Studio: international art (6.1896)

Egypt as a Sketching Ground

so many foreigners flock yearly in search of health
or pleasure. Here you can live with absurd cheap-
ness, provided you have acquired a smattering of
Arabic and can put up with somewhat rough
accommodation. The natives are hospitable and
willing to oblige without clamouring for the " Back-
shish " which is such a constant tax on the traveller
who follows the beaten track. The towns too, in
this district, though somewhat dilapidated, are
positively bewildering in their picturesqueness.
Rosetta, near Alexandria, is very finely situated,
and Damietta, the Venice of Egypt, bids fair to
rival her sister on the Adriatic; while El Raschid,
a city practically untouched since the time of the

" DRAWERS OF WATER " BY PERCY

38

" Arabian Nights," brings those delightful stories
most vividly before us. The mosques, if not so
imposing as those of Cairo, retain more of their
pristine glory in point of decoration. The dealer
in antiquities has not yet ravished them of their
beautiful hanging lamps, or torn from the walls
the gorgeous tiles and the illuminated texts from
the Koran ; though, to judge by the eager desire of
the natives to sell anything and everything, that
period of desecration is not far distant. The best
time for work is early morning or evening, not on
account of the midday heat, for, during - the winter
months, that is not greater than on a fine June
day in England, but because the glare of the noon-
day sun makes everything appear much the same
and lacking in colour. Egypt seen under a sunset
effect is the most wonderful fairyland imagin-
able : the foreground hid in the mystery of pearly
grey shadows, the Nile a silver ribbon varied like
an opal reflecting the delicate tints of the sky—
beyond the fertile black valley, here covered with
the emerald green of the young corn, there broken
by a clump of tall palms or a village piled up on
the decay of ages out of reach of the yearly in-
undations, and far away the glittering Lybian hills
tinted rose pink, with delicate violet shadows. All
these details make up such a picture of unreality
that we wonder whether it is not some beautiful
mirage that we see or some reflection of a land
beyond the ken of mortal man. Morning and
evening down the river-bank come the Fellaheen
women to fill their pitchers at the yellow stream,
each one classically draped from head to foot in
the long sable shawl which so effectively hides
individuality, while at the same time setting off the
subtle lines and graceful form of the wearer.
Nearly every performance connected with agricul-
ture forms a ready theme for a sketch or picture,
all the implements used being of the most primi-
tive and picturesque construction, more especially
those connected with the irrigation. The
sakieh or water-wheel, driven by a patient ox
plodding in a circle, is usually to be found
near a sugar-cane brake shaded by a gnarled
clump of sont-trees, a small species of acacia.
At intervals along the river-banks or on the
canals are tiers of bronze figures stripped to
the waist working methodically at the shadoof,
raising the water up two gallons at a time by
means of a lever weighted at one end with a
huge ball of mud. There are sometimes four
or five of these machines, according to the
height of the bank, ranged in steps which,
* viewed from the river, would inspire the deco-