DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0138
A YOUTHFUL NAVIGATOR. 129
in Nubia, though not half an hour from Assouan,
there is a difference obvious to the most superficial
observer, and here, on the very confines of Egypt,
it would be impossible to mistake a border Nubian
for an Arab of Assouan.
Before arriving at Philce the river is filled with
rocks and islands, and the view becomes singularly
bold and striking. At the foot of one of the islands
is a sort of ferry, with a very big boat and a very
little boy to manage it; we got on board, and were
astonished to see with what courage and address
the little fellow conducted us among the islands
washed by the Cataracts. And it was not a
straight-ahead navigation either; he was obliged
to take advantage of an eddy to get to one point,
jump ashore, tow the boat to another, again drop
to another, tow her again, and so on, and all this
time the little fellow was at the helm, at' the oar,
at the rope, leading the chorus of a Nubian song,
and ordering his crew, which consisted of three
boys and one little girl. In this way we worked
to an island inhabited by a few miserable Nubians,
and, crossing it, came to the point of the principal
cataract (I continue to call it cataract by courtesy),
being a fall of about two feet.
And these were the great Cataracts of the Nile,
whose roar in ancient days affrighted the Egyptian
boatmen, and which history and poetry have invest-
ed with extraordinary and ideal terrors ! The travel-
ler who has come from a country as far distant as
mine, bringing all that freshness of feeling with.
in Nubia, though not half an hour from Assouan,
there is a difference obvious to the most superficial
observer, and here, on the very confines of Egypt,
it would be impossible to mistake a border Nubian
for an Arab of Assouan.
Before arriving at Philce the river is filled with
rocks and islands, and the view becomes singularly
bold and striking. At the foot of one of the islands
is a sort of ferry, with a very big boat and a very
little boy to manage it; we got on board, and were
astonished to see with what courage and address
the little fellow conducted us among the islands
washed by the Cataracts. And it was not a
straight-ahead navigation either; he was obliged
to take advantage of an eddy to get to one point,
jump ashore, tow the boat to another, again drop
to another, tow her again, and so on, and all this
time the little fellow was at the helm, at' the oar,
at the rope, leading the chorus of a Nubian song,
and ordering his crew, which consisted of three
boys and one little girl. In this way we worked
to an island inhabited by a few miserable Nubians,
and, crossing it, came to the point of the principal
cataract (I continue to call it cataract by courtesy),
being a fall of about two feet.
And these were the great Cataracts of the Nile,
whose roar in ancient days affrighted the Egyptian
boatmen, and which history and poetry have invest-
ed with extraordinary and ideal terrors ! The travel-
ler who has come from a country as far distant as
mine, bringing all that freshness of feeling with.