Read Ebook: Life in the Soudan Adventures Amongst the Tribes and Travels in Egypt in 1881 and 1882 by Williams Josiah

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As I had to start for Brindisi at 3 a.m. on Sunday, November 20th, I had not much time for sleep, notwithstanding which I got between the sheets until then, when I was conveyed to the station and finished my nap in the train.

P. AND O. STEAMER "TANJORE"--ARRIVAL OF THE MAIL AND PASSENGERS--ANCIENT BRINDISI--BRINDISI TO ALEXANDRIA-- ALEXANDRIA PAST AND PRESENT--ITS TRADE.

No one would care to remain very long in Brindisi, as it is a most uninteresting place notwithstanding its antiquity. I remember once, in 1877, spending a few hours there, and was then very glad when my train left for Naples. Brindisi was, if I remember rightly, the birth-place of Virgil. It is a sea-port and fortified town 45 miles from Taranto. In ancient times it was one of the most important cities of Calabria. It is said by Strabo to have been governed by its own kings at the time of the foundation of Tarentum. It was one of the chief cities of the Sallentines, and the excellence of its port and commanding situation in the Adriatic were among the chief inducements of the Romans to attack them. The Romans made it a naval station, and frequently directed their operations from it. It was the scene of important operations in the war between Caesar and Pompey. On the fall of the Western Empire it declined in importance. In the eleventh century it fell into the possession of the Normans, and became one of the chief ports of embarkation for the Crusades. Its importance as a sea-port was subsequently completely lost, and its harbour blocked. In 1870 the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company put on a weekly line of steamers between Brindisi and Alexandria for the conveyance of Her Majesty's eastern mails, and at the same time made it a post of transit for goods brought from India by these steamers to be forwarded to the north of Italy by rail. From this cause the imports of Brindisi have suddenly risen in importance.

About 12 mid-day on the 21st November, we got under way with 110 first-class passengers on board, the weather was fine, much warmer than in Turin and Milan, and the sea smooth, which I was thankful for; 22nd the same; 23rd fine and sea smooth until about 4 p.m., when the sea became rough, and I very uncomfortable, undesirous of dinner and very desirous of being quietly settled in my berth, which I sought without loss of time, knowing by a past bitter and sour experience that I should ere long present a pitiable spectacle. During the night the sea became so rough that the port-holes of the cabins had to be closed, so that in addition to feeling excessively sick I was almost suffocated, as the weather was very warm. On the morning of the 24th, at 10 o'clock, we landed at the far-famed city of Alexandria.

Even in sunny Italy I had felt the weather, in the neighbourhood of Turin, Milan, and Bologna, cold and frosty enough in the morning for an overcoat. At Brindisi it was not so cold, but as we neared the African coast the sky grew warmer and warmer, and tinged, so to speak, with a reflection of the Libyan desert, a soft purple hue, rather than the deep blue of Italy. Only those who have witnessed sunset in Africa can form any conception of the beautiful tints reflected from the rocks and sands; there you see the soft purple, lovely crimson, pale gold, rose and violet colours all shading off into one another in the most charming manner. I have never seen anywhere such glorious sunsets as in Africa.

Having but a short time to stay in Alexandria, I made good use of it in exploring the place. Through what strange vicissitudes has this ancient city passed. Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great, B.C. 332, on the site of a village called Rak?tis, or Racoudah. Its founder wished to make it the centre of commerce between the east and west, and we know how fully his aspirations have been realized. It stood a little to the south of the present town, was 15 miles in circumference, and had a population of 300,000 free inhabitants, and at least an equal number of slaves. So distinguished was it for its magnificence, that the Romans ranked it next to their own capital, and when captured by Amru, general of the Caliph Omar , it contained 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 400 theatres or places of amusement, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetables, and 40,000 tributary Jews. But we are getting on a little too fast. As I said before, it was founded B.C. 332, by Alexander the Great, who is said to have traced the plan of the new city himself, and his architect, Dinarchus or Dinocrates directed its execution. The city was regularly built, and traversed by two principal streets, each 100 feet wide, and one of them four miles long. Campbell says: "He designed the shape of the whole after that of a Macedonian cloak, and his soldiers strewed meal to mark the line where its walls were to rise. These, when finished, enclosed a compass of 80 furlongs filled with comfortable abodes, and interspersed with palaces, temples, and obelisks of marble porphyry, that fatigued the eye with admiration. The main streets crossed each other at right angles, from wall to wall, with beautiful breadth, and to the length of nearly nine miles. At their extremities the gates looked out on the gilded barges of the Nile, of fleets at sea under full sail, on a harbour that sheltered navies, and on a lighthouse that was the mariner's star and the wonder of the world."

One-fourth of the area upon which it was built was covered with temples, palaces, and public buildings. Conspicuous upon its little isle was the famous lighthouse of Pharos, the islet being connected with the city by a mole. Under the Caesars, Alexandria attained extraordinary prosperity; large merchant fleets carried on a reciprocal commerce with India and Ethiopia, and its industrial population were chiefly employed in the weaving of linen, and the manufacture of glass and papyrus.

The Alexandrians were turbulent, and several times revolted under the Ptolemies and the Romans. Caesar was obliged, in B.C. 47, to put down a terrible insurrection in this city. Under the emperors, Alexandria suffered a series of massacres, which gradually depopulated it. In 611, Chosro?s, King of Persia, seized it, but his son restored it to the emperors. In 641, Amru--whom I spoke of just now--took it by storm, after a siege of 14 months, and a loss of 23,000 men. The Turks captured it in 868 and 1517.

In the early part of this century, under the vigorous, but most unscrupulous, rule of Mehemet Ali , Alexandria became again a thriving and important place.

It is said that in the character of the population, at least, there still remains a strong resemblance to the ancient city of the Ptolemies. Sullen-looking Copts replace the exclusive old Egyptians, their reputed ancestors. Greeks and Jews, too, swarm as before, both possibly changed a little for the worse. The mass of Levantines and Franks, who make up the sum of the population, may, I think, without any exaggeration, be designated as the off-scourings of their respective countries. The streets swarm with Turks in many-coloured robes, half-naked, brown-skinned Arabs, glossy negroes in loose white dresses and vermilion turbans, sordid, shabby-looking Israelites in greasy black, smart, jaunty, rakish Greeks, heavy-browed Armenians, unkempt, unmasked Maltese ragamuffins, Albanians and Europeans of every shade of respectability, from lordly consuls down to refugee quacks, swindlers, and criminals, who here get whitewashed and established anew. Here you see a Frank lady in the last Parisian bonnet, there Egyptian women enveloped to the eyes in shapeless black wrappers, while dirty Christian monks, sallow Moslem dervishes, sore-eyed beggars, and naked children covered with flies, present a shifting and everlasting kaleidoscope of the most undignified phases of Eastern and Western existence.

The great square, or Grande Place, is the chief place of business and resort. It is a quarter of a mile long, and 150 feet wide, paved on each side, with a railed garden in the centre, planted with lime-trees, and having a fountain at each end. Here are the principal shops and hotels, the English consulate and church, banks, offices of companies, &c. The buildings are all in the Italian style, spacious and handsome, or, rather, were when I visited it. Most of the ancient landmarks are fast disappearing. The site of Cleopatra's Palace is now occupied by a railway station for the line to Ramleh, seven miles distant, overlooking the bay of Abaukir, the scene of Nelson's victory over the French fleet in 1798. Of course, I could not be in Alexandria without paying a visit to Pompey's pillar, or, more properly, Diocletian's pillar. It is a grand column, and occupies an eminence 1,800 feet to the south of the present walls; its total height is 98 feet 9 inches. It is a single block of red granite on the mounds overlooking the lake Mareotis and the modern city.

An account of the ancient and modern history of Alexandria would fill a volume of the most stirring interest. I, however, will be content with giving to my readers a very small portion of a volume on Alexandria, as I shall have a good deal yet to say on Cairo and neighbourhood, and still more to say on the Soudan.

It was to Alexandria that science, fostered by the munificence of the Ptolemies, retired from her ancient seat at Heliopolis. "The sages of the Museum, who lodged in that part of the palace of the Lagides, might there be said to live as the priests of the Muses, taking the word in its wide sense, as the patronesses of knowledge. They had gardens, and alleys, and galleries where they walked and conversed, a common hall where they made their repasts, and public rooms where they gave instruction to the youth who crowded from all parts of the world to hear their lectures." This museum, a unique establishment in literary history, was founded by Ptolemy Soter, King of Egypt, who died B.C. 283, and was greatly enlarged by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus and the succeeding Ptolemies. In connection with the museum was the Alexandrian Library, the most famous and the largest collections of books in the world, and the glory of Alexandria. Demetrius Phalereus, after his banishment from Athens, is said to have been its first superintendent, when the number of volumes, or rolls, amounted to 50,000.

A valuable collection was again accumulated in Alexandria, but was doomed to suffer the same fate, being burned by the Arabs when they captured the city under the Caliph Omar in 641. Amru, the captain of the Caliph's army, would have been willing to spare the library, but the fanatical Omar disposed of the matter in the famous words:--"If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran, there could be no need of them; if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed;" and they were accordingly used for heating the 4,000 baths in the city. Just before the time of Mehemet Ali, Alexandria was a miserable place of a few thousand inhabitants, cut off from the valley of the Nile by the ruin of the ancient canal. Under his rule it greatly revived in political and commercial importance, and the re-opening of its canal has restored to its harbour all the trade of Egypt.

The principal articles of export are cotton, beans, peas, rice, wheat, barley, gums, flax, hides, lentils, linseed, mother-of-pearl, sesamum, senna, ostrich feathers, &c.

Those who are not given to pedestrian exercise can easily avail themselves of a cab or donkey, and they will find the streets, which are spacious and handsome, very pleasant to traverse, as they are all well paved in the city; but the dust outside the walls covers the ground from four to six inches deep, and in combination with the intense glare of the sun, and the wretched hovels of the natives, produces the ophthalmia so common, especially among the Arabs. Owing to the want of proper drainage, what would otherwise be a salubrious site is subject to malarious disease and the plague.

I have spoken of the Alexandrian library; quite as much may be said of the Alexandrian school; combined, they may be justly considered the first academy of arts and sciences.

The most violent religious controversies disturbed the Alexandrian church until the orthodox tenets were established in it by Athanasius, in the controversy with the Arians.

Among the scholars are to be found great mathematicians, as Euclid, the father of scientific geometry, and whose work, I distinctly recollect, was a great bore to me in my younger days; Appolonius, of Perga, in Pamphylia, whose work on conic sections still exists; Nichomachus, the first scientific arithmetician; astronomers, who employed the Egyptian hieroglyphics for marking the northern hemisphere, and fixed the images and names of the Constellations, who left astronomical writings , and made improvements in the theory of the calendar, which were afterwards adopted into the Julian calendar; natural philosophers, anatomists, as Herophilus and Erasistratus; physicians and surgeons, as Demosthenes Philalethes, who wrote the first work on diseases of the eye; Zopyrus and Cratenas, who improved the art of pharmacy and invented antidotes; instructors in the art of medicine, to whom Asclepiades, Loranus, and Galen owed their education; medical theorists and empirics, of the sect founded by Philinus. All these belonged to the numerous association of scholars continuing under the Roman dominion and favoured by the Roman emperors, which rendered Alexandria one of the most renowned and influential seats of science in antiquity. With this passing glance at Alexandria, we will journey on to Cairo.

THE FERTILIZING RIVERS OF EGYPT--LEAVE ALEXANDRIA--INCIDENTS EN ROUTE--SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL--ANCIENT AND MODERN CAIRO--THE DONKEY BOYS--ARAB PATIENTS--DANCING DERVISHES--THE HOUSE WHERE JOSEPH, MARY, AND THE INFANT SAVIOUR LIVED IN OLD CAIRO--THE BAULAC MUSEUM--THE PETRIFIED FOREST--MOKATTAM HILLS--TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS AND CITADEL--CAIRO AT SUNSET.

In former times, before the introduction of railways, the traveller to Cairo had to go by canal, hire a boat, servant; procure a carpet, mattress, and bedding; lay in a store of provisions, and a variety of minor articles that would fill a page or two to mention. Now we can go comfortably by rail in a few hours, the distance being something like 120 miles, I think.

The White Nile is of lacustrine origin, and conveys no mud, but an excess of vegetable matter, suspended in the finest particles, and exhibiting beneath the microscope minute globules of green matter, which have the appearance of germs. When the two rivers meet at the Khartoum junction, the water of the Blue Nile, which contains lime, appears to coagulate the alluminous matter in that of the White Nile, which is then precipitated, and forms a deposit; after which the true Nile, formed by a combination of the two rivers, becomes wholesome, and remains comparatively clear, until it meets the muddy Athara. The Sobat river is a most important tributary, supposed to have its sources in the southern portion of the Galla country.

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. It lies on the east bank of the Nile, in a sandy plain, and contains old Cairo, Boulac , and new Cairo, which are, to a considerable degree, distinct from each other. The city itself, separate from the gardens and plantations which surround it, is about 10 miles in circuit, has 31 gates, and 240 irregular unpaved streets, which during the night are, or were, closed at the end of the quarter, to prevent disturbances. The houses are for the most part built of brick, with flat roofs, and the interior of many of them is very sumptuous. The chief square of Cairo, El-Esbekiah, has a magnificent area, the centre of which is laid out as a garden, and is annually inundated by the overflowing of the Nile. It is surrounded by the finest palaces. There is in it a monument to General Kleber. The inhabitants of the city and suburbs, in 1871 353,851, are Arabs or Mahomedans, Coptish Christians, Mamelukes, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Jews, and natives of various countries of Europe. The castle, or citadel, situated on a rock, containing Joseph's Well, 276 feet deep, is the residence of the Pasha. There are 80 public baths, 400 mosques, two Greek, 12 Coptish, one Armenian, and one English church, 36 synagogues, and many silk, camlet, tapestry, gunpowder, leather, linen, and cotton factories. Among the mosques, which, though many of them are in ruins, form the most conspicuous edifices of the city, the most remarkable is that of Sultan Hassan, which is built of blocks of polished marble, obtained from the outer casing of the pyramids, or pyramid rather, for, if my memory serves me right, they are from the great pyramid of Cheops at Gizeh. It has a beautifully ornamented porch, richly corniced walls, and many tall minarets. Here is also a Mahomedan high school, a printing office and 25,000 volumes. The largest convent of dervishes is at Cairo. It was built in 1174. The traffic of Cairo is very great, since it is the centre of communication between Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, and the North of Africa, and is upon the railway from Alexandria to Suez. The principal bazaars are the Ghoreah and Khan Khalel. Goods are disposed of there by public auction, and the different bazaars exhibit different kinds of merchandise. Ibrahim Pasha commenced a public library in 1830, and in 1842 a European Society, called the Egyptian Literary Association, was established. Mehemet Ali introduced schools for elementary education, and the Church of England Missionary Society has two schools.

Cairo was founded by Jauhar, general of the Caliph Moez, in the year of the Hegira 368, or A.D. 969, on the site of the Egyptian Babylon. Moez afterwards made it his capital, which distinction it retained until the overthrow of the Mamelukes by Sultan Selim in 1517. Saladin extended and fortified it in 1176. It was repeatedly attacked by the Crusaders, particularly by St. Louis in 1249. It was occupied by the French from 1798 to 1801, when it was recovered by the Turks with the assistance of the English. A great fire occurred there in February, 1863; advantage was taken of it to improve the town.

Our military occupation of Egypt , and events that are now transpiring there, are a sufficient excuse for dealing shortly with the ancient history of Cairo and the neighbourhood.

Soon after our arrival at Shepheard's Hotel, when we had restored ourselves to our personal comfort, our host provided us with a good dinner, to which we did ample justice, and as the weather was like a summer's evening in England, we enjoyed the usual after-dinner cigarettes in the balcony, which is a very pleasant lounge, even in the day time, as it is quite sheltered from the blazing sun. I soon strolled off to bed with the idea of obtaining a good night's rest, so that I should awake refreshed and fit for a pilgrimage to the various shrines of intense interest with which Cairo and its neighbourhood abounds. I have visited and seen all that was interesting in Rome, once the mistress of the world--Corinth, once the seat of learning and the abode of a most polished people; Ephesus; have stood on the ancient Acropolis of Athens, the plains of Troy, celebrated by Virgil; explored Misenum, Pateoli, Baiae, Pompeii, and Herculaneum, all rich in historical associations; but compared with the remains of ancient cities near Cairo these places were of yesterday's growth, and were not even thought of until ages after the glory and high civilization of the people in the land of the Pharaohs had passed away. When Abraham entered the Delta from Canaan with his countrymen, moving about in tents and waggons, the Egyptians were living in cities enjoying all the advantages of a settled government and established laws; had already cultivated agriculture, parcelled out their valley into farms, and reverenced a landmark as a god.

Probably many of my readers are aware that M. Ferdinand de Lesseps was not the originator of a canal to the Red Sea, for Pharaoh Necho, one of the Sais kings, began it from the Nile. His sailors, circumnavigated Africa; he conquered Jerusalem, and when the Chaldees afterwards drove back the Egyptian army the remnant of Judah, with the Prophet Jeremiah, retreated into Egypt to seek a refuge with King Hophra.

In this age of progress, it may seem strange to say so, but Egyptian landlords had much the same tastes 3,000 years ago as English landlords have now. They were much addicted to field-sports. Not only does history tell us so, but I have seen often in their sculptures and paintings that this was so. Even on the tomb and chapel of King Phty at Sakkara, which is said to be over 5,000 years old, I saw scenes of fowling, fishing, hunting, running down the gazelle, spearing the hippopotamus, of coursing and netting hares, of shooting wild cattle with arrows, and catching them with the lasso. They had fish ponds, game preserves, and game laws, they were fond of horses and dogs, kept good tables, gave morning and evening parties, amused themselves with games of skill and chance, were proud of their ancestors, built fine houses and furnished them handsomely, and paid great attention to horticulture and arboriculture.

This certainly reads like contemporary history; but I will go further. To use a well-known expression, "would you be surprised to hear" that the tenants paid the same proportionate rent as the British farmer of to-day? The average gross produce of a farm here was ?8 an acre, average rent about 32s. an acre--just one-fifth--the exact rent paid by the tenants of Potiphar, Captain of the Guard, and of Potipherah, Priest of On, Joseph's father-in-law, and the same was paid to Pharaoh himself by his tenants. At that time the whole acreage of the country was divided into rectangular estates. One-third belonged to the king, two-thirds in equal proportions to the priestly and military castes; and these were cultivated by another order of men, who, for the use of the land, paid rent--one-fifth of the gross produce--to the owner.

Altogether I spent nearly a fortnight in Cairo, and feeling a great interest in the historical associations of this ancient place and the neighbourhood, I resolved to see and learn as much as I could of them during my short stay. In the morning, after early breakfast, I amused myself for a short time by sitting in the shade of the extensive balcony in front of Shepheard's Hotel, which overlooks the street, and is contiguous to it. The scene which presented itself to my gaze was truly Oriental in character. Now I see a few camels stalking silently, slowly, and sedately on, variously laden--some with baskets of large stones for building purposes, others with long pieces of timber on each side, others with skins of water and so on; then an Arab lady on donkey-back, riding after the manner of men, and covered from head to foot in unsightly black wrappers, having just a slit in them, through which can be seen a large pair of lustrous dark eyes, and down the bridge of her nose are some brass-looking ornaments, resembling as much as anything a row of thimbles inserted in one another. A Turkish lady's dress and yashmack is much more becoming, and her nose is not ornamented by the addition of the thimble arrangement. The Turkish ladies wear quite a thin white muslin yashmack over their faces. This does not conceal very much of the features, which, as a rule, are very beautiful. The Egyptian ladies wear a black yashmack, which conceals all except the eyes. Report says they are ugly; if so, they are quite right to do so. Next I see a carriage driven along preceded by two sais, or runners, to clear the way, and it is surprising what a pace they go at with a long, swinging trot. They are picturesquely and gorgeously dressed, each bearing a long wand, and wearing a tarboosh , the long thick blue tassel of which floats gracefully over the shoulders, and not at all unlike what some of the ladies in Athens wear, except that their tassels are black. Then we see blind, or partially blind, beggars, of whom there are vast numbers, Coptic and Mahomedan women and children, girls with baskets of flowers and lovely roses, sweet-meat, fly-whisp, water, and fruit-sellers, conjurers, snake-charmers, one and all soliciting "backsheesh," dusky, brown-skinned Arabs clad in loose-flowing robes and white turbans, coal-black Nubians, Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and Europeans of all shades of colour, religion, and politics. Here, in fact, in this city of Saladin and of the "Arabian Nights Entertainments" creations kindle into life and reality as I look upon everything around me.

The apartments of an Arab house of the well-to-do are decorated with Arabesque lattices, instead of glass windows. Inside are luxurious divans heaped with soft cushions, instead of sofas and chairs; and instead of the rattling of cabs, carts, and tramcars we hear the wild, shrill, trilling note of the Arabian women indicating some occasion of joy or sorrow, or hear the equally peculiar long drawn-out note of the muezzin from some minaret calling the faithful to prayer.

My first experience was this: as soon as I was seated and had rammed the tip of my boot into the stirrup, the donkey-boy shouts, "Ha--ha." This warning note the donkey knows full well, and off he goes at a kind of running trot, which is all right. Soon these ha-ha's increase in frequency, and ere long I can fancy myself a second Mezeppa. The imp behind now accompanies his peculiar yell with a sharp prog of a pointed stick, and the donkey takes a very pointed cognisance of it, for now "He urges on his wild career." In the wide, open streets this rapid mode of progression has an exhilarating tendency, but in the narrow streets of the bazaars unguarded human beings fly to the right of me, unguarded human beings fly to the left of me, and imprecations, not loud, but deep, in an unknown tongue, fall on my untutored ear as my donkey indiscriminately cannons on to the unobservant. A few words about these donkeys, and donkey-boys so called. Most of the latter are not boys at all, but full-grown men, notwithstanding which they are always called donkey-boys. These and their donkeys are quite an institution in the East. The donkeys own all kinds of popular English names, and of course are possessed of every good quality. Most of the donkey-boys have picked up more or less English, and in expatiating on the good qualities of their beasts are accustomed to interlard their speech with the strong language of the West, and you would be surprised to hear how promptly they will consign a fellow donkey-boy to an inhospitable and much-warmer region than Cairo, and to the care of a much blacker individual than themselves. The reader is here called upon to exercise his or her imagination. I had myself derived considerable amusement when watching an intending pilgrim securing one of these donkeys. To be forewarned is to be forearmed; I flattered myself that by making my selection sure before I got amongst them, my tactics would be most successful, but as the sequel will show, I was grossly deceived, having reckoned without my host, or hosts I ought to say. First intending pilgrim. He descends the steps of Shepheard's Hotel, and moves towards the donkeys--a fatal movement. Instantly the air is thick with donkeys and donkey-boys. The latter yell frantically a chorus of praises concerning the useful quadrupeds, which are most adroitly and with surprising dexterity brought one after the other under his very nose, whilst the poor victim is jostled about in the most bewildering and unpleasant manner. I have been both a spectator of and an actor in this performance, and I can safely say the spectator derives by far the greatest amusement.

"Hakeem, what I do with my eyes? They very bad sometimes."

"Oh!" said I, "you bring me a bottle to-morrow morning, and I will give you something for them," little thinking of the consequences. The lotion did his eyes a great deal of good, and two days afterwards a great many of his friends called, to all of whom I gave lotion. During my stay here, and some months afterwards on returning from the Soudan, I was, every morning, employed after breakfast at my medicine chest preparing eye lotions for my Arab friends, invocations for the blessings of Allah being my recompense. The poor fellows appeared to be grateful, and I dare say it was genuine, not like a canting old Irish vagrant woman, who, if you give a hunk of bread and cheese to, will exclaim--

"Thank yer honour kindly!" and as long as she is in hearing keep muttering, "Och! sure now, there's a kind jintleman for ye, me darlint. Sure now he is intirely an illigant jintleman; only for him I would not have a bite this morning, that's sure for ye. May Heaven guide him and the blessed Virgin protect him!" Then out of hearing it is, "Och! the dirty spalpeen! What will I do wid this? May the curse of Cromwell light on ye for a murthering Sassenach. What will I do honey? and I not had a sup of gin this blessed day to keep the cowld out of me poor thrimbling ould body!"

But I am digressing. One day I took a donkey ride to old Cairo, and with others from the hotel visited the dancing dervishes, and the house said to have been inhabited by our Saviour. Old Cairo is about two miles distant from Grand Cairo. It was at old Cairo that the child Jesus, with Joseph and Mary, lived for a time, having fled from the bloody, persecuting Herod. The place said to have been His exile home is now a small Greek church. The steps to the room are very much worn, but great care is taken of every part of it; silver lamps, hung from the ceiling, are burning night and day, and no one is allowed to enter without the presence of a Greek priest. It certainly is not difficult to believe that, considering the mild Syrian atmosphere, and the absence of rain, the building may be much more than 1,800 years old.

The dancing dervishes next engaged our attention. When in Constantinople I visited the dancing dervishes at Pera and the howling dervishes on the other side of the Bosphorus at Scutari. The dancing dervishes wear a dress of greyish material, which reaches a little below the knee, and is confined by a girdle round the waist. When they spin round like Teetotums this looks like an open umbrella. The head is covered by a curious-looking, tall, conical felt hat without any brim.

The howling dervishes do not confine themselves in their exercises to the dancing just described. They accompany them with loud vociferations of the name of Allah, and violent contortions of the body such as are seen in persons seized with epileptic fits. And even these extravagances are not so bad as those which were formerly practised, when the dervishes, after working themselves into a frenzy, used to cut and torture themselves in various ways with apparent delight. The sheiks of all orders have the credit of possessing miraculous powers. The interpretation of dreams, the cure of diseases, and the removal of barrenness, are the gifts for which the dervishes are most in repute. Had I to live in such a hot climate as Cairo, I should feel thankful that our religion does not necessitate such violent bodily exertion as that which these dervishes indulge in. The road to old Cairo was very, very dusty, and the weather excessively hot, as it always is in the day time. We left the dancing dervishes after remaining about half-an-hour, and rode back to our hotel in the afternoon too late for any further explorations that day. On the following day I spent some hours in a very enjoyable and also instructive manner, namely in inspecting the priceless articles in the Baulac Museum. This museum, I suppose, contains some of the most ancient things in this world, and I regret very much that I could not devote a week to inspecting the contents of it instead of a few hours. I should have seen the treasures contained here, and known very little concerning them , had I not been so fortunate as to get into conversation with Brusch Bey, the curator, a most intelligent and obliging gentleman, whose heart is enthusiastically in his work. He was kind enough to spend about two or three hours with me and enlighten me on very many things which would have been a sealed book to me but for him. There lay before us one grand discovery of 32 kings and queens, who had ruled Egypt in the dim distant ages long ago. The gilding on the inner coffins was as perfect and untarnished as it was the week they were executed, although thousands of years have rolled by since the handy craftsman was engaged on them. They were covered with information that none but an Egyptologist could decipher. In this museum was pointed out to me a picture said to be the most ancient in the world, it was a painted picture of Egyptian geese, as well done, I should imagine, as any ordinary painter of the present day could do it. There were bronzes and polished marble statuary as perfect in appearance as when they left the workmen's hands, and, as far as I could judge, as well finished as they would be by workmen of the present day, although 2,000 or 3,000 years old. An ingenious and strong little cabinet engaged my attention some time; the doors of hard wood were well carved and the joints as exquisitely dove-tailed in as any man of the present day could make them. In a glass case I saw basket-work, a chair, rope, twine, seals, rings, javelins, slings, food and seeds as they were found in an ancient tomb, the mason's mallet cut out of a solid piece of wood, precisely the same shape and size as those in use here at the present time, jewellery well-finished and solid-looking, and many other things too numerous to mention. On carefully examining this valuable and interesting collection, some of which were 3,000, 4,000, or 5,000 years old, I could not help thinking that they served well to illustrate the highly civilized condition of the people at so remote a period.

To give details of all the interesting things in this museum would occupy too much time to the exclusion of other matter, but there are two things that call for notice on account of their very great antiquity. One is a wooden statue, which has been carved out of a solid block of very hard wood, and is that of a man about 5ft. 7in. in height. As one stands in front of that wooden statue gazing for a short time, he almost appears to be endowed with a soul and the power of speech, so excellent is the execution of the figure, and so expressive the face; no one can doubt for a moment that he was the creation of a high civilization. It was found in a tomb at Sakhara and belongs to one of the early dynasties of the old primaeval monarchy, and is absolutely untarnished by the thousands of years it has been reposing in that tomb; there is actually no sign of decay. The antiquity of that statue astonishes me, and I dare say it will my readers. Brusch Bey told me that it was supposed to be 5,400 years old, and that probably it was older than that. The other statue, that of Chephren, the builder of the second Pyramid, with his name inscribed upon it, is in Diorite, one of the hardest kind of stones, carefully executed and beautifully polished. These Egyptians were evidently people of considerable forethought, and when they wanted their names and deeds to live long after them engraved on tablets of stone, they selected the most durable they could, and it is more than probable that had they contemplated building such houses of Parliament as we have built in London, they would have selected a hard, not a soft stone, that continually requires patching up. Well, the features of Chephren's statue are uninjured, and Brusch Bey and I gazed on them just as they were seen by Chephren and his court 5,000 years ago. It was discovered by Mariette Bey, at the bottom of a well, which supplied the water used for sacred purposes in the sepulchral temple attached to Chephren's Pyramid. It was no doubt originally erected in the temple, and was probably thrown into the well by the barbarous Hyksos or iconoclastic Persians.

During the late military operations, or "police measures," grave apprehensions for the safety of the Baulac Museum arose, but fortunately it escaped the violence of the mob. The greater part of one day was occupied by a visit with my familiar Ibrahim to the mosques of note, the citadel, tombs of the Caliphs and Mamelukes. Another day I got a companion from the hotel to accompany me to the petrified forest, some miles out in the desert. It covers an area of about 15 miles. All this space is pretty thickly strewed over with what appears to be trunks and branches of trees. I took hold of what appeared exactly like the wooden branch of a tree, and so it had once been, but for ages it had lain here, a solid piece of very hard stone. The place is an absolutely desolate one in the desert, with not a sign of vegetation in sight. Whether these had been washed here during the flood or had once grown in the neighbourhood or not, or how they came there, I never could ascertain, although I have sought for information on the subject in all directions. No one seems to be able to tell me anything about the origin of this petrified forest, and I have not hitherto found a book containing any allusion to it. We returned to Cairo by the Mokhottam hills behind the citadel somewhat late in the afternoon, consequently had to urge on our donkeys so that we should see Cairo by sunset. We were here just in time to do so, as there is scarcely any twilight in the East; the transition from day to night does not occupy very many minutes. The picturesque panorama that opened out to our view well repaid us for our trouble. There before and beneath us lay Cairo with its innumerable mosques and minarets, the Nile with the peculiar Nile boats called dahabeahs floating peacefully on its surface. Here and there the stately camel strides silently on, veiled women and turbaned Arabs in loose flowing robes, groves of palm trees, while nearer to us we see the half-ruined tombs of the Caliphs and Mamelukes, the citadel and the beautiful mosque of Mehemet Ali full of carved columns of alabaster. To the late burning heat which we encountered in the desert succeeds a soft, balmy, dry air, and the beautiful and varied hues of the setting sun is reflected from the glittering mosques and minarets, rocks and sands, presenting a picture which will not soon fade from my memory, and which requires the poetry, eloquence, and pen of a Byron to adequately describe. In striking contrast to the beautiful scene we had just enjoyed was the wretched-looking houses of the Arabs, the squalor, dirt and miserable pathways on the hill-side which we encountered immediately afterwards as we pursued our homeward journey.

"Stranger, I guess this Cairo is a tarnation rummy place?"

Seeing no reason to dispute this by no means rash assertion, I readily conceded the point; and, by way of carrying on the conversation, ventured to remark that--

"It certainly is a very curious and interesting old place, and the inhabitants no less so."

This also was an indisputable fact, and I acknowledged that they were a strange race, strongly wedded to old customs, and as strongly opposed to innovations.

Now, of course I knew what he meant, but thought his remarks were so original, not to say impertinent, that I must not omit this opportunity of extracting some amusement, and provide material for my diary. I therefore replied--

"Oh! I came by the P. and O. line to Alexandria, by rail here, and now my lines have fallen in pleasant places."

"Guess yew don't quite fathom me. What's yer business, and where are you going tew?" said he.

I then gave him the names of a number of places in Egypt and the Soudan, enumerating them as rapidly as I could, so that I am quite sure my nasal friend was very little the wiser for the information.

He enshrouded himself in a huge cloud of smoke, vigorously expectorated once more, and regarding me fixedly for a moment, exclaimed--

I suppose, because I told him I was travelling with six other gentlemen, he thought we were going to start a colony somewhere, and then annex all the adjacent country, which, by the way, would certainly be a very good thing for the Egyptians and the Soudanese, and very probably for ourselves also. However, I gave him to understand that we were simply travelling for pleasure, exploration, and sport. Notwithstanding this, my Yankee acquaintance was determined to turn me inside out if he could; he, therefore, was so complimentary as to say--

"Well, now, I guess you are a gentleman?"

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