DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0161
CHAP. XIX.]
STABL D'ANTAR.
129
this time to pass him by unnoticed; whereupon, he attended me
very civilly over his establishment. A brace of pistols in one's
girdle, and a kurbash, or hippopotamus whip in one's hand, does
more in the East towards the promotion of courtesy, good humor
and good fellowship, than all the smiles and eloquence that evei
were exerted. The slaves here looked miserable enough, just
arrived from Darfur, across the desert. The Jelab, or slave-
merchant, had lost great numbers of them from hunger and
fatigue, and said that those remaining would not repay him for
his outlay.
Passing out of the city towards the mountains, we met num-
bers of women-slaves, washing and filling water-jars in the
canal. They wore as little covering as Eve, but the eye soon
becomes accustomed to this; dark people never look naked, at
least to white ones.
After an hour's ride, we arrived at the foot of the steep bu*
terraced, calcareous hills, which formed a sort of vertical ceme-
tery for the inhabitants of Lycopolis. the predecessor of Siout.
Herein the piety of old dug tombs of the magnitude and fashion
of temples : "For," said they, "those whom we bury now as
mere men, when they are awakened, will be as Gods, and must
not be ashamed of the places wherein they have lain so long."
Wolves would also appear to have feelings on the subject, for
numerous mummies of these brutes have been found as care-
fully preserved as those of their worshippers.
Our donkeys clambered actively up the sides of the crumbling
mountain, and at length we stood on a platform in front of the
wonderful Stabl d'Antar, commanding a view of about a hun-
dred miles of the valley of the Nile. A vast level panorama,
bounded by the chains of the Arabian and Libyan hills, lay
spread before us, diversified with every shade of green, and
watered by the Nile, creeping like a silvery serpent, through
the green savannahs. This vast plain was intersected by nu-
merous dykes, or canals, which regulate the inundation of the
Nile ; and, as these are generally planted with trees, they help
to give character to the somewhat monotonous landscape. Here
and there a few tents were pitched in a green meadow, in which
horses grazed, but generally it was under agriculture of exube-
10
STABL D'ANTAR.
129
this time to pass him by unnoticed; whereupon, he attended me
very civilly over his establishment. A brace of pistols in one's
girdle, and a kurbash, or hippopotamus whip in one's hand, does
more in the East towards the promotion of courtesy, good humor
and good fellowship, than all the smiles and eloquence that evei
were exerted. The slaves here looked miserable enough, just
arrived from Darfur, across the desert. The Jelab, or slave-
merchant, had lost great numbers of them from hunger and
fatigue, and said that those remaining would not repay him for
his outlay.
Passing out of the city towards the mountains, we met num-
bers of women-slaves, washing and filling water-jars in the
canal. They wore as little covering as Eve, but the eye soon
becomes accustomed to this; dark people never look naked, at
least to white ones.
After an hour's ride, we arrived at the foot of the steep bu*
terraced, calcareous hills, which formed a sort of vertical ceme-
tery for the inhabitants of Lycopolis. the predecessor of Siout.
Herein the piety of old dug tombs of the magnitude and fashion
of temples : "For," said they, "those whom we bury now as
mere men, when they are awakened, will be as Gods, and must
not be ashamed of the places wherein they have lain so long."
Wolves would also appear to have feelings on the subject, for
numerous mummies of these brutes have been found as care-
fully preserved as those of their worshippers.
Our donkeys clambered actively up the sides of the crumbling
mountain, and at length we stood on a platform in front of the
wonderful Stabl d'Antar, commanding a view of about a hun-
dred miles of the valley of the Nile. A vast level panorama,
bounded by the chains of the Arabian and Libyan hills, lay
spread before us, diversified with every shade of green, and
watered by the Nile, creeping like a silvery serpent, through
the green savannahs. This vast plain was intersected by nu-
merous dykes, or canals, which regulate the inundation of the
Nile ; and, as these are generally planted with trees, they help
to give character to the somewhat monotonous landscape. Here
and there a few tents were pitched in a green meadow, in which
horses grazed, but generally it was under agriculture of exube-
10