Chapter 15

ON THE NILE.

At daylight on Monday morning, March sixteenth, the Amasis steamed away from Luxor and by nine o'clock had arrived at the landing for Dendera. The donkey boys of Dendera, having been notified of our coming, were waiting with their donkeys. In a few minutes the tourists were mounted for a half hour's ride on narrow paths through green barley fields to the ruined temple. I rode on a donkey named Whiskey and Soda, with my donkey boy Hassan running behind prodding the animal occasionally with a sharp-pointed stick, and yelling "Haow! Haow!" to urge Whiskey and Soda to a more rapid gait. Along the paths through the fields many children ran to greet us with outstretched palms. Their costumes were those of the Garden of Eden before the fall; but having been informed of our approach, the bronze colored youngsters had decorated themselves for the occasion with wreaths of green barley around their waists and crowns of the same material on their heads. The little Arabs, bright-eyed, smooth-limbed, and handsome featured, attractive and picturesque in appearance, shouted with glee when a few small coins were thrown among them.

"Look at that!" exclaimed one of the party. "I have heard of the shepherds carrying the lambs on their shoulders, but here is a man coming with the foal of a donkey in his arms."

"What a dear little pet," said the ladies as the Arab passed us with the young donkey nestling contentedly on his breast.

"The famous Temple of Dendera was not so magnificent nor so large as the temples of Karnak and Thebes," said the guide, as we stood before the gates, "but it was more richly decorated with carvings and paintings. Every inch of column, wall, and ceiling was carved with hieroglyphic and pictorial decorations. These were painted in bright colors which are yet faintly visible. This structure is a modern one compared with Karnak; for Karnak was an ancient temple more than one thousand years old when King Ptolemy began the erection of this building just before the Christian Era. An inscription on the walls states that the time required for its construction was one hundred and eight years, six months, and fourteen days. When Egypt became a Roman province after the death of Cleopatra, the Roman emperors continued the construction of the unfinished temple. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero are represented in reliefs on the walls. The temple was dedicated to the worship of the Goddess Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, or goddess of love and beauty."

"Why was the temple built here two miles away from the river, instead of near the banks of the Nile?" inquired a tourist.

"It was because this terrace is higher than the valley," answered Mahmoud. "Remember that these green fields through which we rode are made fertile by the overflow of the Nile; then I think that the reason for building on this plateau will be plain to you."

"But why was it built in a depression?"

"It was not originally in a hole," explained the guide, "but was built on level ground. Some sixteen hundred years ago the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius forbade the worship of idols. After that time, the worship of the goddess Hathor being discontinued, the temple was neglected and a village of mud huts sprang up around it. These huts, built of sun-dried bricks, crumbled to dust in the passage of years and were trampled under foot. Again and again new huts supplanted the old until in the course of centuries the debris accumulated many feet in depth. When the government, fifty years ago, undertook to restore the temple, the workmen had to begin by shoveling mud huts off the roof."

We descended a long flight of steps to reach the level of the floor of the excavated temple, and passing the blue-uniformed guards entered the grand hall of columns. The hall, as the guide had told us, was richly decorated. Master sculptors had carved every available space on the walls and columns with hieroglyphic inscriptions and beautiful reliefs; master artists in color had heightened the effect with tint and shade. Looking up we saw, pictured on the ceiling, the Egyptian deity, Nut, the goddess of the sky, controlling the movements of sun and stars; the rays of the sun shining in blessing on the head of Hathor; the moon issuing from Nut's mouth; the signs of the Zodiac; the flying Hours of day and night; and the sailing boats of the planets.

The guide raised a stone trap door less than two feet square in the stone floor and through this small entrance we squeezed, candle in hand, and descended a stone stairway to explore the dark crypt underneath. Although the ladies screamed when the bats, disturbed and blinded by the light, flew wildly overhead, they bravely followed the guide. The long passage was but three feet in width and we wondered why the dragoman had brought us down into its close and gloomy recesses; but when magnesium wires were lit, our wonder turned into admiration, for the sputtering white light revealed on the smooth sidewalls most beautiful reliefs in well preserved coloring.

"Did you see anything remarkable in that dark cellar?" inquired a voice from above as we ascended through the trap.

"Why didn't you come along?" was the laughing response.

"I've not trained down to the proper size yet," rejoined the fat man who could be jolly on all occasions. "Do you think that a man of my size could squeeze through a hole like that?"

By a long stone stairway of easy steps we ascended leisurely to the roof, stopping frequently to admire the ceremonial procession of priests pictured on the walls of the staircase. From the flat stone roof we saw on one side the green cultivated fields extending to the river's edge and on the other side the yellow desert stretching to the distant cliffs.

"This is a picture of Cleopatra and her son Cæsarion," said Mahmoud, as we inspected the reliefs on the outer walls, "and this is King Ptolemy offering incense to the gods Osiris and Isis, and hawk-headed Horus their son. Here also is Hathor's picture repeated many times."

The trip down the river Nile on the fine steamer Amasis, which had been chartered for us, was thoroughly enjoyed by the forty-two people who made up the party. The staterooms were bright and clean and the meals served were equal to those of a first class hotel. The captain and his officials did all they could to make the trip pleasant for us. Life on board was a life of ease; the air though warm was balmy and restful, and cares were forgotten. The centre of the upper deck was roofed over but open at the sides with rugs on the floor, easy chairs, small tables, and a piano. In this open piazza-parlor we sipped the coffee that was served to us there after luncheon and after dinner. There, too, we partook of the tea and cakes that were handed around at four o'clock, and when we returned from excursions on shore, tired and warm, we found refreshing lemonade ready to quench our thirst.

Our dragoman, Mahmoud Achmed, the Egyptian conductor of all our sight-seeing excursions on land, was an interesting character and became a great favorite. He was a native of Luxor and while we were at that place his bright-eyed little girl, neatly dressed, came to meet us. Mahmoud had a fund of information regarding the history of the country, the legends of the gods, and the fabulous deeds of the ancient kings. He had a most interesting way of interspersing history with mythical tales and humorous incidents, and so kept the party in high spirits. Mahmoud was noted, too, for his ability to answer intelligently all reasonable inquiries and for his great patience in replying to many questions, that must have appeared to him very silly. Each day on the boat while we were all seated at dinner, Mahmoud came into the dining saloon and announced the program for the following days, always beginning: "Ladies and gentlemen, if you please," and closing with, "Monument tickets are very much wanted. Galloping donkeys is not allowed."

For some one to mislay or forget a permit was a daily occurrence and the caution had to be repeated often. As to the donkeys, the riders paid no attention to the restriction, but walked, trotted, or galloped the donkeys as they felt inclined.

During the daytime Mahmoud wore a plain gown suitable for traveling on shore in heat and dust, but in the evenings he was resplendent in robes of silk. One night, at the request of one of the ladies, he brought to the mid-deck five handsome silk gowns to be inspected by the tourists. He also brought his book of references written by people whom he had conducted. In this we read the dignified prose of preacher and college president, the practical remarks of business men, and the nonsensical lines of the rhymster. One of his feminine admirers, seemingly impressed by the dragoman's silk robes, polite attention, and general good humor, had left the following jingle on the record:

Who guided us all about the show, Whether we wanted to go or no, And always pleased and made us go? Mahmoud.

Who whipped the donkey when he fell And then the donkey boy as well, And dressed himself a howling swell? Mahmoud.

Who sat so sweetly at my feet With red tarbouche and slippers neat And stirred my heart with many a beat? Mahmoud.

And now, when all the trip is done Rides to temples, and tombs, and fun, We may forget them all save one, Mahmoud.

Mahmoud took great pride in showing his many references in prose and rhyme, and the members of our party were glad to contribute in prose to his collection. But at the end of the week we presented him with another testimonial of a more practical kind.

"The Nile is a most wonderful river," remarked the professor one evening as we sat on the open deck watching the moonlight glisten on the green water. "Several other rivers rival it in length; the Congo is noted for its size; the Amazon, swelled by great tributaries, discharges a volume of water immensely greater; and the Missouri, including the Mississippi to the Gulf, may be longer; but the Nile is unique in that for twelve hundred miles it flows without a tributary through a rainless region. Not a drop of rain nor a single brook adds to its volume in all that distance, and a hot sun, canals, ditches, sakiyehs, shadoofs, and water carriers are continually taking away from it throughout every mile of its winding course. The river is wider here but it has less volume than one thousand miles farther up the stream. It is unique also in the regularity of the annual inundations, which begin on almost the same day, continue the same length of time, and rise to an almost similar height each year, and have done so annually for untold centuries. In our land a flood is a disaster causing loss and sorrow; in this country it is a blessing producing wealth and joy. When the slowly rising waters each year reach the figures on the stone column of the Nilometer which show that the Nile has spread abroad his fertile bounty by covering the cultivable lands, and has filled the dams and ditches for future needs, the news is spread abroad and the people rejoice with festivities and processions."

Before taking the trip on the Nile we had thought that the days on the river might become monotonous and tiresome; but we found, on the contrary, that every hour was full of interest. Each day some excursion on shore was taken. One day the patient donkeys carried the tourists on a long trip to the ruins of the great temple of Seti at Abydos to view its sculptured columns and famous list of kings. On another day carriages conveyed us to the rock tombs on the limestone hills above Assiout and we visited the bazaars and the noted potteries of that busy town. On the last day of our sail the donkeys of Bedrashen were called into service for a ride through the palm forest and green fields, past the fallen columns of Ramses, to Sakkara, the tombs of the sacred bulls, and the pictured tombs of Ptahhotep and Ti.

"This is the height of enjoyment," said a member of our party one day while we were lounging in easy chairs taking afternoon tea on the deck, and lazily watching the panoramic scenes as the Amasis steamed down the river.

It was scenes like these we looked upon. Along the banks of the river at short intervals, the shadoof man, or drawer of water, with his shadoof resembling an old-fashioned spring-pole or well sweep, drew up his dripping bucket and lowered it again, his only garment an apron at the waist.

All through the day the red-brown man Stands on his perch in the red-brown bank; Waters never more gratefully ran, Cucumbers never more greedily drank.

--Canon Rawnsley.

Where the bank was very high, a series of two, three, or four natives, each with his spring-pole, raised the water one to the other until it reached the top and was poured into the little channels that carried it over the rich, but very thirsty soil of a rainless land. On the river-bank, also, interspersed with the shadoofs of the poorer class of agriculturists, the more prosperous farmers, who were the happy possessors of buffaloes or camels, lifted the irrigating water from the stream by means of sakiyehs, or wooden power wheels, which creaked unceasingly as the patient camels or buffaloes, with eyes covered by blinders of mud, trod round and round the wheel.

Rough clout upon his patient head, The stately camel round doth go, With gentle hesitating tread; And yoked, and blind with frontlets, made Of black Nile mud, the buffalo Plies with him his unequal trade.

--Canon Rawnsley.

A large Dahabeah with rugs, easy chairs, and piano on deck, and the stars and stripes hanging listlessly overhead, floated by, propelled by fourteen Arab rowers--there being no wind to fill the sails. A drove of gray buffaloes, forty in number, were taking their bath, splashing the water like a party of schoolboys in a swimming pool. A group of women filled earthen jars at the water's edge, and with the dripping jars on their heads mounted the steep river bank. Here and there were irregular groups of mud huts, intersected by crooked alleys and surrounded by date palms, little villages where doves were flying overhead and from which came the sound of barking dogs to mingle with the puffs of the steamer. Flat-bottomed boats freighted with sugar cane lay with drooping sails in a noonday calm, or, later in the day, sped before the evening breeze. Near the pottery towns the river banks were dotted with yellow water jars in scattered piles ready for shipment to the city market. Immense stacks of the sugar-cane just harvested had been brought to the shore for conveyance to the sugar factories. And fields of cotton covered with white bloom extended into the distance.

We could see, too, the fertile Nile valley, not more than ten miles in breadth at its widest part, bounded on both sides by ranges of yellow, barren cliffs. On the western side the cliffs were farthest away; on the eastern side the valley was narrow, and the cliffs were sometimes distant, sometimes so near that they completely crowded out the cultivable soil and approached to the water's edge.

"There is something peculiar in the air of this dry land," observed one of the tourists after sitting quiet awhile. "The atmosphere lends a softness to the outlines of distant objects and adds delicate tints in the afternoon light. See how the barren cliffs are glorified with a flush of pink, the wheat fields are a brilliant green, and the barley fields, almost ready for the harvest, are golden. Even the mud huts and the white-washed mosque of that village on the western shore have lost their crude outlines and have become picturesque. At sunset the western sky will change to crimson and the eastern cliffs will change to gold. The sunsets, though, are not so gorgeous in coloring, nor do they show such striking contrasts as I have seen occasionally in my western home, but they are beautiful."

During the latter part of our sail down the Nile, where the river broadened and was shallow, we had some interesting experiences with sandbars.

"This is the Amasis' last trip of the season," said one of the officers as we stood on the upper deck at the bow of the steamer watching two sailors poling below. "The Nile always falls rapidly in the spring, the channels change, new sandbars form, and navigation becomes difficult. The water is now very low, and we have to be careful and alert wherever the river broadens as it does here before us."

On account of the indications of shallowness ahead the Amasis was steaming very slowly, occasionally merely drifting with the current. The two Arab boatmen stationed in the bow continually tested the depth of the water with poles and shouted in Arabic the results of their measurements to the anxious commander on the deck above. Notwithstanding these precautions, our steamer occasionally scraped on the sandbars, sometimes sticking on them for a short time.

"Surely this is an unlucky day," exclaimed the captain later, looking at his watch as we came within sight of a railroad bridge with a draw in it that was then being closed for an approaching train. "It is now four o'clock, and, according to the official rules, that drawbridge is closed for the day and will not be opened for steamers to pass through until nine o'clock to-morrow morning. We shall have to anchor here until that time. That last stop of half an hour on the sandbar robs us of half a day's time."

The delay at the bridge was provoking, but a greater test of the temper of the officers and patience of the passengers was to come. On Friday morning while at breakfast we felt a jar that caused the vessel suddenly to stop. We heard an unusual puffing of the engine and felt vibrations that caused the steamer to tremble and the dishes to rattle.

"What's the matter? What's the trouble?" cried several.

"Struck another sandbar," laconically remarked the doctor at the end of the table. "Eat your breakfast. We'll be off in a few minutes."

But succeeding events proved that the doctor was a false prophet. For during the next twenty hours the Amasis lay helpless in the midst of the stream, notwithstanding all the attempts of the officials and crew to free her from the bar, and it was not until Saturday morning that their efforts were crowned with success and the steamer floated free.

However, we took the doctor's advice the first morning and finished our omelet and coffee. Then we hurried to the deck to investigate and ask numberless questions of the worried officials. Our baggage had been packed in anticipation of landing before noon at Cairo, which was but sixty miles distant, and we feared that a delay might interfere with our plans for a busy afternoon of sight-seeing in the city.

"'Misery loves company,' says an old proverb. If that is true we should be happy," remarked one of the tourists as we gathered on the deck gazing at an animated scene. "Look! There are thirty boats in the same predicament as our own."

Within sight in different directions on the wide river lay thirty loaded feluccas stranded on the bars, and in addition to these were sixty-five others not aground. Alongside of one laden with live cattle a dozen sailors were in the shallow water, shouting and splashing, endeavoring to push their sloop off the bar. On many of the stranded sloops the sailors were transferring parts of their cargoes to other boats which were not aground. At some places the dark-hued laborers were shoveling grain from a stranded felucca into a lighter one; at others they were carrying unwieldy bundles of sugar-cane from one deck to another. Here they were handling, with much difficulty, large blocks of stone; there throwing yellow water-jars one at a time, passing red-bricks slowly, or shifting stacks of green clover from deck to deck. They accompanied the work of disburdening the vessels with strange cries and chants in which the name of Allah noticeably recurred, occasionally stopping to test the result of their labor by plunging into the water and pushing the felucca, or by shoving from its deck with long poles.

One of the officers of the Amasis with some sailors in a row-boat carried an anchor to its cable's length from the steamer and dropped it in the water, then a donkey-engine on deck to which the cable was attached was started and the steamer shook with the throbs of the engine endeavoring to pull it off the bar toward the anchor. Unsuccessful in tugging the steamer in that direction, they raised the anchor into the row-boat and took it to other locations one after another; but the engine panted and throbbed in vain. In the meantime the captain had gone to a village on the shore, had hired sixty natives, and brought them out in boats. The Arabs, dropping off their long blue gowns, and arrayed only in loin cloths, jumped into the water, which was not over three feet in depth. Then, placing their shoulders against the steamer, the gang of naked Arabs, chanting in unison a prayer to Allah for help and protection, pushed, or pretended to push, in order to assist the puffing engine in its task. With intermissions for rest, the pushing, the throbbing, and the chanting of the Arabic song, "Allah il Allah, Allah il Allah," continued during the remainder of the day.

There was so much of interest happening around them that the passengers could scarcely take time to eat their meals, and their disappointment in not reaching Cairo was almost forgotten.

"This has been to me one of the most interesting days of the trip. I will mark it with a red letter," said one of our party in the evening. "I do not regret the delay. I would not have missed those amusing and novel sights for anything."

When efforts were resumed at dawn on Saturday, the Amasis floated free, and before noon we arrived at Cairo. Our joyous trip on the Nile, with its pleasant associations of fellow voyagers, dragomen, donkey boys, temples, tombs, and gallops over the sand, was at an end.