DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0166
148 4 THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
bread, a black-looking rissole of chopped meat and vege-
tables, and about a pint of dried dates.
Knowing this to be a better dinner than my friend gets
every day, knowing also that onr sailors habitually eat at
noon, I am surprised to see him leave these dainties un-
tasted. In vain I say "Bismillah" (in the name of God);
pressing him to eat in vocabulary phrases eked out with
expressive pantomine. He laughs, shakes his head, and,
asking permission to smoke a cigarette, protests he is not
hungry. Thus three more hours go by. Accustomed to
long fasting and absorbed in my sketch, I forget all about
the pagoda; and it is past four o'clock when I at length
set to work to repair tissue at the briefest possible cost of
time and daylight. And now the faithful Salame falls to
with an energy that causes the cakes, the rissole, the dates,
to vanish as if by magic. Of what remains from my
luncheon he also disposes in a trice. Never, unless in a
pantomine, have I seen mortal man display so prodigious
an appetite.
I made Talhamy scold him, by and by, for this piece of
voluntary starvation.
" By my prophet!" said he, "am I a pig or a dog, that
I should eat when the sitt was fasting?"
It was at Bsneh, by the way, that that hitherto undiscov-
ered curiosity, an ancient Egyptian coin, was offered to
me for sale. The finder was digging for niter, and turned
it up at an immense depth below the mounds on the out-
skirts of the town. He volunteered to show the precise
spot, and told his artless tale with child-like simplicity.
Unfortunately, however, for the authenticity of this re-
markable relic, it bore, together with the familiar profile
of George IV, a superscription of its modest value, which
was precisely one farthing. On another occasion, when
we were making our long stay at Luxor, a colored glass
button of honest Birmingham make was brought to the
boat by a fellah who swore that he had himself found it
upon a mummy in the tombs of the queens at Kurnot Mur-'
race. The same man came-to my tent one day when I was
sketching, bringing with him a string of more that doubt-
ful scarabs—all veritable "anteekahs," of course, and all
backed up with undeniable pedigrees.
" La, la [no, no]! bring me no more anteekahs," I said,
gravely. " They are old and worn out, aud cost much
bread, a black-looking rissole of chopped meat and vege-
tables, and about a pint of dried dates.
Knowing this to be a better dinner than my friend gets
every day, knowing also that onr sailors habitually eat at
noon, I am surprised to see him leave these dainties un-
tasted. In vain I say "Bismillah" (in the name of God);
pressing him to eat in vocabulary phrases eked out with
expressive pantomine. He laughs, shakes his head, and,
asking permission to smoke a cigarette, protests he is not
hungry. Thus three more hours go by. Accustomed to
long fasting and absorbed in my sketch, I forget all about
the pagoda; and it is past four o'clock when I at length
set to work to repair tissue at the briefest possible cost of
time and daylight. And now the faithful Salame falls to
with an energy that causes the cakes, the rissole, the dates,
to vanish as if by magic. Of what remains from my
luncheon he also disposes in a trice. Never, unless in a
pantomine, have I seen mortal man display so prodigious
an appetite.
I made Talhamy scold him, by and by, for this piece of
voluntary starvation.
" By my prophet!" said he, "am I a pig or a dog, that
I should eat when the sitt was fasting?"
It was at Bsneh, by the way, that that hitherto undiscov-
ered curiosity, an ancient Egyptian coin, was offered to
me for sale. The finder was digging for niter, and turned
it up at an immense depth below the mounds on the out-
skirts of the town. He volunteered to show the precise
spot, and told his artless tale with child-like simplicity.
Unfortunately, however, for the authenticity of this re-
markable relic, it bore, together with the familiar profile
of George IV, a superscription of its modest value, which
was precisely one farthing. On another occasion, when
we were making our long stay at Luxor, a colored glass
button of honest Birmingham make was brought to the
boat by a fellah who swore that he had himself found it
upon a mummy in the tombs of the queens at Kurnot Mur-'
race. The same man came-to my tent one day when I was
sketching, bringing with him a string of more that doubt-
ful scarabs—all veritable "anteekahs," of course, and all
backed up with undeniable pedigrees.
" La, la [no, no]! bring me no more anteekahs," I said,
gravely. " They are old and worn out, aud cost much