DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0183
172
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
the ruins of the temples, and on the other their
best habitations are in the tombs; wherever a
small space has been cleared out, the inhabitants
crawl in, with their dogs, goats, sheep, women,
and children ; and the Arab is passing rich who
has for his sleeping-place the sarcophagus of an
ancient Egyptian.
I have several times spoken of my intended
journey to the great Oasis. Something was yet
wanting in my voyage on the Nile. It was calm,
tame, and wanting in that high excitement which
I had expected from travelling in a barbarous
country. A woman and child might go safely
from Cairo to the Cataracts ; and my blood began
to run sluggishly in my veins. Besides, I had a
great curiosity to see an oasis; a small spot of
green fertile land in the great desert, rising in soli-
tary beauty before the eyes of the traveller, after
days of journeying through arid wastes, and di-
vided by vast sandy ramparts from the rest of the
world. The very name of the great Oasis in tliG
Lybian desert carried with it a wild and almost
fearful interest, too powerful for me to resist, li
was beyond the beaten track ; and the sheik with
whom I made my arrangements insisted on my
taking a guard, telling me that he understood the
character of his race, and an Arab in the desert
could not resist the temptation to rob an unpro-
tected traveller. For my own part, I had more
fear of being followed by a party of the very un-
prepossessing fellows who were stealthily digging
among the tombs, and all of whom knew of the,
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
the ruins of the temples, and on the other their
best habitations are in the tombs; wherever a
small space has been cleared out, the inhabitants
crawl in, with their dogs, goats, sheep, women,
and children ; and the Arab is passing rich who
has for his sleeping-place the sarcophagus of an
ancient Egyptian.
I have several times spoken of my intended
journey to the great Oasis. Something was yet
wanting in my voyage on the Nile. It was calm,
tame, and wanting in that high excitement which
I had expected from travelling in a barbarous
country. A woman and child might go safely
from Cairo to the Cataracts ; and my blood began
to run sluggishly in my veins. Besides, I had a
great curiosity to see an oasis; a small spot of
green fertile land in the great desert, rising in soli-
tary beauty before the eyes of the traveller, after
days of journeying through arid wastes, and di-
vided by vast sandy ramparts from the rest of the
world. The very name of the great Oasis in tliG
Lybian desert carried with it a wild and almost
fearful interest, too powerful for me to resist, li
was beyond the beaten track ; and the sheik with
whom I made my arrangements insisted on my
taking a guard, telling me that he understood the
character of his race, and an Arab in the desert
could not resist the temptation to rob an unpro-
tected traveller. For my own part, I had more
fear of being followed by a party of the very un-
prepossessing fellows who were stealthily digging
among the tombs, and all of whom knew of the,