DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14563#0268
CHAPTER XXIX.
A CHAPTER OF ITEMS-PARTING FROM THEBES-GET-
TING NEWS-THE SIROCCO-EMIGRATION-INAUGU-
RATION DAT.
" I've pretty much concluded up my mind," that that
nineteenth century of which I used to hear so much, ages
ago, in a remote corner of the world where I then resided,
was a decided humbug. Here, where the world is certainlv
old enough to know its own age, and to keep the reckoning
of centuries, I can't find anybody that has even heard of it.
The people, living in these parts, are all so many moons old,
and their great events are measured from the Hegira, the
time when Mohammed ran away from Mecca, about twelve
hundred years ago. They have never heard of the nine-
teenth century, and yet they seem to be an easy, contented
sort of people, quite happy in their way, and the more
" knowing" among them feel quite above any visitors from
the nineteenth century aforesaid. I have inquired of the
" oldest inhabitant" in this village of Thebes, a very elderly
and venerable gentleman, who sits out of doors sunning
himself in a great stone chair, with his hands on his knees,—
but though he is said to have spoken to the sun every
morning for thirty-three centuries, I can't get out of him
that he knows any such character. Once, I thought he
winked blandly toward Karnac, on the other side of the
river, where are recorded all the dynasties since the iiood,
and going there, I found some marks on the wall that may
A CHAPTER OF ITEMS-PARTING FROM THEBES-GET-
TING NEWS-THE SIROCCO-EMIGRATION-INAUGU-
RATION DAT.
" I've pretty much concluded up my mind," that that
nineteenth century of which I used to hear so much, ages
ago, in a remote corner of the world where I then resided,
was a decided humbug. Here, where the world is certainlv
old enough to know its own age, and to keep the reckoning
of centuries, I can't find anybody that has even heard of it.
The people, living in these parts, are all so many moons old,
and their great events are measured from the Hegira, the
time when Mohammed ran away from Mecca, about twelve
hundred years ago. They have never heard of the nine-
teenth century, and yet they seem to be an easy, contented
sort of people, quite happy in their way, and the more
" knowing" among them feel quite above any visitors from
the nineteenth century aforesaid. I have inquired of the
" oldest inhabitant" in this village of Thebes, a very elderly
and venerable gentleman, who sits out of doors sunning
himself in a great stone chair, with his hands on his knees,—
but though he is said to have spoken to the sun every
morning for thirty-three centuries, I can't get out of him
that he knows any such character. Once, I thought he
winked blandly toward Karnac, on the other side of the
river, where are recorded all the dynasties since the iiood,
and going there, I found some marks on the wall that may