SIOOT, THE ANCIENT LYCOPOLIS.--SCENES ON THE RIVER.
From Beni-sooef the steamer proceeded to Sioot, or Asyoot, a city of
twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and one of the most important places
of Upper Egypt. It is about two miles back from the river, from which
water is brought by a canal, and the roadway passes along a high
embankment lined with shade-trees. Just at the entrance of the city
there is a picturesque gate-way, which reminded our friends of some of
the gates of Cairo. The city is on the site of the ancient Lycopolis,
and has borne its present name for more than two thousand years.
Nevertheless it is called a modern town by most of the writers on
Egyptian history, and is not allowed any claim to antiquity.
[Illustration: A SCENE NEAR SIOOT.]
"At the landing-place of Sioot," said the boys in their journal, "we
found better donkeys than at Beni-sooef, and were able to ride with
some degree of comfort. We went first to some tombs which are cut in
the side of the mountain overlooking the valley, and were the
burial-places of the ancient Lycopolis. There are a good many of them,
and they were formerly well filled with mummies, but at present the
mummies are gone, and the tombs contain nothing worth carrying away.
According to the historical accounts the inhabitants of Lycopolis
worshipped the wolf as a divinity, and when the tombs were plundered a
good many mummies of wolves were found in them.
"The view from the mountain where these tombs were excavated is very
pretty, as it embraces a considerable extent of the Nile Valley; some
writers have called it the finest in all Egypt, as there is an unbroken
view for several miles of beautiful green such as you find nowhere else
in the world. Dean Stanley was charmed with the spot, and compared the
mud villages that are scattered among the luxuriant fields to the marks
of a soiled foot on a rich carpet. The mountain has an additional
interest to many people, as the caves in its sides were the homes of the
early Christians during the periods of persecution.
[Illustration: SCENE IN THE BAZAARS.]
"We had been told that the bazaars of Sioot were almost as fine as those
of Cairo, though naturally less extensive, and so we hurried down from
the mountain in order to see as much as possible of the place.
"It happened to be market-day when we were there, much to our delight,
as it enabled us to see what the country-people had brought in for sale.
The market square was crowded with people, and also with donkeys and
camels, and we had to keep both eyes wide open to escape being run over
or knocked down. The camels were specially dangerous, as they seemed to
have adopted the motto of the donkey dancing among the chickens--'Let
everybody look out for his own feet!' They had great loads of
sugar-canes or fresh cut grass, and as these loads stuck out on each
side they needed a wide path, and took it too. It was a wonder that they
didn't kill somebody, or, at any rate, do a good deal of damage, but
somehow they didn't.
"All over the square were groups of men and women with heaps of
sugar-cane, palm-stalks, beans, pease, wheat, and other products of the
soil for sale. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry, and every transaction
required a great deal of bargaining before it was concluded. All around
the edge of the square was a fringe of solemn old Arabs, whose entire
occupation appeared to be to sit on the ground and smoke their pipes.
The stem of each pipe was about four feet long and made of a hollow
reed, and when a man is engaged in smoking one of these pipes he can do
very little else. In this part of the world the pipe is a very
cumbersome thing, and occupies the entire attention of the smoker.
"One of the most interesting parts of the market at Sioot was the place
where donkeys were sold. We went to see them, and asked the prices; but
as the natives knew we did not want to buy any, they put the figures
absurdly high. We found out that good ones could be bought for thirty or
forty dollars--just good common donkeys for every-day wear; but if you
wanted a fancy animal, you must go much higher. A hundred dollars would
buy a handsome one, with a great deal of 'style' and corresponding
strength, and there were some for which two hundred dollars had been
refused. A two hundred dollar donkey is something that only the wealthy
can afford.
[Illustration: ROOM IN AN ORIENTAL HOUSE.]
"We had a chance to go into a fine house, and of course we embraced it
at once. We passed through a gate-way with a lofty arch, and entered a
narrow passage that led to the principal room of the building. They tell
us that this passage-way is generally made crooked, in order that people
on the street cannot look inside when the doors are open by any chance;
this is especially the case with the women's apartments, into which no
man except the master is allowed to look under any pretence, and great
care is taken that he shall not do so. We were shown into the
reception-room, which had low windows that only let in a dim light: we
wondered at this, until our guide explained that it was desirable to
exclude the heat as much as possible, and therefore the windows were
made low and the walls very thick. At one end of the room there was a
platform six inches higher than the floor; there was an alcove in the
middle of this platform, which was supposed to face toward Mecca, and,
consequently, it was the place of worship at the hours when prayers were
said.
"There were no chairs in the room, and no tables whatever; the only
furniture we saw were some divans like wide sofas, and on these we were
invited to sit while the servants brought coffee for us to drink. There
were heavy cushions at the back of the divans, and these are arranged so
that they can be moved around just as one may desire in order to make
himself comfortable. The Orientals sit cross-legged on these divans, and
not after our style; and if you invite them to occupy an arm-chair they
will quite likely double up into it, and put their feet beneath them. It
is torture for them to sit as we do, just as it is torture for us to sit
in the Oriental way.
[Illustration: AN ORIENTAL GENTLEMAN.]
"The ordinary mode of sitting on one of these divans is to get into a
corner, or rather to make one by piling two of the cushions together
across the divan. If an Oriental gentleman receives you, it is quite
likely you will find him sitting as we have described, with his feet
gathered under him, and his shoes lying where he can easily step into
them in case he wishes to rise. In this position he will sit for hours
perfectly contented, or, what is quite as likely, he will fall back on
the divan and go to sleep. The divans are occupied pretty much all the
time, as they are used to sit upon during the day, and form
sleeping-couches by night. As they are rarely less than three feet wide,
are well stuffed, and covered with cloth resembling chintz, they are not
to be despised, and form excellent substitutes for beds.
[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN LAMP.]
"There was a handsome lamp in the hall-way of the house, and the Doctor
told us it was much like the lamps that are used for decorating the
mosques. It hung under a wooden frame in the shape of a six-pointed
star. The ornamentation upon the outside of the body of the lamp was in
curious patterns of arabesque design; the light was given by a series of
little cups hanging on the outside, and not by the lamp itself. Each
cup was partly filled with oil, and a tiny wick floated on its surface,
and gave out a small blaze of light. It reminded us of the floating
wicks for burning in a sick-room at home, and we readily understood why
there were so many of them. A single flame would not have been enough to
light the hall-way, and it was only by employing a great many that the
proper illumination could be secured.
"On leaving the house we went to the bazaars, which were crowded with
people, partly because it was market-day, when so many country people,
men and women, came to town, and partly because of the large party of
strangers that had landed from the steamboat, and were sure to be in the
bazaars before continuing their journey.
"We bought some fans of ostrich feathers, which were offered for about
half of what they would cost in Cairo. Sioot is one of the
starting-points of the caravan routes to the regions where ostriches
abound, and it is only natural that these things should be cheaper here
than farther down the river. We also bought some cups and saucers, and a
few pipe-bowls, made of a fine clay peculiar to the neighborhood of
Sioot, and highly prized throughout Egypt. Of course we were obliged to
bargain a long time to save ourselves from being cheated. It is of no
use to tell these people you are in a hurry, and must have the lowest
price at once; they cannot understand you, and will lose the chance of
selling their goods rather than change their mode of dealing.
"Leaving Sioot we found ourselves in a region where the river winds
considerably. The wind blowing from the north does not choose to follow
all the bends of the Nile. A boat sailing up the stream will have a fair
wind one hour and an adverse one the next, and when she finds both wind
and current against her she must wait for a change in the breeze, or
send the crew out with the tow-line. Towing up stream is slow work, but
it is better than no progress at all. Ten or fifteen miles a day may be
made by it, and sometimes as many as twenty miles, and if the passengers
have a fondness for hunting they can indulge it very easily. Sometimes a
walk of a few miles will cover a whole day's journey of the dahabeeah
while she is working around a bend, and even the steamer is not averse
to gaining distance while her passengers are on shore.
"Towing is the hardest part of the occupation of the crew of a Nile
boat. They are harnessed like horses, and attached to a rope which is
taken to the bank. The captain remains on board to steer the craft, and
if the sailors are remiss in their work he shouts to them in a voice the
reverse of pleasing; and while it is a laborious task for the men it is
a severe trial to the passengers, this dragging along at a snail's pace,
and listening to the imprecations of the captain, which grate harshly
on the ear, even though they are uttered in an unknown tongue.
[Illustration: PIGEON-HOUSES.]
"We wound along the river, sometimes close to the cliffs that form the
eastern bank, and sometimes in the midst of a fertile plain, with the
desert at a distance. We passed several villages, and the conductor told
us their names; but as they were all pretty much alike, we did not think
it worth while to write them down. An interesting feature of the
villages was the great number of pigeon-houses, some of them standing by
themselves, and others built on the tops of dwellings. The pigeons are
kept in great flocks. Sometimes they are owned in common by a whole
village, while at others they are the private property of individuals.
The guano from the pigeon-houses is carefully saved for enriching the
melon patches; and, where the house is the common property of the
village, the key is kept by the sheik or chief. Some of the houses are
like square towers, with a great many holes where the birds enter, and
the inside of the walls is full of niches, where the pigeons make their
nests. Others are of a circular shape, and have protuberances on the top
like chimneys, which are filled with holes for admitting the pigeons,
but too small for the hawks and other birds of prey that pursue them.
[Illustration: THE ORIENTAL PIGEON.]
"The pigeons get their living in the fields around the village, and
sometimes they do a great deal of damage. When the grain begins to ripen
the people erect booths in the midst of the fields, where men are
stationed to frighten away the birds. They are armed with slings, with
which they can throw stones to a considerable distance, and they keep up
the alarm by blowing horns and making other noises. That the ancient
Egyptians had the same practices we learn from the paintings in the
tombs, where men are represented standing on platforms and using the
sling to frighten away the thieving birds.
[Illustration: A WATCHMAN'S BOOTH.]
"The abundance of pigeons in this part of Egypt is shown by the
frequency with which the bird appears on our table. We have broiled
pigeon for breakfast, cold pigeon for lunch, and roast pigeon for
dinner. We do not have cold pigeon for supper, and probably this can be
accounted for by the fact that we do not have any supper at all. They
give us a cup of tea and a piece of dry cake in the evening, and it is
quite possible that if anybody asked for pigeon he would be
accommodated; but nobody seems to want it.
"We met some funny-looking rafts a few miles above Sioot, and wondered
what they could be. They did not appear to be made of logs, or barrels,
or anything of the sort, and yet they were floating along, and each
carried two or three men. What do you suppose they were?
"Doctor Bronson said they were made up of large jars for holding water,
and were principally from a town called Ballas. The jars are arranged in
rows, with the mouth uppermost, and when enough of them have been put
together to form a raft, they are enclosed in a frame of poles and
reeds; then they are ready to float down the river to Cairo, where they
are sold. The jar is made of a porous clay that lets the water filter
slowly through it. Every few hours the men in charge of the raft must
bail out their conveyance, which they do by means of a sponge or bunch
of reeds lowered into each jar. Unless they do this the raft would soon
take in water enough to sink it, and not only would the jars be lost,
but the men would run the risk of being drowned into the bargain.
[Illustration: INFLATED SKIN RAFT (FROM ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE).]
"It seemed so funny to make up a raft in this way, but the Doctor
informed us that the idea was a very old one. He said it was in practice
among the ancient Assyrians, as there were pictures on the walls of
their temples of men rowing rafts made of inflated skins, which were
preferred to jars on account of their obviating the necessity of
frequent bailing.
"We thought of the scriptural phrase, and asked, 'Is there anything new
under the sun?'
[Illustration: AN ANCIENT LIFE-PRESERVER.]
"'There are fewer new things than you might suppose,' was the Doctor's
reply. 'Perhaps you think the inflated life-preserver is a modern
invention, but it isn't. The Assyrians had it centuries ago; and we
learn from their sculptures that their warriors used to swim across
rivers on the skins of goats that were filled with air, just as we fill
the life-preservers that we buy in New York or London. I believe that a
patent was granted to the modern inventor, but the Assyrian was
thousands of years ahead of him.'
"One of us suggested that perhaps the modern inventor was honest, and
thought he really had made an entirely new thing.
"'That is quite likely,' the Doctor answered. 'Many a man has applied
for a patent on something that he had honestly invented; he thought it
out himself, and kept it from the knowledge of everybody else till he
sent his model to the Patent-office. Then he learned to his surprise
that his invention was an old one, and either secured already, or had
been so long in use that no one could get a patent for it. The experts
in the Patent-office at Washington could tell you of hundreds of
instances of this kind, and they could also tell you that it not
unfrequently happens that two or three persons in different parts of the
country, and wholly unknown to each other, have hit upon the same thing
at almost the same moment, without the least suspicion that either of
them knew what the other was doing.
"'One instance that occurs to me is of the use of chloroform and similar
substances for preventing pain during surgical operations. There were no
less than four claimants to the honor of the discovery of anæsthetics,
and monuments have been erected to the memory of two of these gentlemen.
There is no ground for believing that either of them encroached on the
other, for their experiments were quite independent, and in different
parts of the country, and each believed he was the first in the field.
The invention of printing by means of movable types is claimed for two
men; the steam-engine had two or three inventors, and so had the system
of electric telegraphy. A curious circumstance is that many things which
have been considered new in our times were known to the ancients. Samuel
Colt received a patent for the revolving pistol, when the same weapon
had been made in Europe two or three centuries ago; and patents have
been taken out for the invention of things that were afterward found in
the ruins of Pompeii, where they had been buried for 1800 years. Of
course there are many new things under the sun, but not everything is
new that appears so when we first see it.'"
[Illustration: MODERN "KELEKS," OR SKIN RAFTS.]