ASCENDING THE NILE.--SIGHTS AND SCENES ON THE RIVER.
Having explored Cairo and its neighborhood to their satisfaction, our
friends turned their attention to the Nile. They wished to make a voyage
up the mysterious river as far as the first cataract. The time at their
disposal did not permit them to plan a more extended journey.
They found on investigation that there were two ways of ascending the
Nile, and each had its advantages and disadvantages.
[Illustration: VIEW ON THE NILE NEAR CAIRO.]
The old way of making the journey is by sailing-boat, or dahabeeah. The
more modern system is by steamboat, and before many years it will be
possible to go by rail along the banks of the river to the first
cataract, and ultimately to Khartoum and Gondokaro, if the present
scheme of railways in Egypt is carried out.
[Illustration: ANCIENT BOAT ON THE NILE.]
The most comfortable form of travel on the Nile is by dahabeeah, but it
is also the most expensive, and requires more time than the steamboat.
From Cairo to the first cataract and back will require from six to eight
weeks by dahabeeah, and if the journey is prolonged to the second
cataract, two or three weeks must be added. Three weeks will cover the
round trip to the first cataract and back by steamboat, and five weeks
will include the second cataract.
For the steamboat trip you have no trouble except to buy your ticket, go
on board at the appointed day and hour, and submit patiently to the
various impositions devised by the contractors who manage the business.
The movements of the boat are carefully arranged beforehand, and the
time for visiting the various temples, tombs, and other interesting
things on the journey, is all on the schedule of the dragoman or
conductor. Travellers of various nationalities are herded together, and
must move at the beck and call of the conductor. There is a printed
programme of the places to be visited and the hours for visiting them,
and if no accident happens you can count on being back in Cairo in
twenty days and four hours from the time of starting.
A facetious traveller, who made the Nile journey by steamboat, says that
the conductor of his party had a private programme on which was marked
the time to be devoted to sentiment as well as to sight-seeing. As they
approached the great hall of the Temple of Karnak the conductor glanced
at his programme and said,
"Gentlemen, prepare for sublime emotion!"
Of course due preparations were made, and when the grandeur of the hall
was visible they gave utterance to the regulation number of "ohs!" and
"ahs!" When these were ended, and silence came again, the guide looked
at his watch and called out,
"Five minutes for sublime emotion!"
When time was up they moved on. At another place they had "five minutes
for musing on the decayed glories of ancient Egypt," and at another
they were requested to "think of the havoc that the centuries have
wrought."
In travelling by dahabeeah you charter the boat, and make up your own
party. In a general way you are your own master, and can say where, and
for how long, you will stop. During the winter the wind blows pretty
steadily from north to south, so that you sail up the Nile with the
breeze in your favor. On the return the great sail is lowered, and the
crew row the boat with the current. Their rowing is just enough to give
steerage-way, and the flowing river brings you safely back to Cairo.
The steamboat fare to the first cataract and back is £50 ($250), and to
the second cataract £80 ($400). This includes meals, guides, donkeys,
and some of the fees for seeing temples and tombs, but does not include
saddles for riding the aforesaid donkeys, nor does it embrace the use of
a chair for the deck of the boat. There are constant demands for
backsheesh for various things, and the passengers are expected to make
up a liberal purse at the end of the voyage for distribution among the
officers, crew, and servants. About £5 ($25) will be needed for these
inevitable "extras."
The dahabeeah journey will usually cost $1500 for two persons to the
first cataract and back, and $2000 for four persons; about $500 should
be added in each case for the second cataract. For these figures you can
get a large, well-fitted boat, and will be entitled to live with every
possible comfort. Smaller and plainer boats may be had for less money,
and the food supplied by the dragoman will be correspondingly less
luxurious. Prices vary according to the season, and the number of
travellers desiring to make the journey, and it sometimes happens that a
good boat may be had for less than the figures named above.
The dahabeeah journey can be made by time or by the course; either way
is not altogether satisfactory, and a traveller who has made it by one
method generally advises his friends to try the other. If you go by
time, the dragoman manages to delay you as much as he can, and will
invent unheard-of excuses for stopping the boat; if you go by the
course, he hurries you along altogether too rapidly, and you often find
that you have sailed by a place you specially desired to visit. All
things considered, the best plan is to charter the boat by the course,
with a stipulation for a certain number of days for stoppages at the
interesting points. From fourteen to twenty days are the ordinary
stipulations for stoppages, and the whole journey can be made from Cairo
to the first cataract and back in about fifty days. [For forms of
contract see Murray's "Hand-book for Egypt."]
A dahabeeah journey would have made our friends too late for their
contemplated trip to Palestine and Syria, and so they decided to go by
steamboat.
They left Boulak one pleasant afternoon a few minutes past three
o'clock, and steamed slowly up the river. The boys sat beneath the
awning that covered the deck and watched the gray walls of Cairo, the
palaces and hovels, the gardens of the island of Rhoda, and the green
fields that stretched out from the western bank till they met the
glistening sands of the desert near the platform where the Pyramids of
Gizeh rise toward the sky. On the other side of the river the Mokattam
hills bounded the horizon, and marked the beginning of the Libyan
Desert; the tufted palm-trees waved here and there, sometimes in
clusters or groups, and at others standing solitary in the surrounding
waste. On the land there were trains of stately camels, and on the water
the boats of the natives ploughed slowly along, many of them laden till
their gunwales were dangerously near the water. As the boat steamed
onward, the Citadel of Cairo, with the slender minarets of the Mosque of
Mohammed Ali, faded away in the distance, the broad valley became more
and more enclosed, the hills seemed to shut in upon the river, and when
the sun went down the great pyramids were little more than specks on the
horizon, and just visible through the palm-trees.
Having seen the Doctor and his young friends well under-way toward the
South, we will rely for a while on the journal which was kept by Frank
and Fred. After recording their departure from Cairo, and briefly
describing the scenes on the river, the journal says:
[Illustration: A VILLAGE ON THE BANK OF THE RIVER.]
"We were told that the steamers did not run at night on account of the
liability to get on sand-bars, and the possibility of collisions with
sailing boats. True to the promise, the boat came to anchor soon after
sunset; or, rather, it was brought to the bank and made fast. We were
just below a small village, and wanted to go to see it, but the guide
said it was unsafe to venture there after dark, on account of the number
of dogs prowling about. Egyptian dogs have a great antipathy to
foreigners, as we have already learned, and are not to be carelessly
approached.
"The Orientals regard the dog as an unclean beast, and do not keep him
for a pet, as is the custom of Europe and America. Consequently, nearly
all the dogs you see around an Eastern city are houseless and homeless,
and a very ordinary set of curs they are. There are great numbers of
them, and they manage to pick up a living by serving as scavengers, and
by stealing whenever they have a chance. They do not disturb the
natives, but have such a hatred for strangers that they are often
dangerous; they have no terror for sticks and whips, and the only way to
drive them is by pelting them with stones. In the daytime they rarely do
more than bark and growl; but at night they are bolder, and as they can
sneak up to you under cover of the darkness, you must look out for their
teeth.
[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF AN EASTERN CITY.]
"We were off by daybreak the next morning, and as there was a mist
hanging over the river the scenery was of no special consequence. About
eight o'clock we stopped at a village to get some milk; Fred and I
followed the conductor, and were soon in a tangle of narrow lanes and
mud huts that seemed a perfect labyrinth. The dogs barked, chickens
cackled and flew to shelter, as if they knew that the advent of
strangers was the signal for them to be killed, and two or three cows
took fright at our appearance and ran into the houses. We made a
sensation, but evidently the natives were not pleased at our visit, to
judge by their scowling faces.
"For several hours we steamed on in what is said to be a very
uninteresting part of the river, and certainly one hour was very much
like another. The villages had a family resemblance to each other--the
banks were generally low and crumbling, and the barren hills were not
agreeable resting-places for the eye. Donkeys, camels, and Arabs,
succeeded by camels, Arabs, and donkeys, were the moving sights on
shore, in contrast to the numerous boats that dotted the river.
Sand-bars and islands relieved the monotony of the river, and there were
occasional tufts of palm-trees fringing the bank or rising against the
gray hills of the desert.
"Many of the boats on the river were dahabeeahs on their way southward
with pleasure parties, and they are fitted up with great luxury, as we
had a chance to observe. They usually carry the national flag of the
party that charters them, and it is always a pleasure to us to see the
Stars and Stripes floating over one of these boats.
"We stopped about noon to repair some slight damage to the machinery,
and it happened that a large dahabeeah was tied up to the bank close to
where the steamer was made fast. A gentleman came from her to the
steamer; very soon we found he was a Mr. W----, an artist from New York,
and, though he and Doctor Bronson had never met before, they had a good
many mutual acquaintances. The result was we were invited to visit the
dahabeeah, with the understanding that the steamer would give warning of
her readiness to leave by blowing her whistle.
"The dahabeeah is built somewhat after the model of the ships of a
century ago--that is, she is low forward, and has a high cabin aft. The
forward part is appropriated to the crew, and the stern to the
passengers, the sailors only going there for handling the sails or
performing other work. The cabin is entered from the deck, and
consisted, in this instance, of a saloon the whole width of the boat,
with sofas on each side, and nicely fitted with chairs and mirrors.
Beyond the saloon there were four single cabins; at the stern there was
a larger cabin and a bath-room, besides a good-sized closet where linen
and other things were kept. Between the saloon and the entrance there
was a pantry on one side and a room for the dragoman on the other; the
galley or kitchen was near the bow of the boat, and the provisions were
stowed in the hold, or kept in the store-room at the stern.
[Illustration: A PLAGUE OF FLIES.]
"We stayed a little while in the saloon and then went on deck, or to the
roof of the cabin, which was covered with an awning. The air was cooler
here than in the cabin, and, besides, the flies were not as abundant.
Let us remark here that the worst annoyance of the Nile voyage is the
number of flies that you have to fight; they are one of 'the plagues of
Egypt' now, as they were in the time of Moses, and there is no way of
being rid of them.
"Mr. W---- told us that when the wind was light the flies covered the
boat and greatly annoyed them; but they had curtains for the saloon and
the small rooms, and could protect their faces by means of nets drawn
around their hats. The crew, at such times, wrapped their burnouses
around their heads, or sat with switches in their hands to keep away the
pests. Either mode of getting rid of the annoyance was uncomfortable;
it was stifling hot with the head covered, and it required continual
exertion to make the switch effective.
[Illustration: A KANGIA.]
"Our new acquaintance called attention to a freight-boat that lay just
beyond his dahabeeah, and to the general resemblance between the two.
'That boat,' said he, 'is called a _kangia_, and is sometimes used for
travelling purposes by the natives, and by tourists whose purses are
limited. You see it has the shape and style of the dahabeeah, but is
much smaller, and the cabin can only accommodate one or two persons
without crowding. A friend of mine once made the Nile trip in a kangia,
and said he had a good time; but he was young and vigorous, and spoke
sufficient Arabic to get along without a dragoman. The kangia wouldn't
do for persons liable to be incommoded by scanty fare and poor quarters,
and I shouldn't recommend it.'
[Illustration: THE CAPTAIN.]
"While he was telling us that his crew consisted of twelve men and a
captain, besides the dragoman, two cabin servants, and a cook--that
there were four of them in the party, two Americans and two Englishmen,
and giving us other information--the whistle sounded, and we returned to
the steamer. The wind freshened as we went on board, and the dahabeeah
started close behind us, and came ploughing along in our rear. She could
not sail as fast as we steamed, and in an hour or more we lost sight of
her in a bend of the river.
"In the afternoon we passed a cliff on the east bank of the river, where
there is a Coptic convent; its inmates are in the habit of visiting
passing boats to beg for backsheesh, and as we approached the cliff we
saw a dozen or more of their heads in the water. Four of them managed to
get into the small boats that we towed astern, and they did it while we
were going along at full speed.
"How do you suppose they managed it?
"They got out into the river as near as they could to where the steamer
would pass without being liable to be struck by her wheels. As soon as
the wheel was past them they swum with all their might directly toward
the boat, and in this way several succeeded in grasping the skiffs and
climbing into them. They do not swim like ourselves, with both hands
together, but strike out hand-after-hand, or, to express it more
plainly, 'dog-fashion.'
"These men were entirely without clothing, and when they received any
money they put it in their mouths. We gave one of them so many copper
coins that his cheeks were filled almost to bursting, and when he dived
off the boat to go home with his load he appeared as though suffering
from a bad case of inflamed jaw.
"The Doctor says the Copts are supposed to be the descendants of the
ancient Egyptians, and their features closely resemble those that we
find pictured on the walls of the temples and tombs. The most of them
are Christians, and they form about a sixteenth of the population of
Egypt: their ancient language is used in the churches for reading
prayers, just as the Catholics use Latin, and the Russians Sclavonic. In
daily life they speak Arabic: they are better educated than the rest of
the people, and are largely employed in shops and in the government
offices, and frequently go into business for themselves on an extensive
scale.
"The Copts were converted to Christianity very early in the history of
that religion, but their doctrines were so mixed up with Eastern
superstitions and practices that they were denounced by the Church in
the sixth century. They have several convents that are supported by
donations, and the occupants never omit an opportunity to beg. The men
that climbed into our skiffs kept calling out 'backsheesh, howadji--ana
Chritiana' (a present, gentlemen--I am a Christian), and these words
seemed to be their whole stock in trade.
"We did not leave the region of pyramids behind us when we lost sight of
Gizeh and Sakkara. We passed in sight of the Pyramid of Meidoon, which
is older than the Pyramids of Gizeh, and disputes antiquity with those
of Sakkara. The Arabs call it the False Pyramid, as it is built over a
large rock, which forms a considerable part of its solid contents. There
are tombs all around it, and many of them have been explored. Two
statues were found there which belong to the third dynasty, and are
wonderfully life-like in appearance. Quite recently the pyramid has been
opened, and discoveries made that throw considerable light on the
ancient history of the country. We have no time to visit Meidoon, and
perhaps we shall have had enough of antiquities before our voyage on the
Nile is ended.
[Illustration: A GOURD RAFT.]
"We have seen boats of all sizes and shapes; some of them seem to be
perfect reproductions of the craft used by the ancient Egyptians, and
others are more modern. We saw a man fishing on what appeared to be a
raft just large enough to hold him, and it seemed a wonder that his
weight did not sink it. While we were looking at it, Doctor Bronson
explained that it was supported by empty gourds beneath a flooring of
reeds, the gourds being kept from floating away by means of a slight
net-work. Later on we had a chance to examine one of these frail
structures, and make a sketch of it.
[Illustration: THE RAFT SEEN FROM BELOW.]
"Beyond Meidoon we passed a good many sugar plantations, and saw the
steam rising from the engines that drive the heavy machinery. On the
banks of the river there were many _shadoofs_ and _sakkiehs_ at work,
and now and then we saw steam-pumps puffing away, to raise water for
irrigating the fertile land. Many of the large cultivators find it
economical to raise water by steam-power rather than by the old system
of hand-labor, though the high price of coal makes steam-pumping very
costly.
"We are told that no coal is found in Egypt, the entire supply needed
for the railway and other modes of consumption being imported from
England. The government has spent considerable money in looking for
coal, but thus far has found only a few small beds, that will not pay
for working. Perhaps they will find some one of these days, and thus
save a heavy outlay of money every year for imported coal. Private
parties have no inducement to search for this valuable mineral, as the
government would immediately take possession of a coal-mine, and if the
discoverer ventured to object, he might spend the rest of his life in
prison for his impudence."