DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0161
THEBES TO ASSUAN. 143
crews bake for the last time before their return to Egypt.
For in Nubia food is scarce and prices are high, and there
are no public ovens.
It was about five o'clock on a market day when we
reached Bsneb and the market was not yet over. Going
up through tbe usual labyrinth of wiudowless mud-alleys
where the old men crouched, smoking, under every bit of
sunny wall, and the children swarmed like flies, and the
cry for backshish buzzed incessantly about our ears, we came
to an open space in the upper part of the town, and found our-
selves all at once in the midst of the market. Here were
peasant-folk selling farm produce ; stall-keepers displaying
combs, looking-glasses, gaudy printed handkerchiefs and
cheap bracelets of bone and colored glass; camels lying at
ease and snarling at every passer-by; patient donkeys; own-
erless dogs; veiled women; blue and black robed men; and
all the common sights and sounds of a native market. Here
too, we found Rei's Hassan bargaining for flour, Talhemy
haggling with a charcoal dealer; and the M. B.'s buying
turkeys and geese for themselves and a huge store of to-
bacco for their crow. Most welcome sight of all, however,
was a dingy chemist's shop, about the size of a sentry-box,
over the door of which was suspended an Arabic inscrip-
tion; while inside, robed all in black, sat a lean and
grizzled Arab, from whom we bought a big bottle of rose-
water to make eye-lotion for L------'s ophthalmic patients.
Meanwhile there was a temple to be seen at Esneh; and
this temple, as we had been told, was to be found close
against the market-place. AVe looked round in vain, how-
ever, for any sign of pylon or portico. The chemist said
it was " kureiyib," which means "near by." A camel-
driver pointed to a dilapidated wooden gateway in a recess
between two neighboring houses. A small boy volunteered
to lead the way. We were greatly puzzled. We had ex-
pected to see the temjile towering above the surrounding
houses, as at Luxor, and could by no means understand
how any largo building to which that gateway might give
access should not be visible from without.
The boy, however, ran and thumped upon the gate and
shouted "Abbas! Abbas !" Mehemet AH, who was doing
escort, added some thundering blows with his staff and a
little crowd gathered, but no Abbas came.
The by-standers, as usual, were liberal with their advice;
crews bake for the last time before their return to Egypt.
For in Nubia food is scarce and prices are high, and there
are no public ovens.
It was about five o'clock on a market day when we
reached Bsneb and the market was not yet over. Going
up through tbe usual labyrinth of wiudowless mud-alleys
where the old men crouched, smoking, under every bit of
sunny wall, and the children swarmed like flies, and the
cry for backshish buzzed incessantly about our ears, we came
to an open space in the upper part of the town, and found our-
selves all at once in the midst of the market. Here were
peasant-folk selling farm produce ; stall-keepers displaying
combs, looking-glasses, gaudy printed handkerchiefs and
cheap bracelets of bone and colored glass; camels lying at
ease and snarling at every passer-by; patient donkeys; own-
erless dogs; veiled women; blue and black robed men; and
all the common sights and sounds of a native market. Here
too, we found Rei's Hassan bargaining for flour, Talhemy
haggling with a charcoal dealer; and the M. B.'s buying
turkeys and geese for themselves and a huge store of to-
bacco for their crow. Most welcome sight of all, however,
was a dingy chemist's shop, about the size of a sentry-box,
over the door of which was suspended an Arabic inscrip-
tion; while inside, robed all in black, sat a lean and
grizzled Arab, from whom we bought a big bottle of rose-
water to make eye-lotion for L------'s ophthalmic patients.
Meanwhile there was a temple to be seen at Esneh; and
this temple, as we had been told, was to be found close
against the market-place. AVe looked round in vain, how-
ever, for any sign of pylon or portico. The chemist said
it was " kureiyib," which means "near by." A camel-
driver pointed to a dilapidated wooden gateway in a recess
between two neighboring houses. A small boy volunteered
to lead the way. We were greatly puzzled. We had ex-
pected to see the temjile towering above the surrounding
houses, as at Luxor, and could by no means understand
how any largo building to which that gateway might give
access should not be visible from without.
The boy, however, ran and thumped upon the gate and
shouted "Abbas! Abbas !" Mehemet AH, who was doing
escort, added some thundering blows with his staff and a
little crowd gathered, but no Abbas came.
The by-standers, as usual, were liberal with their advice;