DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0184
160 4 THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
a trace behind? "Who cast them down among the pot-
sherds on this barren hillside? Are we to suppose that
some kind of public-record office once occupied the site,
and that the receipts here stored were duplicates of those
given to the payers? Or is it not even more probable that
this place was the Monte Testaccio of the ancient city, to
which all broken pottery, written as well as unwritten,
found its way sooner or later?
With the exception of a fine fragment of Roman quay
nearly opposite' Assuan, the ruined gateway of Alexander
and the battered statue of Menephtah are the only objects
of archaeological interest in the island. But the charm of
Elephantine is the everlasting charm of natural beauty—
of rocks, of palm-woods, of quiet waters.
The streets of Assuan are just lilce the streets of every
other mud town on the Nile. The bazaars reproduce
the bazaars of Minieh and Siut. The environs are
noisy with cafes and dancing-girls, like the environs of
Esneh and Luxor. Into the mosque, where some kind
of service was going on, we peeped without entering. It
looked cool, and clean, and spacious; the floor being
covered with fine matting, and some scores of ostrich-
eggs depending from the ceiling. In the bazaars we
bought baskets and mats of Nubian manufacture, woven
with the same reeds, dyed with the same colors, shaped after
the same models, as those found in the tombs at Thebes. A
certain oval basket with a vaulted cover, of which specimens
are preserved in the British Museum, seems still to be the
pattern most in demand at Assuan. The basket-makers
have neither changed their fashion nor the buyers their
taste since the days of Iiamcses the Great.
Here also, at a little cupboard of a shop near the shoe
bazaar, we were tempted to spend a few pounds in ostrich
feathers, which are convoyed to Assuan by traders from
the Soudan. The merchant brought out a feather at a
time, and seemed in no haste to sell. We also affected
indifference. The haggling on both sides was tremendous.
The by-standers, as usual, were profoundly interested, and
commented on every word that passed. At last we carried
away an armful of splendid plumes, most of which
measured from two and a half to three feet in length.
Some were pure white, others white tipped with brown.
They had been neither cleaned nor curled, but were just as
they came from the hands of the ostrich-hunters.
a trace behind? "Who cast them down among the pot-
sherds on this barren hillside? Are we to suppose that
some kind of public-record office once occupied the site,
and that the receipts here stored were duplicates of those
given to the payers? Or is it not even more probable that
this place was the Monte Testaccio of the ancient city, to
which all broken pottery, written as well as unwritten,
found its way sooner or later?
With the exception of a fine fragment of Roman quay
nearly opposite' Assuan, the ruined gateway of Alexander
and the battered statue of Menephtah are the only objects
of archaeological interest in the island. But the charm of
Elephantine is the everlasting charm of natural beauty—
of rocks, of palm-woods, of quiet waters.
The streets of Assuan are just lilce the streets of every
other mud town on the Nile. The bazaars reproduce
the bazaars of Minieh and Siut. The environs are
noisy with cafes and dancing-girls, like the environs of
Esneh and Luxor. Into the mosque, where some kind
of service was going on, we peeped without entering. It
looked cool, and clean, and spacious; the floor being
covered with fine matting, and some scores of ostrich-
eggs depending from the ceiling. In the bazaars we
bought baskets and mats of Nubian manufacture, woven
with the same reeds, dyed with the same colors, shaped after
the same models, as those found in the tombs at Thebes. A
certain oval basket with a vaulted cover, of which specimens
are preserved in the British Museum, seems still to be the
pattern most in demand at Assuan. The basket-makers
have neither changed their fashion nor the buyers their
taste since the days of Iiamcses the Great.
Here also, at a little cupboard of a shop near the shoe
bazaar, we were tempted to spend a few pounds in ostrich
feathers, which are convoyed to Assuan by traders from
the Soudan. The merchant brought out a feather at a
time, and seemed in no haste to sell. We also affected
indifference. The haggling on both sides was tremendous.
The by-standers, as usual, were profoundly interested, and
commented on every word that passed. At last we carried
away an armful of splendid plumes, most of which
measured from two and a half to three feet in length.
Some were pure white, others white tipped with brown.
They had been neither cleaned nor curled, but were just as
they came from the hands of the ostrich-hunters.