DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0214
"VOYAGING ON THE NILE.
203
our pantaloons ; and a generous rivalry in long
beards and soiled linen is kept up with exceeding
spirit. You may go ashore whenever you like,
and stroll through the little villages and be stared
at by the Arabs, or walk along the banks of the
river till darkness covers the earth ; shooting pi-
geons, and sometimes pheasants and hares, besides
the odd shots from the deck of your boat at geese,
crocodiles, and pelicans. And then it is so ridicu-
lously cheap an amusement. You get your boat
with ten men for thirty or forty dollars a month,
fowls for three piasters (about a shilling) a pair, a
sheep for a half or three quarters of a dollar, and
eggs almost for the asking. You sail under your
own country's banner, and when you walk along
the river, if the Arabs look particularly black and
truculent, you proudly feel that there is safety in
its folds. From time to time you hear that a
French or English flag has passed so many days
before you, and you meet your fellow-voyagers
with a freedom and cordiality which exist nowhere
but on the Nile.
These are the little every-day items in the voy-
age, without referring to the great and interesting
objects which are the traveller's principal induce-
ments and rewards, the ruined cities on its banks,
the mighty temples and tombs, and all the wonder-
ful monuments of Egypt's departed greatness. Of
them I will barely say, that their great antiquity,
the mystery that overhangs them, and their ex-
traordinary preservation amid the surrounding des-
olation, make Egypt perhaps the most interesting
203
our pantaloons ; and a generous rivalry in long
beards and soiled linen is kept up with exceeding
spirit. You may go ashore whenever you like,
and stroll through the little villages and be stared
at by the Arabs, or walk along the banks of the
river till darkness covers the earth ; shooting pi-
geons, and sometimes pheasants and hares, besides
the odd shots from the deck of your boat at geese,
crocodiles, and pelicans. And then it is so ridicu-
lously cheap an amusement. You get your boat
with ten men for thirty or forty dollars a month,
fowls for three piasters (about a shilling) a pair, a
sheep for a half or three quarters of a dollar, and
eggs almost for the asking. You sail under your
own country's banner, and when you walk along
the river, if the Arabs look particularly black and
truculent, you proudly feel that there is safety in
its folds. From time to time you hear that a
French or English flag has passed so many days
before you, and you meet your fellow-voyagers
with a freedom and cordiality which exist nowhere
but on the Nile.
These are the little every-day items in the voy-
age, without referring to the great and interesting
objects which are the traveller's principal induce-
ments and rewards, the ruined cities on its banks,
the mighty temples and tombs, and all the wonder-
ful monuments of Egypt's departed greatness. Of
them I will barely say, that their great antiquity,
the mystery that overhangs them, and their ex-
traordinary preservation amid the surrounding des-
olation, make Egypt perhaps the most interesting