DOI Heft:
No. 8 (November, 1893)
DOI Artikel:Ball, Wilfrid: Letters from artists to artists, sketching grounds [4], Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17189#0075
Sketching Grounds. No. IV.—Egypt
In the late afternoon, if you stand on the hills the fellaheen women. I was received in her dirty
behind the Pyramids and see their long shadows little compound with some ceremony; she shook
stretching far away across the plain below, it helps my hand, which she raised to her lips' and kissed
you to feel their immensity and
to realise that in actual height
Cheops is 120 feet above the cross
of St. Paul's.
There are plenty of subjects
near at hand. Arab villages sur-
rounded by palm-trees, water left
by the last high Nile reflecting the
Pyramids ; shepherds watering
their flocks ; girls carrying koolahs
(water pitchers) on their heads,
either wading into the water or
gathered round a well; groups of
Arabs, strings of laden camels,
and a few Bedwan tents; these
are very good at evening, with
the smoke of a small fire curling
slowly up, and men, women, chil-
dren, camels and dogs grouped
about.
The weather for March was very
bad, either very hot and still, with
a perfect plague of flies, or windy.
The Kamsine—the hot wind—
brings hurricanes of sand, making it im-
possible to go out of doors ; at times the
Pyramids, although within 400 yards of the
hotel, were nearly obscured by the sand in
the air. Then there was a good deal of
rain and north wind, cold and sandy. For
a whole week I did no work outside, but
contented myself in the company of some
lady amateurs by making studies of Arabs
in the hotel.
I engaged an Arab youth, called Fad Lahla, to reverently. I Sat
carry my traps and escort me in my wanderings; down in the corner
he was quite necessary to keep off crowds of of the yard drank
followers for backsheesh. I paid him 2s. a day, coffee, and pro- (
which I was told afterwards was too much. Fad ceeded to sketch
Lahla spoke English fairly well, and was quite one of her daugh-
amusing at times : he was anxious to hear about ters with a koolah on her head
England, and wanted to know if I had wives, and Having arrived in Egypt so late in the season I
how many camels, goats, or donkeys I possessed, fully intended to abstain from going up the Nile
I assured him I had none of these things ; he was but in the la<+»r ^ r „ , , . '
silently astonished, and asked how much land and House I J™ h , ? ' * mena
u t ■ -j t 1 a ■ ""use, 1 received a letter from England which
thirty years, clad in the usual blue-black robe of To save time, ] settled to go by rail as far as
63
In the late afternoon, if you stand on the hills the fellaheen women. I was received in her dirty
behind the Pyramids and see their long shadows little compound with some ceremony; she shook
stretching far away across the plain below, it helps my hand, which she raised to her lips' and kissed
you to feel their immensity and
to realise that in actual height
Cheops is 120 feet above the cross
of St. Paul's.
There are plenty of subjects
near at hand. Arab villages sur-
rounded by palm-trees, water left
by the last high Nile reflecting the
Pyramids ; shepherds watering
their flocks ; girls carrying koolahs
(water pitchers) on their heads,
either wading into the water or
gathered round a well; groups of
Arabs, strings of laden camels,
and a few Bedwan tents; these
are very good at evening, with
the smoke of a small fire curling
slowly up, and men, women, chil-
dren, camels and dogs grouped
about.
The weather for March was very
bad, either very hot and still, with
a perfect plague of flies, or windy.
The Kamsine—the hot wind—
brings hurricanes of sand, making it im-
possible to go out of doors ; at times the
Pyramids, although within 400 yards of the
hotel, were nearly obscured by the sand in
the air. Then there was a good deal of
rain and north wind, cold and sandy. For
a whole week I did no work outside, but
contented myself in the company of some
lady amateurs by making studies of Arabs
in the hotel.
I engaged an Arab youth, called Fad Lahla, to reverently. I Sat
carry my traps and escort me in my wanderings; down in the corner
he was quite necessary to keep off crowds of of the yard drank
followers for backsheesh. I paid him 2s. a day, coffee, and pro- (
which I was told afterwards was too much. Fad ceeded to sketch
Lahla spoke English fairly well, and was quite one of her daugh-
amusing at times : he was anxious to hear about ters with a koolah on her head
England, and wanted to know if I had wives, and Having arrived in Egypt so late in the season I
how many camels, goats, or donkeys I possessed, fully intended to abstain from going up the Nile
I assured him I had none of these things ; he was but in the la<+»r ^ r „ , , . '
silently astonished, and asked how much land and House I J™ h , ? ' * mena
u t ■ -j t 1 a ■ ""use, 1 received a letter from England which
thirty years, clad in the usual blue-black robe of To save time, ] settled to go by rail as far as
63