DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0375
359
hills of Libya, which had preserved for ages their first forms
and all their original barrenness; a clear unclouded sky, a bril-
liant sun, and a variety of splendid tints. The continual windings
of the river presented to us, in different lights, forms, and cha-
racters, clusters of villages, groves of palm-trees, avenues of
the sycamore, tombs of the Santons, erected on the eminences
near the towns and villages ; and wherever the cultivated land
appeared above the water the different agricultural pursuits
added a new interest to the scene. At one time, across an arm
of the river half a mile wide, a tawny peasant, riding on his
buffalo, was driving before him from one village to another, the
rest of his herd. Another, having carried his fruit or his rlax
to market, returning with his clothes and new purchases, pack-
ed up in a swathe of grass to keep them dry, was floating down
the stream, supported by gourds tied round his chest. As we
frequently left the main stream, and were sometimes in cross
canals, sometimes sailing over the fields,—as we passed under the
villages, the girls and boys, equally familiar with one element
as the other, came begging for our paras, and tumbling head
over heels into the water, where, swimming round our vessel
and playing all kinds of tricks, they claimed our attention
and charity. The general poverty among the villagers has
deprived them of that mode of communication, during this
period, which, in better times, Virgil seems to describe as ge-
nerally in use among the inhabitants of Egypt. Few boats are
now seen on the river, but what are employed in the navigation
between Cairo and the principal towns on the banks.
We observed the trees generally to lean from the North-west to
the South-east.
During the voyage Arab boats frequently claimed our pro-
tection, though we were unarmed, as they hoped that the Bagtish
name
hills of Libya, which had preserved for ages their first forms
and all their original barrenness; a clear unclouded sky, a bril-
liant sun, and a variety of splendid tints. The continual windings
of the river presented to us, in different lights, forms, and cha-
racters, clusters of villages, groves of palm-trees, avenues of
the sycamore, tombs of the Santons, erected on the eminences
near the towns and villages ; and wherever the cultivated land
appeared above the water the different agricultural pursuits
added a new interest to the scene. At one time, across an arm
of the river half a mile wide, a tawny peasant, riding on his
buffalo, was driving before him from one village to another, the
rest of his herd. Another, having carried his fruit or his rlax
to market, returning with his clothes and new purchases, pack-
ed up in a swathe of grass to keep them dry, was floating down
the stream, supported by gourds tied round his chest. As we
frequently left the main stream, and were sometimes in cross
canals, sometimes sailing over the fields,—as we passed under the
villages, the girls and boys, equally familiar with one element
as the other, came begging for our paras, and tumbling head
over heels into the water, where, swimming round our vessel
and playing all kinds of tricks, they claimed our attention
and charity. The general poverty among the villagers has
deprived them of that mode of communication, during this
period, which, in better times, Virgil seems to describe as ge-
nerally in use among the inhabitants of Egypt. Few boats are
now seen on the river, but what are employed in the navigation
between Cairo and the principal towns on the banks.
We observed the trees generally to lean from the North-west to
the South-east.
During the voyage Arab boats frequently claimed our pro-
tection, though we were unarmed, as they hoped that the Bagtish
name