MOUNTAIN SUNDAY- ENCROACHMENT OF THE DESERT-ARAB GIRLS-TREAT- CATTLE EXTRAORDINARY CONVENT BEAUTY LORD AND FER TILITY OF THE THEBAID — DEWS OF EGYPT ABYDOS - PAINTED SCULPTURE-CHAPEL-ORIENTAL SUNRISE-PALACE OF MEMNON - ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP THE CAPTAIN OF MY BOAT INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR OF BELLIANEH SUMMARY MODE OF INFLICTING PUNISHMENT. Sunday, Dec. 30. Tahta. CLXXXIX. THERE being no wind, I was this morning enabled to resume the practice of walking. In England I always thought it pleasant to stroll through the country on Sunday, when the general cessation from labour appears to diffuse over the faces of the peasantry an air of cheerfulness and thankfulness, closely allied to the more enlivening influences of religion. The Mohammedan of Egypt, who does not keep his own Sabbath, cannot, of course, be expected to observe ours; nevertheless, old habitual associations caused me to imagine that the poor fellahs seemed, like our own husbandmen, more contented and ENCROACHMENT OF THE DESERT. 267 happy on that day; and their habits, in these remote provinces, are so simple and primitive, that, in the Scripture account of the departure of Jacob from the house of Laban, his meeting with Esau, and subsequent adventures in Palestine, which I was this morning engaged in reading, it seemed easy to discover distinct traces of the manners which still prevail among these people. CXC. The Arabian and Libyan mountains, of which the former is still by far the loftier, after having diverged widely, and formed a broad semicircular valley, again approach each other about the latitude of Tahta. Large tracts of excellent land on the eastern bank have, in this province, been recently thrown out of cultivation, notwithstanding the numerous small canals which intersect the fields, and carry the waters of the inundation to the very foot of the hills; and these districts, unless quickly reclaimed, will soon form a part of the desert. During my walk I met several pretty Arab girls, with baskets of acacia charcoal on their heads, proceeding down the bank of the river, to dispose of their merchandise at the different villages. Men, too, were driving along camels or asses, laden with the same article; but these barbarians seldom carry any burdens themselves. Women, nowhere treated with the tenderness and consideration due to their sex, are in Egypt reduced to mere beasts of burden. Every where you see them moving under heavy loads: the cumbrous waterjar, the rubbish basket, the charcoal sack; but, it 268 TREATMENT OF WOMEN. should be observed, that, notwithstanding this, the Arabs appear in general to live very affectionately with their wives and other female relations, whom, in other respects, therefore, they cannot ill-treat. Hard work, however, among these poor women, has much more to do than climate in bringing on premature old age; and I am persuaded, from several examples, that, among the wealthier classes, women preserve their beauty much longer than is generally imagined. I could never learn, either from physicians of extensive practice among the natives, or from the Arabs themselves, that maidens are nubile much earlier in this country than in Europe, though girls of eleven years old are sometimes married; but this is evidently an abuse, since they seldom bear children before the age of fifteen. CXCI. In all this part of Egypt, but particularly about Katieh, much charcoal is manufactured from the wood of the acacia, which is here found in great abundance. Small quantities of gum arabic are likewise produced by this tree, but insufficient for commerce; that which is commonly used in Egypt is brought from the black countries or from the desert. The Bedouins, likewise, manufacture, from the acacia, immense quantities of charcoal which they bring on camels into Egypt. There must, therefore, exist somewhere in the wilderness much more extensive woods than is generally supposed; since they have carried on this traffic from time immemorial, and always appear capable of proportioning CHARACTER OF THE FELLAHS. 269 the supply to the demand. The young corn, in many places is not above six inches high. In the midst of the cultivated fields, I passed a sheik's tomb of spacious dimensions, with an elegant white cupola. CXCII. The fellahs appear to have but feeble notions of cleanliness, their clothes in general swarming with lice, which they catch, and cast alive upon the ground, to be transferred to the person who next happens to sit near the spot; but they are certainly ashamed of the fact, for they hunt the vermin by stealth, and not in the barefaced way observable among the common people in Italy. They seem, however, to be naturally industrious and active, though it depends upon the government to direct their energies into a proper channel. Even the ancient Egyptians, with all their boasted wisdom, in most of their great works, appear to have had utility very little in view. Vanity or superstition being generally the moving principle, the result was splendid palaces, tombs, or temples, by none of which were the people greatly benefited. Canals, bridges, and great public highways, for the making of which no country can possess greater facilities, seem to have been always subordinate, in their estimation, to palaces and royal tombs; the monarch, in all such governments, being every thing, and the people nothing, excepting so far as they can be made to minister to their master's pleasures. And such, in a great measure, must be the sentiments of those travellers and idle speculators at home, who re GAU-EL-KEBIR. garding nothing beyond the antiquities of the country, imagine that the dust and bones of the old mummymakers are of more importance than the living multitude who now till the soil, and who, in their dhourra-covered sheds and unsightly nakedness, are superior, in every thing that concerns the dignity of human nature, to the superstitious and degraded rabble of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies. The old Egyptians laboured slavishly for their kingsthe fellahs labour for their Pasha; and, if history fable not, Mohammed Ali, with all his faults, is a much greater and better sovereign than many of those who, in antiquity, ground the face of the poor in Egypt. CXCIII. We to-day shot a large horned owl and a heron, both very beautiful birds, the head of the former bearing an unusual resemblance to that of a cat. The Nile, a little to the north of Tahta, embraces many islands, and is wide as a lake. We passed, without landing, the village of Gau-el-Kebir*,- the ancient An * While endeavouring to correct a supposed error in Mr. Legh, the intelligent author of the "Modern Traveller," in speaking of this village, has himself fallen into an error. Mr. Legh had rightly said that the portico, &c. were found at Gau-el-Kebir; which Mr. Conder thinks must be a mistake for Gau-el-Garbieh. Now no ruins, I believe, were ever found at the western Gau; but the affair may be easily cleared up by a short explanation. There are two villages of this name, which are sometimes called Gau-el-Shergich, and Gau-el-Garbieh, the Eastern and Western; sometimes Gau-el-Kebir, and Gau-el-Sogheir, the Greater and Lesser Gau. The greater is on the E. bank, and here the ruins of Antæopolis were found; the lesser is a mile from the river, and about two miles south of the former, as correctly marked in Colonel Leake's map — a work of inestimable value to the traveller. |