I was so glad to find from your letter (which Janet sent me to Thebes by
a steamer) that mine from Siout had reached you safely. First and
foremost I am wonderfully better. In Cairo the winter has been terribly
cold and damp, as the Coptic priest told me yesterday at Girgeh. So I
don't repent the expense of the boat for _j'en ai pour mon argent_--I am
_all_ the money better and really think of getting well. Now that I know
the ways of this country a little, which Herodotus truly says is like no
other, I see that I might have gone and lived at Thebes or at Keneh or
Assouan on next to nothing, but then how could I know it? The English
have raised a mirage of false wants and extravagance which the servants
of the country of course, some from interest and others from mere
ignorance, do their best to keep up. As soon as I had succeeded in
really persuading Omar that I was not as rich as a Pasha and had no wish
to be thought so, he immediately turned over a new leaf as to what must
be had and said 'Oh, if I could have thought an English lady would have
eaten and lived and done the least like Arab people, I might have hired a
house at Keneh for you, and we might have gone up in a clean passenger
boat, but I thought no English could bear it.' At Cairo, where we shall
be, Inshallaha, on the 19th, Omar will get a lodging and borrow a few
mattresses and a table and chair and, as he says, 'keep the money in our
pockets instead of giving it to the hotel.' I hope Alick got my letter
from Thebes, and that he told you that I had dined with 'the blameless
Ethiopians.' I have seen all the temples in Nubia and down as far as I
have come, and nine of the tombs at Thebes. Some are wonderfully
beautiful--Abou Simbel, Kalabshee, Room Ombo--a little temple at El Kab,
lovely--three tombs at Thebes and most of all Abydos; Edfou and Dendera
are the most perfect, Edfou quite perfect, but far less beautiful. But
the most lovely object my eyes ever saw is the island of Philae. It
gives one quite the supernatural feeling of Claude's best landscapes,
only not the least like them--_ganz anders_. The Arabs say that Ans el
Wogood, the most beautiful of men, built it for his most beautiful
beloved, and there they lived in perfect beauty and happiness all alone.
If the weather had not been so cold while I was there I should have lived
in the temple, in a chamber sculptured with the mystery of Osiris' burial
and resurrection. Omar cleaned it out and meant to move my things there
for a few days, but it was too cold to sleep in a room without a door.
The winds have been extraordinarily cold this year, and are so still. We
have had very little of the fine warm weather, and really been pinched
with cold most of the time. On the shore away from the river would be
much better for invalids.
Mustapha Aga, the consular agent at Thebes, has offered me a house of
his, up among the tombs in the finest air, if ever I want it. He was
very kind and hospitable indeed to all the English there. I went into
his hareem, and liked his wife's manners very much. It was charming to
see that she henpecked her handsome old husband completely. They had
fine children and his boy, about thirteen or so, rode and played Jereed
one day when Abdallah Pasha had ordered the people of the neighbourhood
to do it for General Parker. I never saw so beautiful a performance.
The old General and I were quite excited, and he tried it to the great
amusement of the Sheykh el Beled. Some young Englishmen were rather
grand about it, but declined mounting the horses and trying a throw. The
Sheykh and young Hassan and then old Mustapha wheeled round and round
like beautiful hawks, and caught the palm-sticks thrown at them as they
dashed round. It was superb, and the horses were good, though the
saddles and bridles were rags and ends of rope, and the men mere
tatterdemalions. A little below Thebes I stopped, and walked inland to
Koos to see a noble old mosque falling to ruin. No English had ever been
there and we were surrounded by a crowd in the bazaar. Instantly five or
six tall fellows with long sticks improvised themselves our body-guard
and kept the people off, who _du reste_ were perfectly civil and only
curious to see such strange 'Hareem,' and after seeing us well out of the
town evaporated as quietly as they came without a word. I gave about
ten-pence to buy oil, as it is Ramadan and the mosque ought to be
lighted, and the old servant of the mosque kindly promised me full
justice at the Day of Judgment, as I was one of those Nasranee of whom
the Lord Mohammed said that they are not proud and wish well to the
Muslimeen. The Pasha had confiscated all the lands belonging to the
mosque, and allowed 300 piastres--not 2 pounds a month--for all expenses;
of course the noble old building with its beautiful carving and arabesque
mouldings must fall down. There was a smaller one beside it, where he
declared that anciently forty girls lived unmarried and recited the
Koran--Muslim nuns, in fact. I intend to ask the Alim, for whom I have a
letter from Mustapha, about such an anomaly.
Some way above Bellianeh Omar asked eagerly leave to stop the boat as a
great Sheyk had called to us, and we should inevitably have some disaster
if we disobeyed. So we stopped and Omar said, 'come and see the Sheyk,
ma'am.' I walked off and presently found about thirty people, including
all my own men, sitting on the ground round St. Simon Stylites--without
the column. A hideous old man like Polyphemus, utterly naked, with the
skin of a rhinoceros all cracked with the weather, sat there, and had sat
day and night, summer and winter, motionless for twenty years. He never
prays, he never washes, he does not keep Ramadan, and yet he is a saint.
Of course I expected a good hearty curse from such a man, but he was
delighted with my visit, asked me to sit down, ordered his servant to
bring me sugar-cane, asked my name and tried to repeat it over and over
again, and was quite talkative and full of jokes and compliments, and
took no notice of anyone else. Omar and my crew smiled and nodded, and
all congratulated me heartily. Such a distinction proves my own
excellence (as the Sheyk knows all people's thoughts), and is sure to be
followed by good fortune. Finally Omar proposed to say the Fathah in
which all joined except the Sheykh, who looked rather bored by the
interruption, and desired us not to go so soon, unless I were in a hurry.
A party of Bedaween came up on camels with presents for the holy man, but
he took no notice of them, and went on questioning Omar about me, and
answering my questions. What struck me was the total absence of any
sanctimonious air about the old fellow, he was quite worldly and jocose;
I suppose he knew that his position was secure, and thought his dirt and
nakedness proved his holiness enough. Omar then recited the Fathah
again, and we rose and gave the servants a few foddahs--the saint takes
no notice of this part of the proceeding--but he asked me to send him
twice my hand full of rice for his dinner, an honour so great that there
was a murmur of congratulation through the whole assembly. I asked Omar
how a man could be a saint who neglected all the duties of a Muslim, and
I found that he fully believed that Sheykh Seleem could be in two places
at once, that while he sits there on the shore he is also at Mecca,
performing every sacred function and dressed all in green. 'Many people
have seen him there, ma'am, quite true.'
From Bellianeh we rode on pack-donkeys without bridles to Abydos, six
miles through the most beautiful crops ever seen. The absence of weeds
and blight is wonderful, and the green of Egypt, where it is green, would
make English green look black. Beautiful cattle, sheep and camels were
eating the delicious clover, while their owners camped there in reed huts
during the time the crops are growing. Such a lovely scene, all
sweetness and plenty. We ate our bread and dates in Osiris' temple, and
a woman offered us buffalo milk on our way home, which we drank warm out
of the huge earthen pan it had been milked in. At Girgeh I found my
former friend Mishregi absent, but his servants told some of his friends
of my arrival, and about seven or eight big black turbans soon gathered
in the boat. A darling little Coptic boy came with his father and wanted
a '_kitaab_' (book) to write in, so I made one with paper and the cover
of my old pocket-book, and gave him a pencil. I also bethought me of
showing him 'pickys' in a book, which was so glorious a novelty that he
wanted to go with me to my town, 'Beled Ingleez,' where more such books
were to be found.
SIOUT,
_March_ 9.
I found here letters from Alick, telling me of dear Lord Lansdowne's
death. Of course I know that his time was come, but the thought that I
shall never see his face again, that all that kindness and affection is
gone out of my life, is a great blow. No friend could leave such a blank
to me as that old and faithful one, though the death of younger ones
might be more tragic; but so many things seem gone with him into the
grave. Many indeed will mourn that kind, wise, steadfast man--_Antiqua
fides_. No one nowadays will be so noble with such unconsciousness and
simplicity. I have bought two Coptic turbans to make a black dress out
of. I thought I should like to wear it for him--here, where 'compliment'
is out of the question.
I also found a letter from Janet, who has been very ill; the account was
so bad that I have telegraphed to hear how she is, and shall go at once
to Alexandria if she is not better. If she is I shall hold to my plan
and see Beni Hassan and the Pyramids on my way to Cairo. I found my kind
friend the Copt Wassef kinder than ever. He went off to telegraph to
Alexandria for me, and showed so much feeling and real kindness that I
was quite touched.
I was grieved to hear that you had been ill again, dearest Mutter. The
best is that I feel so much better that I think I may come home again
without fear; I still have an irritable cough, but it has begun to have
lucid intervals, and is far less frequent. I can walk four or five miles
and my appetite is good. All this in spite of really cold weather in a
boat where nothing shuts within two fingers' breadths. I long to be
again with my own people.
Please send this to Alick, to whom I will write again from Cairo.