CHAPTER XLV--THE DANCING GIRLS OF KENEH.--THE TREASURES OF DENDERAH.

_The Dates and Dancing Girls of Keneh--The Almeh and the Ghawazee--The Dalilahs of Cairo--Going to the Dance-Hall--An Outlandish Orchestra--The Drapery of the Dancers--The Cairo Wriggle--Curious Posturing--A Weird Scene--Dress and Undress--Miracles of Motion--A Fête at the German Consulate--Models for Painters and Sculptors--Arab and Nubian Nymphs--The Temple of Denderah--History Hewn in Stone--Cleopatra and her Portrait--The Fatal Asp--A Bit of Doggerel--The Coins of Old Egypt--The Professor’s Bargain--Digging for Treasure--Arrival at Luxor--Taking in Strangers._

THE first place of importance above Bellianah is Keneh, which stands about three miles inland from the river, and occupies a pretty situation. It is celebrated for its dates and dancing girls; we bought some of the former, and were invited to attend a performance of the latter at the house of the English.

We declined the invitation, for the reason that we had sent the dragoman to arrange a dance at the residence of the fair maidens and did not wish to impose upon the representative of Her Britannic or any other Majesty.

The dates were excellent, the best, in fact, I have ever tasted; they are packed in drums like figs, but are not pressed down into a solid mass like the dates we get in America. They are very sweet and soft, and each one of us laid in half a dozen boxes for his own use.

As for the dancing girls, a word in your ear. These ladies are not of the vestal sort, but, on the contrary, quite the reverse. They were known in Egypt in ancient times, and one can see pictures of them on the walls of some of the tombs in the valley of the Nile. In modern times they became so numerous at Cairo that Mohammed Ali banished them from that city and sent whole boat-loads of them to Keneh, Esneh, and other towns of upper Egypt. Those that he banished are not now on the stage of life, but their descendants or imitators are numerous, and have lent a sort of infamous fame to the places they inhabit.

{569}Their Arabic name is _ghawazee_; they are sometimes improperly called _Almehs_, and there is a French painting of considerable celebrity which represents the _Almeh_ dancing before a party of men.

The _Almeh_ is a professional singer, and dancing is neither her profession nor practice; the _ghawazee_ dance, but do not sing.

{570}The dragoman had arranged the whole affair, and early in the evening we left the landing-place and travelled the somewhat rough road to Keneh. There were fourteen of us, and there were six nationalities represented in the auditory, or rather _viditory_, as we had come to see rather than to hear.

Under the guidance of the dragoman we went to an obscure house in a narrow street, and were shown up a flight of somewhat rickety stairs, and into a room that was anything but palatial.

There were divans on three sides of the room, and on these we were seated; the dancers and the musicians occupied the floor in the centre, and as soon as we were seated, the performance began. The music consisted of a couple of drums, shaped like a squash, with the large end cut off and covered with a piece of drum-leather, and of a sort of violin or guitar, and a kind of reed flute. There was also a tambourine, but it had less prominence than the drums, which were the real _pieces de resistance_. The drums were beaten with the fingers in rather a slow measure; the music was of a melancholy, barbaric character, and consisted mainly of time without much melody. Some of the musicians were men, I think only two of them, but as they were all squatted on the floor, and there was a general similarity of dress, it was hard to distinguish the sexes.

The dancing girls wore white dresses that flowed down to the heels and were very short in the waist On the upper part of the body is a jacket, cut very short, and frequently separated an inch or two from the dress below it. The jacket is sometimes richly embroidered, and I saw several dresses that were rather regal in appearance.

The head-dress consists of the natural hair braided in ringlets, and where this is small in quantity it is supplemented with store hair, as our own belles supplement theirs. In either case there is a liberal decoration of small coins and pendants braided into the hair or attached to it, and the display of jewelry is generally quite profuse.

The drums which were all the time kept in operation, was quite unlike anything in the ballet as seen in Europe or America. There was none of the dancing of the kind for which Fanny Ellsler and Taglioni are famous, and from an occidental point of view it was rather disappointing as a dance. But the strangeness of the scene, in many of its features, made up for the absence of saltatorial activity. Certainly the dance was a new {571}The musicians struck up, and the girls--six in number--took their positions in a circle.

At the sound of the music they began to move about the room with a sort of gliding motion, accompanied by a curious wriggle of the body at the hips, while all the rest of it remained still. It was a motion from side to side performed quite rapidly, and with due deference to the sound of {572}one to us, and the dancers were of a type unknown in America. Their dress was strange, and stranger still were the musicians squatted on the floor and keeping time with that monotonous barbaric sound.

Two or three Arabs were peering in at the door, the room was wholly Arabic in character, and the only occidental suggestion was the party of spectators squatting or sitting on the divans. There was a dim light from half a dozen candles, and outside a small fire occasionally sent up a weird flash. The scene was a fine one for an artist.

For a quarter of an hour the dance went on, and gradually the movements became more and more excited. Then there was a pause and then a re-commencement, and then another pause at which the ladies retired for a few moments while we took a fresh filling to our pipes or lighted fresh cigars. When the dancing girls returned they were in a much lighter costume than the preceding one, a costume that permitted one to see the full development of the form, as it did away entirely with the long dress and with other garments that hindered the movements. I doubt if the manager of any theatre ever dared to go quite as far in dressing or undressing his ballet troupe as did the manager of the Ghawazee at Keneh. With the exception of their head dresses of false hair and jingling coins, and their necklaces and rings, the whole half dozen of girls didn’t have clothes enough about them to fill a snuff box. You could have sent their entire lot of garments by mail with a single postage stamp.

Immediately on their re-appearance the music re-commenced, and this time with a more vigorous measure, so that the scene became enlivening.

This time the movements of the dancers were more free, and they whirled about in a narrow space with such rapidity that there was quite a maze of the performers. There was a repetition of the gliding, whirling, and twisting motions combined, and sometimes they were all performed together. We looked on attentively for half an hour, and now and then as the air was getting stifling from the occupancy of a small room by so many persons we called for an adjournment and went out into the light of the moon. {573}As we passed by the German consulate we heard the sound of music, and one of the Germans of our party led the way inside-The consuls of France and Germany are brothers and their consulates are in one building; during the Franco-German war the consul for Germany was also consul for France, and is supposed to have performed his duty impartially, especially as there is very little duty for him to perform.

The place into which we were ushered was a large hall, and the same sort of dance given in honor of some German visitors was going on. The girls were more richly dressed than at the performance we had just witnessed, and the room being much larger they had more space for their movements. The musicians were more numerous, and as there was a better light in the room the scene was brighter. But the spectators were sitting on chairs instead of divans and the host was dressed _a la_ European, with the exception of the everlasting fez which covered his head.

Altogether the scene was much less Oriental, and it lacked the careless abandon that had made one of the attractions of the dance at the home of the _Ghawazee_. So after a short stay we thanked our host, the Consul, and returned to the boat.

Many travellers have praised the beauty of the dancing girls, and several artists of note, among the Germans, have visited Egypt to paint them. I had formed such a picture of their beauty that I was rather disappointed at the reality. Of the six that danced before us two were positively ill-looking, and two others, though not uncomely in features, had grown rather too fat to be attractive. The other two were pretty and well formed, and had the others been like them, or had we seen only these two we might have shared the feelings of many who have gone before us.

Of the two beauties one was a pure blooded Arab, and the other evidently of mixed blood Arab with a streak, and a broad streak too, of Nubian. Their forms were exquisite and would have filled the eye of the sculptor of the Greek Slave. Their limbs were full and rounded, and every muscle so far as we could see was of the proper development. Their eyes were full and liquid in their tenderness, and the long lashes set them out like a lustrous frame. The dark skin was smooth and the necks were flung from side to side in a shower of ebony spray as its wearers glided and swung around the apartment, where we looked upon them. Fortunate indeed had we been had these been the only dancing girls to meet our eyes at Keneh.

Everywhere through Egypt water is filtered in large jars, some of them holding nearly a barrel, and it is carried on the heads of

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{574}rently soft as velvet, and had a freshness that not all the paint and powder of the French toilet can imitate.

A pleasant smile played constantly around the mouth and eyes and seemed to run from the one to the other, the luxuriant hair decked with golden ornaments fell in copious folds around the plump and well-formed lin {577}women in lesser jars that contain from four to six gallons. It is brought to the table in bottles holding a quart or more, and whenever and wherever you call for water it is served in these bottles and never in a pitcher.

The filtering jars and the drinking bottles come from Keneh, or rather the most of them do, and the large jars come from Balias, a town a few miles above. They are made of a peculiar clay which is mixed with the ashes of _halfa_ grass and turned on an ordinary potter’s wheel. They are dried in the sun, and when complete require a little soaking to remove the taste of the earth. They are very porous, water passes easily through them, and when placed in the open air the transformation and constant evaporation that follows keep the contents very cool.

We met many rafts of these _ballasee_ on their way down the river, and some large ones were tied to the bank at Keneh. The men in charge of the rafts are obliged to remove the water from the half immersed jars every few hours to prevent their absorption of enough to sink them. The same kind of drinking bottle can be found in Spain and in Mexico, and also in some of the South American countries. They are used all through Egypt, and their manufacture employs a considerable number of persons. The man who introduces them in the Mississippi valley will confer a boon upon the inhabitants of that region.

An hour’s ride from the river on the side opposite Keneh is the temple of Denderah.

Compared with the other temples of Egypt, this one is modern as it was built less than two thousand years ago, at the time the Romans held possession of the country. Egyptian sculpture had long been on the decline and the figures are far less graceful than those of a much older period, but the architecture retained its grandeur, and one cannot admire too much the magnificent proportions of the halls and columns of Denderah, especially in the grand portico and in some of the inner apartments.

The temple is the best preserved that has yet been discovered; its walls and columns are all in place and the roof is almost entire, so that it presents the best specimen of a complete temple. It contains a zodiac which was the subject of much controversy on account of its supposed antiquity, but a careful reading of {578}some of the surrounding inscriptions has exploded the theory that the ancient Egyptians were the authors of the zodiac.

On the side wall of the temple is a portrait of Cleopatra, which is interesting for the reason that it is cotemporaneous with the existence of that estimable but warm blooded lady, whose habits were not such as to make her a model for the guidance of young women of the present day. We looked at the portrait for the beauty for which she was renowned but could not find it though we all admitted that her face was not unhandsome. Her figure does not possess the grace of her Greek portraits, and altogether the picture was a disappointment.

On several places on the walls of the temple there are sculptures representing the asp, the serpent which was once worshipped as a divinity. Asp-headed gods were frequent among the Egyptian sculptures, and their worship extended over a long period. And it was by one of these serpents that Cleopatra, of whom we have just been speaking, was stung to death. The event is recorded in a pathetic poem which begins thus:

“She took a nasty, pison snake,

And hid it in her gown,

It gave its little tail a shake

And did its job up brown.

She went into her little bed,

In dreadful agony;

Then tore her chignon from her head,

And followed Antony.”

Denderah was a big thing for the Professor as he was able to buy there an abundance of coins. He bought a lot of them, about a quart altogether, for a couple of francs; they were covered with rust, mould, and verdigris, but they were coins and he paid little more than what they were worth as old copper. He was a good deal of a coin-sharp and understood their value, and when he looked them over on the boat he was so happy that he wanted to go back again to buy more. He said he wouldn’t take five hundred, no, not a thousand francs for the lot, and he was ready to dance with joy. And I add this by way of foot note, that when we returned to Cairo he had the coins cleaned and examined by a numismatist. Every coin was pronounced genuine and some were of silver. Most of them were of a kind

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{581}that is abundant and consequently they had not much value, but there were several very rare specimens. One in particular was so rare that only one like it was known to exist in Egypt, and it was worth any sum of money that a seller would ask and a buyer would give.

He was sure they were genuine, and he scouted the notion that they were fabrications for the reason that he had paid less than it would cost to fabricate them. These coins were found around Denderah, and we saw the natives digging in the rubbish in several places in search of them. Occasionally a native makes a good find, but he never knows its value, and will sell his prize cheaply. A coin collector who knows his business would do well to make the voyage of the Nile.

We had half a day’s steaming from Keneh to Luxor, and turned some pretty bends in the river where the scenery was quite picturesque. We passed several _dahabeeahs_ on their way up stream and greeted them with our steam whistle and by dipping our flag to which they responded by dipping theirs. Every dahabeeah carries a flag showing the nationality of the parties on board; this is an inflexible rule, and a very good one, and often leads to friendly acquaintance among persons of similar nationalties. The steamboat saluted every _dahabeeahs_; she was not proud because she was a steamboat, and we were glad to perceive that the others were not proud because they were _dahabeeahs_.

In this part of the river we observed a great number of pigeons flying around; these birds abound all along the Nile but are specially numerous in this locality. The pigeon houses are built over the dwellings and are two or three stories high; they have a likeness to the battlements of old castles, as they are narrower at top than at bottom, and the entrances for the birds have a strong resemblance to port holes. Branches of trees are put near the holes to assist the birds in alighting, and they give rather a curious appearance to the houses. Hundreds of these pigeons can be seen in the air at once, and sometimes the flocks are very large. The birds are kept for the sake of their manure; pigeon dung is the only kind of manure used on the fields in Egypt, and it is quite an article of commerce.

In Cairo a great many pigeons are kept on the roofs of houses; {582}they fly around and pick up their food where they can find it, and their owners make a very fair revenue from the sale of the manure as well as from that of the birds. Mohammedans do not eat them but the large number of Christians in Egypt ensures a good market. The hotels have them very often in their bills of fare.

It was about noon when we reached Luxor and tied up to the bank in front of the American Consulate. There was a crowd of donkey-boys, guides, and miscellaneous citizens to meet us, and as soon as we were on shore they surrounded us at once.

The Professor was happy as he found plenty of old coins, but he did not find them as cheap as at Denderah. The most numerous speculators were the dealers in antiquities, such as fragments of mummies, pieces of coffins, scarabées, and bits of marble and other stones cut into the shape of ancient statues.

They have an odd way of offering their stuff to you; without saying a word they come up and hold out the thing they have for sale, and sometimes if it is a skull they hold it disagreeably near to your face. Ask the price and then make an offer, and be sure to make the offer small enough. They refuse and turn away; in a few minutes they come up again with the same thing and offer it in the same manner as if they do not know you have seen it before Refuse and refuse again; they depart, or at all events put their things in their pockets at each refusal, but they return again in a few minutes.

There was one man with a string of scarabees and another with a miniature bust of one of the old kings that I think offered their wares as often as once in five minutes during all the time I was accessible to them. They do not talk under such circumstances unless you talk first; they glide silently in front of you, and then hold up what they have to sell, as though endeavoring to secure your admiration.

The articles mostly dealt in are scarabee,--those imitations in hard stone of the Egyptian beetle that are found in many of the mummy coffins. Some of them make pretty finger rings, and I have one that makes a capital seal, as it bears the signet of one of the kings of the XIXth Dynasty. They are of all sizes, from the small stones placed on the finger of a mummy or strung into {583}necklaces, up to some as large as a goose egg, and even much larger. Some of these large ones are simply marvellous. They are of very hard stone,--porphyry, feldspar, basalt, serpentine, carnelian, and the like, and are covered on the under side with finely cut hieroglyphics, generally passages from the Ritual of the Dead.

There is one in the museum at Cairo that I would walk twenty-three miles to own. It is about as large over as a two-cent piece, and the back is cut as neatly as that of the beetle it imitated, while the under side is covered with fine hieroglyphics. And the stone is green feldspar, one of the hardest things in the world for cutting, and how they managed to finish it so beautifully is a mystery.

The Arabs at Luxor have a liberal supply of these scarabees but they are nearly all modern imitations. They have some genuine ones for which they ask a high price, but it sometimes happens that a really good one is sold for a trifle. They declare that every-thing they have is “_antika_” and ask proportionate prices, but you are not expected to offer anywhere near the sum demanded.

When a man exhibited something that I thought I would buy, I asked his price. If he said two pounds, I might offer sixpence, and very often they would come down to one or two shillings for something that they originally asked two pounds for. I bought a scarabee for a franc that was offered to me for thirty francs, and one of my friends paid two francs for something for which one hundred and fifty francs was the first price.

In other countries an article is supposed to be worth somewhere near the price put upon it, but any such rule is erroneous in Egypt. I have no hesitation in offering a silver piastre, (five cents,) for a scarabee whose holder demands two pounds; in New York or London a similar offer would be an insult, but in Luxor it is not so regarded.

A great many people are foolish enough to buy these antiquities at the prices demanded, and the Arabs in this business are able to make a good living. They are reputed to make many of the articles, and I was told that others are made in Cairo, and others in Birmingham--like the famous Waterloo relics. One fellow was pointed out as the owner of a _fabrique d’ antiquities_ {584}and we asked him to show us his shop. He denied having any factory, and then we offered him five francs, ten francs, a napoleon if he would show us through it. He finally grew indignant and said:

“No, no, no; not for ten napoleons will I let you see it.”

The fabrications are very skillful, and even the experts are sometimes deceived by them. The safest parties to deal with are the Consuls; they are all merchants of antiquities, but even they are not always to be relied upon, as they have families to support and human nature is weak. What wonder if a consul who has to maintain dignity and an office, should take advantage of circumstances and drive a sharp transaction whenever he finds a rich flat.

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