DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4995#0015
LECTURE ON EGYTT.
Napoleon the English commander was obliged, by the
exigencies of the contest, to cut dykes, and change a
fresh-water reservoir into a salt-water lake. Next we
pass over marshy ground with delicate light green rice
crops, and quickly afterwards, far as the eye can reach,
appears a vast level expanse, presenting a most pleasing
vision of fertility and rich crops. Such was the Egypt
of the Old Testament, such is Egypt now.
Wonderful and strange are the villages and the
people in their simplicity of protection against the
weather, strange to see a camel and a donkey yoked
together to a plough, and very strange to see all work-
men riding on donkeys to and from their work. The
wife generally walks by the side of her lord and
master, or behind him, and carries the baby perched
on her shoulder, with its light hand resting on her
head.
At the principal stations of Kafra-es-Zayat and
Benha, where the railway crosses the Eosetta and
Damietta branches of the Nile, freshly gathered and
delicious oranges are offered by native women and
girls, who are full of chaff and fun. When told we
could buy no more, they held out their dusky palms,
and suggested ' backsheesh.'
Soon after leaving Benha station, where the line
of railway branches off to Suez, we suddenly find all
our fellow passengers looking anxiously out of the win-
dow to see who can first catch a glimpse of the famous
Pyramids of Ghizeh. Two small triangular shaped
masses are soon seen, far away on the borders of the
Napoleon the English commander was obliged, by the
exigencies of the contest, to cut dykes, and change a
fresh-water reservoir into a salt-water lake. Next we
pass over marshy ground with delicate light green rice
crops, and quickly afterwards, far as the eye can reach,
appears a vast level expanse, presenting a most pleasing
vision of fertility and rich crops. Such was the Egypt
of the Old Testament, such is Egypt now.
Wonderful and strange are the villages and the
people in their simplicity of protection against the
weather, strange to see a camel and a donkey yoked
together to a plough, and very strange to see all work-
men riding on donkeys to and from their work. The
wife generally walks by the side of her lord and
master, or behind him, and carries the baby perched
on her shoulder, with its light hand resting on her
head.
At the principal stations of Kafra-es-Zayat and
Benha, where the railway crosses the Eosetta and
Damietta branches of the Nile, freshly gathered and
delicious oranges are offered by native women and
girls, who are full of chaff and fun. When told we
could buy no more, they held out their dusky palms,
and suggested ' backsheesh.'
Soon after leaving Benha station, where the line
of railway branches off to Suez, we suddenly find all
our fellow passengers looking anxiously out of the win-
dow to see who can first catch a glimpse of the famous
Pyramids of Ghizeh. Two small triangular shaped
masses are soon seen, far away on the borders of the