Chapter II

Up the Canal — Arab boats — Shoal of swimmers — Beautiful mirage — Egyptian tillage — Atfeh — The lock — The Nile.

The wind was blowing strongly from the south on the day we left Alexandria. Thus we were at once to be exposed to all the hardships of Eastern travelling, beginning the day with the sirocco, followed by the worst night we ever had in Egypt. At an early hour we quitted our hotel, and leaving our baggage to come on in an omnibus, proceeded in cars past Pompey’s Pillar to the canal, where we discovered the small steamer which was to convey us to Cairo. We at once proceeded on board, and found more than a dozen other passengers assembled, including several Jewesses, and the Indian officers and their ladies who had accompanied us from Trieste. A few minutes afterwards we heard with surprise, and with some degree of pleasure, the familiar direction to “go a-head.” Soon our ears caught the corresponding cries of “stop her,” “ease her,” we therefore made no doubt that the engineer was an Englishman; but, on inquiry, he proved to be a black slave, whose whole stock of English was summed up in these words. An Arab, anything but prepossessing in appearance, was stationed in the prow, and kept up an interchange of abuse, fortunately in his native tongue, with all the trading boats, which seemed to make it their aim to offer us every interruption; and certainly it was not their fault that they were unsuccessful.

We saw some pretty villas, though, for the most part, the passage on the canal was in the highest degree monotonous. Its tedium was relieved, however, from time to time by our watching the troops of children, of all ages, who sprang into the water as our boat approached, and followed us for some distance, gamboling alongside like a swarm of porpoises. Indeed, water seems almost the natural element of the Egyptian; and it was most amusing, when the wind fell, to see the crews of sailing vessels jump into the stream, headed by a man with a rope in his mouth, and swim ashore, where they towed away till, turning some sweep, the white lateen sail again caught the breeze, when they all returned on board. They swim well, but not in the European manner, for they use only one hand at a time, which, though more expeditious, is much more fatiguing.

When about ten miles from Alexandria, we came on a rare, and, to strangers, most novel spectacle. It was the Egyptian mirage; and the illusion was so perfect, that for some time, I could not be persuaded that what I saw with such distinctness was not real. The vast plain of sand, stretching far into the distance, assumed the appearance of a boundless lake, smooth and serene as glass; the trees bordering the Desert, became capes and headlands, washed by the tranquil waters, and the white towers of the Suez telegraph, far in the background, were transformed into a fleet of ships. The scene held us spell-bound, and it was with a strong feeling of disappointment that we saw it vanish.

I have already mentioned that a sirocco was blowing; and though we had a thick awning overhead, the heat was intense, rendering the steamer a floating furnace. At last, we were fairly driven from the deck, and took refuge in a small, close cabin, where, with every contrivance our ingenuity could suggest, we were unable to obtain a breath of air. In this situation, it was a relief to learn that we were approaching Atfeh, the point at which we should quit the canal, and be launched on the waters of the Nile.

Atfeh is a large village, composed of miserable mud huts, about six feet high, surrounded by pigeon-houses; for everybody seems to keep pigeons. We landed for a short time, and walked through the place, which we found inhabited by the lower class of Arabs, and dreadfully infested by dogs. What particularly struck us, was the ugliness, if I may be allowed so harsh a word, of the Arab women; yet we found, as we proceeded further, that it could be even more striking—in the lowest depth, a lower still. The children suggested the idea of a plague of locusts, they were so numerous; and, as if clothing was considered a superfluity in such a climate, were all perfectly naked. And here I may remark, that in the villages we visited, we found the inhabitants were all either very young, or elderly; there were no persons of middle age; and it can scarcely be conceived what a strange hiatus the absence of this link created.

Returning on board, our steamer entered the lock, and as the water poured in, gradually rose to the required level, when the flood-gates were opened, and we floated on the Nile.

This was only an arm of the river, here scarcely broader than the Thames at Putney, and muddier than ever was Thames at Blackfriars. Yet how can I describe the feelings it awoke in us? or how eager and earnest was our first glance at its waters?

From the earliest antiquity, the Nile has been everything to Egypt, and, though no longer held in such high veneration, it is still her nurse and mother. But for the Nile, her soil would be barren; her rich valleys, a desert; her interior inaccessible. It is the Nile that fertilizes her fields and pastures; the Nile that opens a highway to her remotest villages.

It was, no doubt, for these reasons, that their great river was associated by the ancient Egyptians with everything they held sacred. On its waters they performed their solemn pilgrimages; celebrated their festivals and triumphs; and when life was extinct, the bodies of the dead were ferried over to their final resting-place. No wonder that they regarded it with superstitious reverence—that they loved it as a benefactor and worshipped it as a god.

Of course, till this moment, we held as an article of faith that the Nile annually overflowed its banks, and inundated the whole country; we found, however, that this was a vulgar error, as the river was now at its highest elevation, yet remained within bounds. Indeed, the natural level of the country is almost everywhere nearly two feet above the reach of the water, and where this is not the case, artificial banks have been raised, which effectually confine the river, while sluices supply the means of irrigation. We saw this attained by other means as we proceeded,—the water being drawn up in earthenware jars, secured round large wheels, turned by oxen or camels; and each jar, as it came up full, was emptied into a large trough, which poured its contents in moderate quantities over a portion of soil. This machine is called a sakiea. Another plan is to place a pole between two mud pillars, with a weight at one end, and a goat-skin bucket attached by a rope to the other. A man pulls the rope down till the bucket is filled with water, when the weight brings it up again, and he overturns it into little dykes, which, emptying themselves into sluices, are gradually discharged on the land. Four men are required day and night to work one of these shadoofs, and two or three are generally seen asleep, or smoking, while another is hard at work. There is a similar contrivance every forty or fifty yards, and thus the country is profusely watered.

We had gone but a short distance, when we came in view of a most charming scene, and in the midst rose the little village of Foua, composed of only a few mud huts, which, however, in this spot looked exceedingly picturesque. A beautiful Egyptian sunset shed its glories around, gleaming like gold on the tall palm trees, while the minarets of the mosque, white as snow, stood strongly out on the dark blue sky. Flocks of pigeons careered to and fro overhead, or alighted on the glaring pigeon-house; and before us flowed the Nile, in her calmest mood, giving a look of completeness and repose to the picture. It came opportunely to compensate us for our hitherto monotonous passage, and our eyes were unwilling to withdraw from it, for we now began to find that the sketches of Roberts were not altogether imaginative, and that we could recognise some of the places pourtrayed by his pencil.

This little oasis was succeeded by a flat, uninteresting country, overgrown with reeds, and by extensive marshes, which abounded with various species of birds; I noticed, among others, plovers, pigeons, gray crows, variegated king-fishers, and huge hawks. Soon afterwards we discovered two beautiful gazelles, which stood looking at our little vessel for a moment, as if lost in amazement, and then flew with the swiftness of light across the plain. Nothing could exceed the grace and nimbleness of their movements, and we watched their progress with the greatest interest. They are, I learnt, seldom found so low down the river, though met with in great numbers up the country.

We were much amused by seeing a herd of buffaloes swimming for one of the numerous islands. They were in charge of several men, who sat on the hindmost of the drove, controlling the movements of the rest. It was, however, no easy task to keep them in order, and the men had frequently to jump from one buffalo to another, at the imminent risk of a ducking, to reach some unruly beast which would not be restrained by moral influence. I was surprised to see that these animals swam almost entirely under water, only their heads being visible; yet they are always drawn with the whole back above the surface. Such are the tricks of artists!

It was now time to think of how we were to pass the night, and, with our limited accommodations, this became a very grave question. The Jewesses had taken possession of the ladies’ cabin, and with their inherent predilection for garlic, and other national peculiarities, possession on their part was tantamount to an exclusion of the English ladies. After a consultation, however, it was determined to dispatch an embassy to the fair Hebrews, to see if it were possible to effect some arrangement as to windows, so as to secure a circulation of air; but, of course, the mission proved abortive. We were now in a dilemma, and it required all our ingenuity and gallantry to suggest a means of relief. At length, it was resolved that the Jewesses should be left undisturbed, and that the whole of the representatives of Christendom, numbering some twenty persons, should pack in the gentlemen’s cabin—a little close place, which gave an admirable idea of the black-hole of Calcutta.

Now Greek met Greek, and English good-humour and good-nature came out in the most favourable colours. Here lay a captain of the Indian army, a most agreeable fellow; but, in our restricted space, about a foot too long, being of the unconscionable stature of six feet two. His head rested on a sofa, and his feet on the table, in a very comfortable- looking slant. In another corner, a Scotch lieutenant arranged some cushions for his bride, whose wedding trip was by the Overland Mail; and good care he seemed to take of her, though he took much more of himself. My party disposed themselves as they best could. For my own part, I made a good pillow of a carpet-bag, and went off to sleep with as little delay as possible.

Morning found us very early on deck, in a tolerably dirty condition, from the steam and soot which had poured through the open windows, and with very narrow resources for amending the same. Indeed, a resolution seemed to have been tacitly adopted, that henceforth every one was to eschew razors, and moustachios and beards were to be allowed to develop themselves in the wildest luxuriance.

On looking round, we found the country much improved, and could well imagine it a land of perpetual plenty. The richly-cultivated plain, scarcely two feet above the level of the river, was a perfect garden of wheat, sugar-canes, beans, and lentils. Hundreds of men were baling water with shadoofs, which discharged themselves over the fields, while milk-white oxen, worthy successors of Pharaoh’s fat kine, walked round and round in little sheds, turning the creaking sakiea. It was indeed a scene such as only Egypt could furnish.

After breakfast, we came in sight of the Pyramids, which loomed out of the horizon like huge mountains. They were still an immense way off, and we were able to form some notion of their real height, when, though standing on a plain of sand, they assumed at a distance such gigantic proportions. From the moment they became visible, we could talk of nothing else; and every one looked with impatience for the time when he should stand at the foot of these Alps of art, and be able to inspect them closely. Even the Jewesses were in raptures,—perhaps they went back in their minds to that dark period when “the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, wherefore have you not fulfilled your task in making brick as heretofore?”

Early in the afternoon, we reached Boulac, the Wapping of Cairo, having accomplished the passage from Alexandria in about thirty hours. We landed amidst the greatest hubbub imaginable—as if all the population had turned out to receive us. With some difficulty we made our way through the crowd,—which had assembled to witness the arrival of the boat, and conducted our ladies to a perfect London omnibus that we found standing in readiness. We then saw our luggage hoisted on camels, which bore our enormous packages, some weighing a thousand pounds, with the greatest ease; but we were afterwards less astonished at this, when we beheld a porter walk nimbly up a flight of stairs with a box weighing three hundred weight, supported solely on his back, by a cord round his forehead.

All being ready, we joined the ladies in the omnibus, which was dragged off by four miserable Arab horses; and we soon found ourselves in comfortable quarters at the Hôtel de l’Europe.