CORRESPONDENCE.
LIFE ON A DAHABEAH.
GIVEN a good boat and crew and pleasant companions, I know nothing more enjoyable in the way of travel than life for some months on board a dahabeah on the Nile. Yachting has charms of its own for those who love the sea, and are proof against its malady. Yet even for them yachting has its- drawbacks. Shaving is disagreeable at all times, but it becomes dangerous in addition when you are pitched violently backward and forward in the process. And, however good your digestion may be, it is a nuisance to be obliged to eat
your soup or drink your beverage (whatever it be) at the risk of spilling it over the tablecloth or in your neighbour's lap- -that is to say, if your neighbour is visible—a contingency which must be reckoned with on board a yacht. If you happen to be of a sociable disposition, it is melancholy to miss at meals the wit, or humourist, or raconteur of the party ; nay, sometimes perhaps to find yourself all alone, knowing the while that your merry companions are in en- du 'rg purgatorial pains. It is humiliating, too, when you go on deck, to find yourself in the plight, described so vividly by the Psalmist, of those who "go down to the sea in ships," and "reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end." "When the stormy wind ariseth " it is possible to be in the condition of physical imbecility here portrayed without sea-sickness. It is all very grand, no doubt, but it is not exactly pleasure.
Against all such ills life on a dahabeah is secure. The Nile is seldom rough enough to cause discomfort even to the most timid, and at the worst the dahabeah can be moored against the bank while the storm lasts. Another great advantage of sailing on the Nile is the steadiness of the wind. And herein lies one of the beneficent boons of that mystic river. Egypt has been rightly called "the gift of the Nile," which not only irrigates the soil, but- manures it at the same time with the deposit of fertilising mud which it leaves behind, and without which Egypt would be as barren as the Sahara. For the Nile mud rests on a bed -of sea-sand, the whole valley between the first cataract and the sea having been in prehistoric times a narrow estuary. The soil thus formed by the Nile is chemically unique. It -contains 63 per cent. of water and sand, 18 per cent. of car- bonate of lime, 9 per cent. of quartz, silica, felspar, horn- blende, and epidote, 6 per cent. of oxide of iron, and 4 per -cent. of carbonate of magnesia. But not only has the Nile turned an arid wilderness into the richest land in the world; it has provided at the same time an admirable commercial highway, and made possible the transport of building mate- rials. The ancient Egyptians were thus enabled to utilise the granite of Assuan for the splendid structures of hundred gated Thebes, and of Memphis, and even for those of Tanis on the Mediterranean coast. But how did they get their barges and rafts so many hundreds of miles upstream without the aid of steam P For the average rapidity of the current is
three miles an hour. Human life was, doubtless, cheap in those days, a fact of which the Pyramids and other colossal structures of Egypt are lasting memorials. But it may be questioned whether the population of an- cient Egypt, even with the addition of foreign captives, -would have sufficed, without ruin to the country, to supply enough rowers for the craft that traversed the Nile. The fact, however, is that rowers were rarely needed. From the beginning of winter to the end of spring—that is, while the Nile is navigable—the north wind blows steadily up stream with sufficient force to drive sailing boats against the -current at a fair pace; while, on the other hand, the current is strong enough to carry a boat without sails down against the wind except when it blows a gale. It is a wonderful provision of Providence that the relative forces of wind and stream should be so accurately regulated as to make naviga- tion possible in contrary directions at one and the same time.
A pleasure dahabeah under full sail is a beautiful sight. It has one great sail, of lateen pattern, attached to a yard of enormous length. Small sails are added as occasion may require. Over the cabins and saloon is a railed high poop, with easy chairs and lounges, and gay with plants and flowers. To the east stretches the Arabian, to the west the Lybian .desert, each flanked by a range of bare hills, which in a few places touch the river, but lie for the most part two or three miles back on either side. Ages before the Pyramids, the Nile filled the whole of the valley to the depth of some two hundred feet, and the yellow hills, now so bare, were clothed with a luxuriant vegetation, of which the evidence still remains in petrified forests and fossilised plants. It was plainly a period of heavy rainfall and impetuous torrents, carving out vast gorges through the rocky hills, and pouring their waters into the Nile. I made an excursion one day, with two of our party, into one of these gorges. We were obliged to have an armed escort, for brigands still occasionally haunt those wild and savage solitudes. We penetrated some miles into this chasm, which was once the bed of a mighty rushing river, that had cut its way through the solid rock. On each side of us rose a wall of rock ranging in height from 300 to 600 feet. The heat of the sun, reflected from the rocky walls, was intense, and made us feel, after miles of alternate riding and walking, the blessings to the tired traveller of finding himself suddenly in "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." When the sun was at its hottest we came upon a refreshing tiny oasis, watered by a deliciously cool well under the overhanging ledge of a great rock. Some graceful palm-trees stood motionless in the silent air, like sentinels guarding a treasure. There we left our servants and donkeys, whilst we, divested of coat and waistcoat, pushed on with our escort farther into the interior of the gorge. Till we reached the oasis, and a little beyond it, we were still within the zone of moving life. Flycatchers and swallows had been gradually decreasing in number before we arrived at the well. A short distance beyond it they disappeared, and so did the falcons that had now and then poised and gyrated at giddy heights. The profound stillness and entire absence of life, except our own, became awfully impressive, and would have been oppressive as well for any solitary traveller. In the most desolate and wild part of our rough walk, or rather scramble, our eyes were refreshed with a jet of clear cool water coming out of a small fissure in the hard rock. My friends and I simultaneously recalled the "water out of the stony rock" that had flowed in obedience to the command of the Hebrew prophet. But where did the water come from P It was high up above the dry bed of the ancient stream, and the mountain was simply a dry, bare rock, devoid of a blade of vegetation. A patch of dark-green moss, mingled with tufts of grass, marked the course of the spray, showing the solicitude with which Mother Earth strives to clothe her nakedness wherever she finds material, however scanty, wherewith to weave a garment. Whence came the seeds of the moss and grass that clung to that bare rock P for not a bird or insect disturbed the circumambient air. I suppose the winds blew them thither. So many and various are the agencies which make for life.
But it is not every occupant of a dahabeah who can bear the toil of excursions into mountain gorges. What are they to do who are, perhaps, unable to take any walking or riding exercise at all P Well, they too have their compensation. What can be more restful to an invalid than to sit or lounge under an awning, breathing a keen, salubrious air, with strange sights and sounds to occupy the senses and the mind all day long. The Nile is a busy river, full of life and movement dahabeahs, bent on pleasure or on trade, passing up and down its stream with scarcely any intermission, while its banks are fall of interest to the lover of the picturesque; crowds of women, with graceful forms and, not seldom, very comely faces, filling heavy earthen jars with water, and carrying them home on their heads ; men, with skins of bronze, toiling in relays of three hours each at the shadiffs under a burning sun, and singing the while to relieve the monotony of their daily labour; boatmen floating with the stream or sailing against it, and they also singing a weird, wailing chant, like the echo of a hopeless cry wafted across the centuries from hard bondage under Egyptian task- masters, such as the Israelites endured before the Exodus ; flocks of pelicans standing on the sand or mancenvring in the air like soldiers on the march; kingfishers, now hovering over the water, now darting beneath its surface in quest of a passing fish. And then there is the mysterious Nile itself,—mysterious still, though its sources have been disclosed and its long mean- derings tracked, from the uplands of Central Africa to the margin of the Midland Sea. The voyager now, it is true, seldom sees a crocodile, unless he goes beyond the Second Cataract ; still less has he a chance of witnessing any of those fierce encounters between crocodiles and hippoptami which are sculptured on the walls of the temple of Edfu. In those ancient days, when the shores of the Nile down to Cairo were lined with reeds and papyrus, the river abounded with crocodiles and hippopotami, both of which afforded excellent—albeit some- times perilous—sport to the dwellers on the banks. Firearms and steamers have now driven those fierce monsters of the deep beyond the Second Cataract. But, apart from its in- habitants, the Nile itself has a mystic interest of its own. I do not wonder that in the mythology of ancient Egypt it was endowed with life, and received some sort of divine honours. Its periodical inundations, while their causes were unknown, placed it outside the category of ordinary:rivers, and invested it with an atmosphere of mystery. And in the youth of our race, when woods, and glades, and rivers were believed to own appropriate denizens, it is easy to understand how the Nile came to be regarded as endowed with more than natural life. It is so full of sub-currents and eddies that the amphibious natives, who swim like fish, will not venture to cross it except astride on logs of wood. In the stillness of the night these eddies gurgle and murmur past your dahabeah like spirits from "the vasty deep" engaged in confidential talk.
And who can adequately describe those splendid dawns and gorgeous sunsets which are among the commonplaces of Nile scenery ? I have often seen the whole sky, from the zenith to the horizon, become one molten mantling sea of colour and fire ; every ripple and wave transfused into unsullied, shadow- less crimson, and purple, and scarlet, and opalescent hues, shading off into colours for which our language supplies no words and previous experience no ideas. This splendour of in- describable intermingling colours appears at sunset on the western horizon, and is followed by a soft sheen, as of moon- light, reflected on the hills on the eastern bank of the river.
In short, life on a dahabeah is one perpetual picnic. You stop where you please, and either enjoy the dolce far niente of remaining on board, or making excursions to old temples or tombs, or taking part in a veritable picnic in the desert—and a picnic in the desert, under; favourable auspices, is an experience not likely to be forgotten. One of those favour- able auspices is that British officers in command of Egyptian troops should organise the expedition. If you wish to see a British officer at his best, behold him on foreign service. Few things in Egypt impressed me more than the splendid quali- ties of the officers whom our Government has lent to the Khedive to command his Egyptian and Soudanese troops. They have inspired such confidence among the native soldiers that even the nnwarlike fellaheen would now follow them con- fidently against any foe.
Our kind hosts provided us with a liberal choice of animals to carry us to the place of rendezvous, some miles inland from the Nile. And a picturesque spectacle we presented as we trotted over the desert sands on donkeys, camels, and Arab steeds, escorted by Soudanese troops and a cloud of half. nakedBishareen Arabs, each armed with a sheaf of spears and other weapons, and the whole commanded by a handsome Sheik, well dressed and well mounted. After luncheon, the Bishareens entertained us with specimens of their modes of fighting in single combat and in masses. Various other amuse- ments followed, till the time arrived for our return home. Fired by emulation of two ladies of our party, who rode camels for the first time with easy grace and confidence, I was induced, on the return journey, to mount that most unamiable-looking of quadrupeds. There is something inexpressibly repelling in the supercilium triste of a camel as he looks scornfully at you, with his nose in the air. But I overcame my repugnance, and mounted one, after receiving careful instructions how to retain my seat while the brute was getting up. It was well enough while he walked; but when he began to trot at a brisk pace, I devoutly wished myself astride on a humbler animal. But how was I to stop him There was no bridle, only a rope attached to the left side of the brute's mouth. At that rope I tugged, with the effect merely of making my camel trot off „to the left. I had been told that if I wished to make him go to the right, I must hit him on the left side of the head with a very short stick with which I had been provided for the purpose. But that was more easily said than done. How was I, from my giddy perch, to reach the creature's head across that long stretch of neck ? I tried it, and nearly lost my balance for my pains,—no joke at a height of some 10 ft. above the pebbly sand. One of the officers, however, saw my plight, stopped, uttered some gurgling sound ; and then the camel, exposing its teeth and protesting viciously, knelt down, and I dismounted, silently vowing that never again would I choose that mode of locomo- tion. My deliverer, who exchanged his donkey for my camel, laughed heartily at my discomfiture. But I had my revenge speedily, for in the exuberance of his gaiety he allowed the camel to rise unexpectedly, and was pitched head-over-heels on the ground. He was not hurt, and he joined in the laugh against himself as heartily as he had laughed at me. We raced home, a motley cavalcade, if I may use an expression
etymologically inapplicable to the variety of animals which bore our merry party to and from as pleasant a day's enter- tainment as it has ever been my lot to enjoy. M.
Previous page
