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been blasted out. We were told that not far from this quarry, in the desert to the eastward, were remains of an alabaster quarry which had been extensively worked at some former period; and this information was verified by the great quantities of fragments of carved alabaster which we discovered at the mounds of a small ancient town which we now visited. These consisted of pieces of alabaster cups and vases, and we picked up a number of beautiful little stems like miniature columns two and three inches long, the exact use of which we

could not determine. We also found some ancient alabaster draughtmen, which we could identify by those we afterwards saw in the museum at Boulak on the draught-boards. There were also some carved blocks of limestone which seemed to have formed part of a temple. A little beyond these remains is the extensive modern Moslem cemetery of Zowyeh el Miuteen, where a funeral was going on at the time of our visit, and which covers a very large area of ground. It is quite in the desert; and behind rise some cliffs, in which are rockcut tombs, with the ruin-covered promontory of Kom Ahmar, or the "Red Mound," projecting into the Nile. Lepsius visited these tombs, and says of them :

"So little has been said by others, besides, on most of the monuments of central Egypt, that almost everything we found here was new to me. I therefore was not a little astonished when we discovered at Zowyeh el Miuteen a series of nineteen rock-tombs, all of them bearing inscriptions which informed us who were their inhabitants, and belonging to the old time of the sixth dynasty, therefore extending almost to the period of the great Pyramids. Five of them contain more than once the shield of Makrobioten Apappus Pepi, who is said to have lived to the age of 106 years, and to have reigned 100 years; and in another Cheops is mentioned. Apart from these there is

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It was hard work scrambling up to these rarely visited tombs, and I was obliged to content myself with two or three. The inscriptions were being wantonly defaced by the native quarrymen, who were blasting out one of the tombs when we were there, and who, when they are not engaged in wholesale destruction, seem to amuse themselves by picking out the coloured representations with their chisels, so that in one tomb which was probably highly ornamented when Lepsius saw it, nothing now remains. One of the best representations which we have of an ancient Egyptian ship in full sail is yet visible in one of these chambers; but if the work of demolition continues, it will not long survive the others. The tombs I visited were about twenty feet by fifteen, and six feet high, the roofs covered with hieroglyphics; and I think it probable that there are many still undiscovered which may contain untouched sarcophagi. The neighbourhood was evidently used in old days as an extensive burying-ground; for we saw plenty of mummy-cloth lying about, and perhaps the tradition has clung to it ever since, which may account for the large Copt and Moslem cemeteries in the immediate vicinity: the latter is a veritable city of the dead. Three times a year the Moslems come over and spend a week making ceremonious lamentations over the tombs of The mounds of their ancestors.

Kom Ahmar must be familiar to the Nile tourist, as they form a striking feature in the scenery, with their crumbling red-brick walls crowning the promontory to a height of at least fifty feet above the level of the river; they are also abundantly strewn with fragments of objects of alabaster, and it is highly probable

that these remains mark the site of the ancient city of Alabastron. Among other curiosities, I picked up here a little deformed image in copper, which represented the god Bes a sort of ancient Egyptian "Worth" who presided over the toilet of the ladies.

Our dinner was prepared at the family mansion of our host, in which he had been born, which was situated in the village of Nezlet es Sowyeh, the houses of which clustered round it like a brood of chickens under the wings of a hen. It contrasted most favourably with Egyptian villages generally, in the cleanliness of the streets and the neatness of the houses; and the mosque and school, which he had built, proved that even here wealth was felt to entail its responsibilities, and that our entertainer had been mindful of the moral and intellectual condition of his dependants. His wealth, which was very considerable, consisted largely in landed property, his estates on the banks of the Nile comprising some 4000 acres. The crop which he found the most profitable was sugarcane; and his principal overseer hinted, with some triumph, that some triumph, that he was more successful in its cultivation than the Daira Sanich. Our dinner was served à la Turca, upon a round table, with flat loaves of bread for plates, and fingers for knives and forks; but notwithstanding this primitive method of grappling with it, to which we had by this time become accustomed, the repast was abundant, and excellently cooked. Altogether we saw enough of life in an Egyptian country-house to convince us that it could be made pleasant enough, provided one did not require any other society but that of one's own wife or wives. As a rule, those who can afford it have several town and country houses, with a wife in

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each, thus securing to themselves a harmonious establishment at each place. Persons who are unable to afford this luxury find it better to confine themselves to one wife, especially if she is still young, as domestic comfort is hopeless with two or more young wives in the same harem. We were furnished by our host with an introduction to one of his relatives at El Kurm -a village about twelve miles higher up the river-which we reached in the afternoon of the following day, and were most cordially received by a handsome young man, who was in the act of building himself a mansion on the bank, to which, as it was nearly finished, he invited us. Here we found assembled the kadi, the Sheikh el Beled, and sundry other notables, who all sat in a circle, and smoked cigarettes and sipped coffee; but the figure that immediately arrested our attention was a remarkably silent, dignified individual, of about fifty, who smoked the old-fashioned chibouk, and had altogether the tranquil air of the Eastern grand seigneur, rarely to be met with in these degenerate days. This proved to be no less a personage than Hassabalu Abou Sakr, the sheikh of all the Bedouin tribes who wander over the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, from Suez to Kosseir. Even he was becoming tainted by civilisation; for he told us he lived in a house lower down the river, and only took his tents and made his circuit through the tribes once every two or three years. He assured us, if need be, that he could call out 4000 fighting men.

We made arrangements with our host-who insisted upon sending down an ample dinner, ready cooked, to our dahabeeya-to visit the celebrated tombs of Beni Hassan the next morning, and were just retiring to rest when we were

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roused by the cries of women, the screaming of children, the oaths of men, and the barking of dogs on the bank above us. I immediately rushed out to ascertain the cause of the riot, and found that apparently the whole village, of all ages and both sexes, had turned out to have a free fight on the open space under the date-trees on the river-bank. I immediately sent to our friend to tell him what was going on, and some men armed with authority and sticks soon appeared upon scene and put a stop to the row. am bound to say that the women seemed the most active combatants, and the most reluctant to give in. I discovered afterwards that the quarrel had originated in a domestic squabble which had culminated in the husband beating his wife, on which her relatives interfered, and the whole village took sides. I asked whether there was much wife-beating among the natives of Egypt; and from what I could learn, it seems to be almost as common a pastime with them as it is with the natives of England. On the following morning we pulled across the river, accompanied by our entertainer and all his guests of the night before, and our picturesque cavalcade soon scrambled up the cliff to the tombs of Beni Hassan, which are too familiar to Nile tourists to need description; but they were still objects of mystery and wonder to those by whom I was accompanied, though they lived in their immediate neighbourhood. They clustered round in a most attentive and interested group, when, standing amid the handsome columns in the tomb of Ameni, I explained to them his history, finally reading to them the translation of the inscription in hieroglyphics (out of Murray), in which this distinguished adminis

trator says:

"The hungry did not exist in my time, even when there were years of famine. For, behold, I ploughed all the fields of Sah to its frontiers both north and south; thus I found food for its inhabitants, and I gave them whatever it produced. There were no hungry people in it. I gave equally to the widow as to the married woman. I did not prefer a great personage to a humble man in all that I gave away; and when the inundations of the Nile were great, he who sowed was master myself from the revenues of the land." of his crop. I kept back nothing for

The impartiality and disinterestedness of these sentiments were received with loud marks of approval, and my swarthy friends went from one cave to the other examining and discussing the various hieroglyphics and pictorial representations, now that they had some one to explain them, as keenly interested as if they had been a party of British tourists instead of residents on the spot. As the Sheikh el Beled of the village of Beni Hassan itselfwas with us, I called his attention to the wanton destruction of these most interesting illustrations of the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians at the hands, not only of foreign travellers, but of the natives, and implored him to use his authority to put a stop to it as far as it lay in his power; but I fear, unless the Government take the matter in hand, there will be very little remaining, a few years hence, of the marvellous and minute records which this most ancient people have left of their daily lives and avocations. While we were discussing this subject our luncheon arrived, which was contained in a large circular basket, and consisted of a lamb cooked whole, peacefully reclining upon a layer of flat loaves of bread. Indeed nothing could exceed the kindness and hospitality of our host, who, during the whole time of our stay,

insisted upon providing the necessary means of locomotion and all our meals. We parted from him with many mutual expressions of regret and goodwill, and made a prosperous run the same evening to the charmingly situated little town of Rhoda, where we proposed staying for a few days.

Between Cairo and Luxor there is no spot on the Nile which is held by the natives in such high estimation for the purity of the air and the salubrity of the climate as Rhoda. Situated at the end of a long reach of the river, it receives the full force of the north wind, and even in summer it is said to be cooler than any other place in Upper Egypt. We seemed conscious of a remarkably invigorating quality in the air, and this agreeable attribute was enhanced by the beauty of our surroundings. Here, as in Minieh, we lived in a bower of orange-blossoms, the garden was shaded, and the river- bank was lined with umbrageous trees, under which it was delightful to sit at all hours of the day. Indeed a roof promised to become a superfluity in our existence; breathing the pure air, and trying to assimilate its health giving properties, seemed occupation enough. In fact I cannot imagine a spot better suited for the invalid—all that is wanted to make it a place of popular resort for strangers is a hotel of some sort. My experience of the Fayoum, and of Central Egypt between Cairo and Siout, convinces me that, so soon as accommodation is provided, the valley of the Nile and the oasis are destined to become a favourite winter resort for invalids. I feel

no doubt that it would be a most profitable speculation to open small hotels at Medinet el Fayoum, Rhoda, and other places on the river. The experiments of hotels at Helwan and Luxor which have

already been made, have proved so successful that it is a matter of astonishment that nothing has yet been accomplished in this direction, the more especially as of late years Cairo has become decidedly unhealthy, and has lost much of its old charm, both in point of climate and of that oriental cachet which was its great attraction. Rhoda not only possesses beauty of scenery and an exceptionally good climate, but is surrounded by objects of archæological and historical interest. Immediately opposite are the ruins of the ancient city of Antinoë, called by the Emperor Hadrian, who founded it, after his favourite youth Antinous, who plunged into the Nile and drowned himself at this spot, in the belief, based on an oracular prediction, that the sacrifice of what was most dear to his imperial master would bring him back the good fortune which seemed to have abandoned him. A little higher up are the grottoes of Jebel Aboolfeyda and Tel Amarna. Indeed the mountains here are honeycombed with a most interesting series of tombs, containing pictorial representations, which have never been thoroughly explored; and I regretted that the operation was too laborious to enable us to undertake it, as some of the most interesting and least-known objects lie at a distance of several miles from the river. While the east bank is thus prolific in antiquarian remains, the west bank offers similar attractions within easy distance from Rhoda. Here are the mounds of Ashmoneyn, the site of the ancient city of Hermopolis Magna, the capital of the Nome; the Libyan hills beyond it are perforated with tombs. An attempt to describe in detail all that may be seen from Rhoda would only weary the reader -nor need the traveller who makes it his headquarters expect to find

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I was present here at the important function of the launch of one of the largest description of Nile boats, which are used for traffic purposes by the Daira Sanieh, and the ceremony was one at which a large number of the villagers assisted. Considering it evidently a sort of fête, they came down with banners, dancing-girls, music, and a large band of workmen, and cheered the labours of the latter as, in true old Egyptian style, they went to work to launch the boats by the appliance of physical force alone. The superintendent of their efforts was evidently of opinion that backs were made before levers, and that the true way to launch a boat was, not to allow her to glide into the water stern first, but to push her down the ways sidewise by the sheer force of a united shove. In order to get her to move at all, however, he commenced operations by rocking her to an extent that made her seams crack and the whole boat bend and creak omin

ously. When she was sufficiently loosened and weakened generally by this operation, the music struck up, the flags waved, the dancing-girls danced, and the whole two hundred men, placing their backs beneath the boat, lifted up their voices in a loud groan of concentrated effort; then she moved an inch, and everybody rested, and collected round the girls, who were dressed in long flowing robes, and not in the usual tight-fitting bodice and loose trousers of the ghawazie. They were abundantly decorated with jewels in the shape of necklaces, bangles, ear-rings, and nose-rings, and doubtless lightened the labours of the workmen by their entertainment. The launch of the craft, diversified by this "fantasia"

by numerous slips of the stern, which would go down more rapidly than the bows-by sundry hitches, in which neither bows nor stern would move at all-and then by unexpected slides, when she threatened to topple over prematurely into the river,-lasted just ten hours. However, it was accomplished with great triumph and beating of drums at last, and then the procession marched back to the village to reward themselves for the labours of the day by more terpsichorean divertissement.

Meantime I had been gazing with longing eyes at the mounds of the ancient Antinoë, just visible through the date-trees on the opposite side of the river, and decided to make an examination of them the object of my next expedition.

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