DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6272#0138
DOWN THE NILE.
135
How I was planning with Suleiman, another visit, to come
with my wife, should I "by that time have one ; and supposing
that, by that time, he would have soared from the command of
a Sandal to that of a Cangia Dharbieh, or germ.* " Inshal-
lah," all the Arabs replied, and each one vowed to go with
us if I came to the farthest sources of (the Nile, in Abys-
sinia or Ethiopia. I stopped a moment at Gaw or Antseopolis.
Gaw, or Antceopolis.—I did not expect much here from
the accounts of all travellers, though I landed; the wind
seemed to be lessened ; I rambled over the site and few ruins
of Antaeus, the dog-devoured huntsman demigod, whom the
Greeks have worshipped. At Gau-el-Kebyr or Great Gau,
there are a few ruins, while at Gau-el-Gharbieh or West Gau,
there are scarcely any ; the richness of the wheat crops here,
now in maize, green and flourishing, confirmed the account of
the grain wealth of this region since the times of the
ancients. The groves an woods were all full of game
then, and here Antaeus and his hounds (they thought) chased
the prey. St. John mentions the decay of ruins since Dr.
Richardson's time, but since then they have dwindled to a
few stones and bricks.
We stopped at different towns besides. Tel-el-Amarna and
its grottoes, of which little can be said. Indeed, I would look
at no antiquities after Thebes, save for research, and where
you can find most of them copied in Wilkinson and Rosel-
lini, it is lost time. Float down then, and think of home, and
* The largest boats on the Nile measure 280 feet in length, these are the
germs for grain and inundations—the travellers' boats, are the month, dashabrh,
cangia and sandal, having cabins, divans, &c. Osiout is the great boat-building
port, and we see every variety here down to the maadil or ferry-boat, and the
garib or fclung-boat.
135
How I was planning with Suleiman, another visit, to come
with my wife, should I "by that time have one ; and supposing
that, by that time, he would have soared from the command of
a Sandal to that of a Cangia Dharbieh, or germ.* " Inshal-
lah," all the Arabs replied, and each one vowed to go with
us if I came to the farthest sources of (the Nile, in Abys-
sinia or Ethiopia. I stopped a moment at Gaw or Antseopolis.
Gaw, or Antceopolis.—I did not expect much here from
the accounts of all travellers, though I landed; the wind
seemed to be lessened ; I rambled over the site and few ruins
of Antaeus, the dog-devoured huntsman demigod, whom the
Greeks have worshipped. At Gau-el-Kebyr or Great Gau,
there are a few ruins, while at Gau-el-Gharbieh or West Gau,
there are scarcely any ; the richness of the wheat crops here,
now in maize, green and flourishing, confirmed the account of
the grain wealth of this region since the times of the
ancients. The groves an woods were all full of game
then, and here Antaeus and his hounds (they thought) chased
the prey. St. John mentions the decay of ruins since Dr.
Richardson's time, but since then they have dwindled to a
few stones and bricks.
We stopped at different towns besides. Tel-el-Amarna and
its grottoes, of which little can be said. Indeed, I would look
at no antiquities after Thebes, save for research, and where
you can find most of them copied in Wilkinson and Rosel-
lini, it is lost time. Float down then, and think of home, and
* The largest boats on the Nile measure 280 feet in length, these are the
germs for grain and inundations—the travellers' boats, are the month, dashabrh,
cangia and sandal, having cabins, divans, &c. Osiout is the great boat-building
port, and we see every variety here down to the maadil or ferry-boat, and the
garib or fclung-boat.