DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0173
CHAP. XX.]
POTTERY AND BEE-RAFTS.
Ml
found a greeting in that tent as warm as the sunshine that shone
over it. The fair traveller spoke with pleasure and enthusiasm
of all that they had seen ; and I do believe that, with all its
drawbacks, Egypt is the most interesting and convenient country
that a lady can travel over. After dinner, the group in the tent
would have surprised their European friends : four turbaned and
bearded men sate round a fair and noble lady, whose graceful-
looking and fragrant nargileh* puffed and bubbled in harmony
with their long chibouques: the complexions of the whole party
were almost as dark as those of our crews, and the lady might,
have passed in a tableau for Cleopatra, but for the ivory white
forehead that indicated its proud claim to Norman blood. As
soon as it was dark, we parted. Again our Arabs' parting song
was raised, shots of salute were fired, and in a few moments
more we could only see the glare of their watch-fires far away,
reflecting on the tall, white sails as they receded down the dark
ening river.
Sometimes we met a raft, formed of earthen vessels manu-
factured at Keneh, and tied together on a slight raft of palm-
wood ; mugs, jugs, pitchers, and pipkins, formed into a floating
island, on which lived its navigators, with their wives and chil
dren ; sometimes a number of bees taking a cruise for change
of air and flowery pasture. The Egyptians are very curious
in honey ; and they say that the greater the variety the bee feeds
on, the better is his produce : therefore, they take their hives up
and down the river : true to the nomade instinct of their ancestors :
—the locality is as much a matter of indifference to them as to
their murmuring flocks. The instinct with which the bee finds
his way back to the boat, floated perhaps miles away since his
last excursion, would argue the possession of some extra sense.
Sometimes, again, we met a boat crowded with slaves from
Abyssinia and Darfur, on their way to the man-markets at Siout
and Cairo ; numbers, both boys and girls, are said to drown
themselves on every passage, to avoid the brutality of their
owners : once arrived at their place of destination and sold, how
* Water-pipe, consisting of a glass-bell, half-filled with water, through
which a very light and odoriferous tobacco is purified before it passes into
along, variegated tube, and jewelled mouth-piece.
POTTERY AND BEE-RAFTS.
Ml
found a greeting in that tent as warm as the sunshine that shone
over it. The fair traveller spoke with pleasure and enthusiasm
of all that they had seen ; and I do believe that, with all its
drawbacks, Egypt is the most interesting and convenient country
that a lady can travel over. After dinner, the group in the tent
would have surprised their European friends : four turbaned and
bearded men sate round a fair and noble lady, whose graceful-
looking and fragrant nargileh* puffed and bubbled in harmony
with their long chibouques: the complexions of the whole party
were almost as dark as those of our crews, and the lady might,
have passed in a tableau for Cleopatra, but for the ivory white
forehead that indicated its proud claim to Norman blood. As
soon as it was dark, we parted. Again our Arabs' parting song
was raised, shots of salute were fired, and in a few moments
more we could only see the glare of their watch-fires far away,
reflecting on the tall, white sails as they receded down the dark
ening river.
Sometimes we met a raft, formed of earthen vessels manu-
factured at Keneh, and tied together on a slight raft of palm-
wood ; mugs, jugs, pitchers, and pipkins, formed into a floating
island, on which lived its navigators, with their wives and chil
dren ; sometimes a number of bees taking a cruise for change
of air and flowery pasture. The Egyptians are very curious
in honey ; and they say that the greater the variety the bee feeds
on, the better is his produce : therefore, they take their hives up
and down the river : true to the nomade instinct of their ancestors :
—the locality is as much a matter of indifference to them as to
their murmuring flocks. The instinct with which the bee finds
his way back to the boat, floated perhaps miles away since his
last excursion, would argue the possession of some extra sense.
Sometimes, again, we met a boat crowded with slaves from
Abyssinia and Darfur, on their way to the man-markets at Siout
and Cairo ; numbers, both boys and girls, are said to drown
themselves on every passage, to avoid the brutality of their
owners : once arrived at their place of destination and sold, how
* Water-pipe, consisting of a glass-bell, half-filled with water, through
which a very light and odoriferous tobacco is purified before it passes into
along, variegated tube, and jewelled mouth-piece.