMU
EGYPT—THE SUDAN—KENYA COLONY
[Illustration: ON THE GREAT ASWAN DAM
“The dam serves also as a bridge over the Nile. I crossed on a car, my
motive power being two Arab boys who trotted behind.”]
_CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS_
CAIRO TO KISUMU
_Egypt—The Sudan—Kenya
Colony_
BY
FRANK G. CARPENTER
LITT.D., F.R.G.S.
[Illustration]
WITH 115 ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
AND TWO MAPS IN COLOUR
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1923
COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY
FRANK G. CARPENTER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
_First Edition_
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the publication of this book on Egypt, the Sudan, and Kenya Colony,
I wish to thank the Secretary of State for letters which have given me
the assistance of the official representatives of our government in
the countries visited. I thank also our Secretary of Agriculture and
our Secretary of Labour for appointing me an Honorary Commissioner of
their Departments in foreign lands. Their credentials have been of the
greatest value, making available sources of information seldom open to
the ordinary traveller. To the British authorities in the regions covered
by these travels I desire to express my thanks for exceptional courtesies
which have greatly aided my investigations.
I would also thank Mr. Dudley Harmon, my editor, and Miss Ellen McBryde
Brown and Miss Josephine Lehmann for their assistance and coöperation in
the revision of the notes dictated or penned by me on the ground.
While most of the illustrations are from my own negatives, these have
been supplemented by photographs from the Publishers’ Photo Service and
the American Geographic Society.
F. G. C.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START 1
II. THE GATEWAY TO EGYPT 3
III. KING COTTON ON THE NILE 13
IV. THROUGH OLD EGYPT TO CAIRO 22
V. FELLAHEEN ON THEIR FARMS 29
VI. THE PROPHET’S BIRTHDAY 41
VII. IN THE BAZAARS OF CAIRO 49
VIII. INTIMATE TALKS WITH TWO KHEDIVES 58
IX. EL-AZHAR AND ITS TEN THOUSAND MOSLEM STUDENTS 70
X. CLIMBING THE GREAT PYRAMID 79
XI. THE PYRAMIDS REVISITED 87
XII. FACE TO FACE WITH THE PHARAOHS 96
XIII. THE AMERICAN COLLEGE AT ASYUT 106
XIV. THE CHRISTIAN COPTS 112
XV. OLD THEBES AND THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS 117
XVI. THE NILE IN HARNESS 128
XVII. STEAMING THROUGH THE LAND OF CUSH 140
XVIII. FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO THE SUDAN 149
XIX. ACROSS AFRICA BY AIR AND RAIL 160
XX. KHARTUM 167
XXI. EMPIRE BUILDING IN THE SUDAN 175
XXII. WHY GENERAL GORDON HAD NO FEAR 181
XXIII. OMDURMAN, STRONGHOLD OF THE MAHDI 187
XXIV. GORDON COLLEGE AND THE WELLCOME LABORATORIES 200
XXV. THROUGH THE SUEZ CANAL 208
XXVI. DOWN THE RED SEA 218
XXVII. ALONG THE AFRICAN COAST 224
XXVIII. ADEN 229
XXIX. IN MOMBASA 236
XXX. THE UGANDA RAILWAY 243
XXXI. THE CAPITAL OF KENYA COLONY 252
XXXII. JOHN BULL IN EAST AFRICA 261
XXXIII. WITH THE BIG-GAME HUNTERS 269
XXXIV. AMONG THE KIKUYUS AND THE NANDI 277
XXXV. THE GREAT RIFT VALLEY AND THE MASAI 285
XXXVI. WHERE MEN GO NAKED AND WOMEN WEAR TAILS 293
SEE THE WORLD WITH CARPENTER 303
BIBLIOGRAPHY 305
INDEX 309
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
On the great Aswan Dam _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
The bead sellers of Cairo 2
The veiled women 3
On the cotton docks of Alexandria 6
Nubian girls selling fruit 7
Woman making woollen yarn 14
Fresh-cut sugar cane 15
One of the mill bridges 18
The ancient sakieh 19
The native ox 19
Water peddlers at the river 22
Women burden bearers 23
Threshing wheat with norag 30
A corn field in the delta 30
The pigeon towers 31
In the sugar market 38
Flat roofs and mosque towers of Cairo 39
Tent of the sacred carpet 46
The Alabaster Mosque 47
“Buy my lemonade!” 54
A street in old Cairo 55
Gates of the Abdin Palace 62
The essential kavass 63
In the palace conservatory 66
The famous Shepheard’s Hotel 67
Learning the Koran 67
Approaching El-Azhar 70
In the porticos of El-Azhar 71
The Pyramids 78
Mr. Carpenter climbing the Pyramids 79
Standing on the Sphinx’s neck 82
Taking it easy at Helouan 83
View of the Pyramids 86
Uncovering tombs of ancient kings 87
The alabaster Sphinx 94
The great museum at Cairo 95
Students at Asyut College 102
American College at Asyut 103
Between classes at the college 103
In the bazaars 110
A native school in an illiterate land 111
The greatest egoist of Egypt 118
The temple tomb of Hatshepsut 119
Sacred lake before the temple 119
The avenue of sphinxes 126
The dam is over a mile long 127
Lifting water from level to level 134
Where the fellaheen live 135
A Nubian pilot guides our ship 142
Pharaoh’s Bed half submerged 143
An aged warrior of the Bisharin 150
A mud village on the Nile 151
Where the Bisharin live 151
A safe place for babies 158
Mother and child 159
A bad landing place for aviators 162
Over the native villages 162
The first king of free Egypt 163
Soldiers guard the mails 166
An American locomotive in the Sudan 167
Light railways still are used 167
Along the river in Khartum 174
Where the Blue and the White Nile meet 175
The modern city of Khartum 175
A white negro of the Sudan 178
Where worshippers stand barefooted for hours 179
Grain awaiting shipment down river 182
“Backsheesh!” is the cry of the children 182
Cotton culture in the Sudan 183
The Sirdar’s palace 183
The bride and her husband 190
Omdurman, city of mud 191
Huts of the natives 191
A Shilouk warrior 198
In Gordon College 199
Teaching the boys manual arts 206
View of Gordon College 207
On the docks at Port Said 207
Fresh water in the desert 210
The entrance to the Suez Canal 211
A street in dreary Suez 226
Ships passing in the canal 227
Pilgrims at Mecca 230
Camel market in Aden 231
Harbour of Mombasa 238
Where the Hindus sell cotton prints 239
The merchants are mostly East Indians 239
A Swahili beauty 242
Passengers on the Uganda Railroad 243
An American bridge in East Africa 246
Native workers on the railway 246
Why the natives steal telephone wire 247
In Nairobi 254
The hotel 255
Jinrikisha boys 255
A native servant 258
Naivasha 259
The court for white and black 259
Motor trucks are coming in 262
How the natives live 263
Native taste in dress goods 266
The Kikuyus 266
Wealth is measured in cattle 267
Zebras are frequently seen 270
Even the lions are protected 271
Giraffes are plentiful 271
Elephant tusks for the ivory market 278
How the mothers carry babies 279
Mr. Carpenter in the elephant grass 286
Nandi warriors 287
Woman wearing a tail 290
How they stretch their ears 291
The witch doctor 298
Home of an official 299
The mud huts of the Masai 299
MAPS
Africa 34
From Cairo to Kisumu 50
CAIRO TO KISUMU
EGYPT—THE SUDAN—KENYA COLONY
CHAPTER I
JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START
This volume on Egypt, Nubia, the Sudan, and Kenya Colony is based upon
notes made during my several trips to this part of the world. At times
the notes are published just as they came hot from my pen, taking you
back, as it were, to the occasion on which they were written. Again they
are modified somewhat to accord with present conditions.
For instance, I made my first visit to Egypt as a boy, when Arabi Pasha
was fomenting the rebellion that resulted in that country’s being taken
over by the British. I narrowly escaped being in the bombardment of
Alexandria and having a part in the wars of the Mahdi, which came a short
time thereafter. Again, I was in Egypt when the British had brought order
out of chaos, and put Tewfik Pasha on the throne as Khedive. I had then
the talk with Tewfik, which I give from the notes I made when I returned
from the palace, and I follow it with a description of my audience with
his son and successor, Abbas Hilmi, sixteen years later. Now the British
have given Egypt a nominal independence, and the Khedive has the title of
King.
In the Sudan I learned much of the Mahdi through my interview with Sir
Francis Reginald Wingate, then the Governor General of the Sudan and
Sirdar of the British army at Khartum, and later gained an insight into
the relations of the British and the natives from Earl Cromer, whom I met
at Cairo. These talks enable one to understand the Nationalist problems
of the present and to appreciate some of the changes now going on.
In Kenya Colony, which was known as British East Africa until after the
World War, I was given especial favours by the English officials, and
many of the plans that have since come to pass were spread out before me.
I then tramped over the ground where Theodore Roosevelt made his hunting
trips through the wilds, and went on into Uganda and to the source of the
Nile.
These travels have been made under all sorts of conditions, but with pen
and camera hourly in hand. The talks about the Pyramids were written on
the top and at the foot of old Cheops, those about the Nile in harness
on the great Aswan Dam, and those on the Suez Canal either on that great
waterway or on the Red Sea immediately thereafter. The matter thus
partakes of the old and the new, and of the new based upon what I have
seen of the old. If it be too personal in character and at times seems
egotistic, I can only beg pardon by saying—the story is mine, and as such
the speaker must hold his place in the front of the stage.
[Illustration: Beggars and street sellers alike believe that every
foreigner visiting Egypt is not only as rich as Crœsus but also a little
touched in the head where spending is concerned, and therefore fair game
for their extravagant demands.]
[Illustration: Among the upper classes an ever-lighter face covering is
being adopted. This is indicative of the advance of the Egyptian woman
toward greater freedom.]