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 ■WITH THE AtlTHOR'S COMPLTKIENTS 
 
 ^^M 
 
WAHU H. IIOWLHY. AI.A., K.C., 
 
 Crown Attorney, 
 Bkrli.n, Ontario, Canada. 
 
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 ^HK i-OMPANY. I :MllKt>. 
 
A VOYAGE 
 
 FROM 
 
 CANADA TO EGYPT 
 
 AMD A 
 
 TWO MONTHS' TRIP ON THE RIVER 
 NILE IN A HOUSEBOAT 
 
 WA 
 
 RD H. BOWLBY, M.A.. K.C 
 
 CKOWS ATTOKirsy, 
 BERLIN. ONTARIO. CANADA. 
 
 SDiTlOff DS LVXS. 
 
 FOK FRBB PKiy* 
 
 TS CIKCULATIOir ONLY. 
 
 pmWT«D AND PUBLISHED Vt 
 
 ,„E COPP, CLARK COMPANV. UM.TKV>, 
 
 Toronto, Canada. 
 \qaa- 
 
DTS4- 
 Bfa9 
 
A Voyage from Canada to Egypt 
 
 Alio A 
 
 TWO MONTHS- TRIP ON THE RIVER NILE 
 IN A HOUSEBOAT 
 
 nr 
 
 WAKD H. BOWLBY, M.A.. K.C.. 
 
 CKOWK JTTOMJfSr, 
 B«BUB. OHTAMO, CAMADA. 
 
 I am commencing to write this brief account of 
 PW of my present trip abroad on board our 
 houseboat, at the foot of the (irst cataract on the 
 K.ver NUe in Upper Egypt, at a distance of over 
 roo miles from the Mediterranean Sea and 6.600 
 miles from our Camidian home. We have now 
 been on board this boat, sailing up the river, four 
 weeks to-day, which is the 2nd of February 1899 
 and we expect to be on board fom- weeks more' 
 ""^ down the river, including several long 
 
4 A Canadian's travels in egypt. 
 
 stops, which we are to make on the way down, to 
 visit those ruins of ancient cities, temples, tombs, 
 obelisks and monuments which we did not see 
 while going up the river, I will write this article 
 piece-meal, from day to day, a little at a time, 
 when not engaged iu sight-seeing, or in reading, 
 or in loafing around, or in taking my daily walks 
 on deck, or along the shores of the Nile, and I 
 will finish it at Cairo and at Port Said on our 
 departure from Egypt to go on board a steamer, 
 sailing from that port on the Mediterranean Sea 
 to Sjrrian ports, conveying us on our way to visit 
 the Holy Land. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Geoi^e H. Perley of Ottawa, 
 Canada, with their little daughter Ethel, and a 
 lady friend of Mrs. Perley, left home on the 3rd 
 of November, 1898, on their way to the city of 
 Cairo in Egypt, where they were to remain until 
 my wife and I should join them in that city at or 
 about Christmas Day, 1898. On the eve of my 
 departure for Egypt, on the 5th of December, 
 1898, those of my personal friends who are 
 
A Canadian's TRAVEii? in egypt. 5 
 
 members of the Berlin Club gave me a farewell 
 dimier at the club, which went off very pleas- 
 antly, and on the following morning Mrs. Bowlby 
 and I left our home at Berlin, Ont, Canada, in 
 a blinding snowstorm of a Canadian winter's 
 day (which was a most striking contrast to the 
 weather we have had here in Egypt, where the 
 green fields of wheat and barley are just heading 
 out), and on our way to New York our train 
 was snow-bound for a whole night at Buffalo, 
 but, as our steamer would not sail from New 
 York for three days yet, we were sure to reach 
 that city in ample time to catch the steamer, and, 
 as it was, we arrived in New York in the even- 
 ing, instead of in the morning, of the day in 
 which our train was due to arrive there, and we 
 found, waiting for us at the Murray Hill Hotel, 
 my wife's sister, Mrs. Farr, and her husband, 
 Mr. H. M. Farr, of Holyoke, Mjiss., who gave us 
 a warm greeting and spent a couple of days with 
 us before we sailed. While we were in New 
 York our friends, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Breit- 
 
• A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 haupt, had us take dinner with them at their 
 fine residence in Irving Place. 
 
 On the morning of the 10th of December, 1898, 
 we went aboard that magnificent great steamer 
 the Auguste- Victoria, and on going to our state- 
 room we found that another sister of my wife, 
 Mrs. Walker of Cambridge, Mass., had caused to 
 be hung up large photographs of herself and her 
 daughter to remind us that we were not forgot- 
 ten by them, an<l we also found there awaiting us 
 a telegram from my brother. Dr. D. S. Bowlby, 
 of Berlin, Can., and his wife, wishing us a safe 
 and prosperous voyage, and a lett-er to the same 
 effect from my friend, Mr. W. R. Travers, the 
 Berlin Manager of the Merchants Bank of Can- 
 ada. Soon afterwards our great steamship sailed 
 out of New York harbor for Naples, Italy. We 
 expected a terrible passage across the Atlantic, 
 as all the incoming steamers at New York 
 reported having encountered fearful gales of 
 wind, but in this we were agreeably disappointed, 
 as we had the most charming weather for the 
 
i 
 
 A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 7 
 
 whole eleven days of our sea voyage, and all the 
 way to Italy the Atlantic Ocean and tho Mediter- 
 ranean Sea looked as if they were both covered 
 with an undulating sheet of glass, and were zs 
 calm as the waters of the lake of our own Vic- 
 toria Park, in Berlir, Ont, while the great float- 
 ing palace of an ocean steamer, in which we were 
 sailing, was big enough to cover all the waters of 
 that lake, including Roos island in its centre. 
 We just chanced to slip in between two gieat 
 ocean storms, as immediately after we landed in 
 Italy the coasts of the British Isles and the 
 Straits of Gibraltar were swept by tremendous 
 gales and tempests. 
 
 On our eighth day out from New York we 
 landed at Gibraltar, and, taking a carriage, drove 
 from the wharf through the tovm to the entrance 
 to the great British fortress, where, under the 
 guidance of a British soldier, we walked through 
 many of the secret passages and tunnels that 
 penetrate the very high mountain of solid rock 
 and viewed the lai^est cannon in the world. 
 
• A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS !N EGYPT. 
 
 and then (In)ve down on the narrow strip of low 
 land which separates the great rock of Gibraltar 
 from Spanish territory, and, going far enough to 
 be, for a moment, in Spain, we immediately 
 drove back to the wharf, after having spent five 
 hours of great interest, and went on board a 
 little steam tug, which took us out of the harbor 
 to our steamer, when we proceeded on our 
 voyage to Naples, arriving there on the morn- 
 ing of the 2l8t December, 1898, during a rain- 
 storm which lasted all day and cleared up at 
 night cold, and on the following morning we 
 found thin ice on the waters in the park in front 
 of our hotel. 
 
 We spent four days in Naples very pleasantly, 
 visiting the Museum, the Aquarium, and other 
 objects of interest. One day was taken up in 
 visiting the ruins of the city of Pompeii, which 
 city was buried by an eruption of ashes and lava 
 from the adjacent Mount Vesuvius about 2,000 
 years ago, and which has been dug out within 
 the last few years and is being excavated more 
 
A Canadian's travei>* in eoypt. g 
 
 and more every day. We found the oI<l buried 
 city in a much better state of preservation than 
 we had expected, and we both had a splendid 
 day's enjoyment, though Mrs. Bowl by had seen 
 these ruins seven years before, when the excava- 
 tions were not so extensive as now. I have fre- 
 quently read glowing descriptions of the beauty 
 of the Bay of Naples and no doubt the reader 
 has often heanl the expression "Se^ Naples 
 and then die," and, in consequence, I ' ju\ formed 
 a most exaggerated notion of the be .utiful scene 
 I was going to behold on entering the bay. If 
 we were somewhat disappointed at the view on 
 entering the Bay of Naples by day-light, on a 
 rainy forenoon, we were more than comfjensated 
 for this disappointment by the great beauty and 
 grandeur of the scene on going out of that bay 
 at night. 
 
 We sailed from Naples for Alexandria, Egypt, 
 in the Begina Margherita, a good Italian steamer, 
 on the evening of the 24th of December, 1898, 
 leaving the wharf of Naples just before six 
 
10 A CANADIANH TRAVRUI IN WIYPT. 
 
 o'clock p.in. when the city wan all ablue with 
 RM and electric liKhtK. The city in huilt in a 
 nomi-cirpular form anmnd the end of the hay, 
 and hack a little diMtanco from the water is a 
 rango of high IuIIh, and the t^ty extrndH right 
 up the Hidefl of tluw^ hilln, stret^t alwve Htreet, 
 to the very top, prenentinK the ap|H»amnee, when 
 vieweti from the l«y. of the aeatK in one half of 
 a circus tent, or of an amphitheatre, while along 
 the »\ge of the watei-s of the bay is a continuous 
 row of gaslights on gasposts, looking, in the 
 distance, like the footlights of an enormous stage 
 of a vast theatre covering acres and acres in 
 extent. Turning from this view of the city, and 
 looking off to the right, we behold the mighty 
 Vesuvius, near the top of which is a ro<I glow of 
 fire, and out of its very top pours forth a contin- 
 uous torrent of smoke, gas, or steam, which for a 
 time creeps down the mounUf-n's side and then 
 darte up towards the star-lit sky. To the right 
 of Vesuvius we see the town of Sorrento and the 
 Island of Capri. The whole presented a grand 
 
A TANADIAN'h TVAVKIJH |N WIVIT. || 
 
 and majfniHoent upocUftFo nover to Iw forgotten. 
 Ho mnm ah we got oiitMidn tho »«y the mw wm 
 very rough un.l ct.ntiniiwl rolling moiint«inH high 
 •luring nearly all of the voyage ofl.ioo mileM to 
 Alexandria, and mlme<l down on th(^ morning of 
 the 2«tli I)o(!emlK5r. aiNiiit four hourn Jn^fore we 
 reachetl Alexandria. 
 
 On C.'hriHtmaH Day all the paH«<,ngorH on Iward 
 
 were Hea-Hick, except one American laily and 
 
 myHelf, and it wan. indee.l, a !.. ?y. miHerable 
 
 cUy, but some comfort can 1m) obtained out of any 
 
 situation, however diHagreeablo it may be. for are 
 
 we not coming nearer and nearer, every hour, 
 
 to our daughter—our only child— Mrs. Perley, 
 
 who, with her husband and her daughter, are 
 
 awaiting us at Cairo, Egypt, which is only 130 
 
 miles by rail from Alexandria ? 
 
 On the morning of the third day out from 
 Naples we all began to look anxiously over the 
 calm blue sea for the low-lying Egyptian shores, 
 when suddenly there came into our view the 
 Minaret towers belonging to the Mosques of 
 
IS A Canadian's tkavrijs in k(»yit. 
 
 Alexandria, and Hoon afturwartltt wo hoo the land 
 of anciont Kgypt, tho cradle of human life. Our 
 Htoanior paHHOH behind the jfrwit Htono hrmk- 
 watwi , of Home two niilen in length, and thence to 
 the inner harlH)r of Alexandria, a city that wiw 
 foundoil by Alexander the (Jieat :i:}*J years before 
 the birth of Christ, and which htw n«)w ;J20,(MK) 
 inhabitantH. We Hee the Hhipa of all nations— 
 tiUl HritiHh, FriMJch, AuHtrian, (Jennan, Italian 
 and Norwegian Hteamers moored to the quays — 
 a fortwt of spars and masts on merchant vessels 
 lying out in the harlmr, and beyond them the 
 black hulls of British and Russian war-ships, and 
 tho flags of all nations flying to the breeze over 
 all this shipping. We see crowdofl on tho 
 wharves, and in small lioats, men of every color 
 and in every style of dross—red Egyptians in 
 blue or white or black shirts reaching below tho 
 knees, with Iwre feet and turlmns on their heads 
 —black Soudanese in similar shirts antl small rolls 
 of white cotton cloth wound aroun<l their heads 
 —swarthy brown Syrians wearing a rod fez cap, 
 
A ('ANAOIAN'h TKAVKIJ4 IN KOYIT. IS 
 
 a velvet jacket, a MaMh arounil the walHt, a liii^je 
 petticoat mcwii together at thi^ iMittom, U^aviiig 
 only hoUw for the feet, and [Mitent Imther lMM)ts 
 —and many other kindH of dreHmm e(]iially 
 strange. We are in the VamI. Thin m truly 
 Oriental. 
 
 While Ht4inding on the hurricane dtM5k of our 
 steamer, looking in wonder at this strange scene. 
 I hoard a voice from one of the small Inwits call- 
 ing out "Meestor Bowlhy," when I raised my 
 head an<t hand au<l saw that my name wtis being 
 «ille<l by a man wearing a wip Iwaring in gilt 
 letters the wonls " Grand Hotel, Cairo," which 
 I knew to l)e the hotel where my son-in-law was 
 staying, and so this man wjw the jKirter of that 
 hotel. I had scarcely re(;overed fn)m my sur- 
 prise when this man came alHxird with a line 
 from Mr. Perley and jissist«Ml me to {niss my 
 baggage through the (Uistom house. All I had 
 to d»> was to write on my visiting oani these 
 wonls, "Three large pie<!es, four small pieces- 
 nothing to declare," and liand the cani to the 
 
14 A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 
 
 Customs officer, and the thing was done without 
 opening a trunk or a bag. We then took a car- 
 riage and drove around the city through many 
 streets or lanes, crowded with men in various 
 costumes and women wearing veils covering 
 their faces to their eyes, and donkeys and 
 camels bearing well-balanced burdens of stone 
 or other material on their backs, winding up our 
 drive in a good wide street at the Hotel Khedi- 
 vial where we partook of an excellent lunch and 
 then drove out to see Pompey's PiUar, which 
 is a granite column standing about 150 feet high, 
 and is now the only relic of antiquity in the 
 city. We then took the train for Cairo, gomg 
 aU the way through a level plain of rich soU, 
 which has been left here by the overflowings of 
 the Nile during past ages, and which was now 
 all marked off by the irrigating canals and 
 ditches into squares looking, in the distance, 
 like a checker-board, and upon which were 
 growing luxuriant crops of various kinds, in- 
 cluding cotton and sugar-cane. We arrived at 
 
A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 16 
 
 Cairo at eight p.m. and going to the Grand 
 Hotel received a warm welcome from my daugh- 
 ter, granddaughter and Mr. Perley, who were 
 all in good health and spmts, and overjoyed at 
 seeing us both well in the land of the Pharaohs. 
 We spent eight days in Cairo, which has a 
 population of 600,000, and lies along the east 
 bank of the N'le. On the morning after our 
 arrival Mr. Perley brought to me our dragoman, 
 named Joseph, a stout Syrian man, who wears 
 a red velvet vest mider a blue cloth gold-worked 
 jacket, a variegated sash around his waist, a 
 wonderful cream-colored silk skut, and a Turk- 
 ish red fez on his head. Joseph immediately 
 kissed my hand, and I was then told that this 
 dragoman was to guide us during our stay in 
 Cairo and to take charge of us while on a trip 
 up to the first cataract of the Nile and back on 
 a dahabeah. I never heard of a dahabeah before, 
 and I was wondering whether it was the Arabic 
 word for a special car or a pack of camels, but I 
 kept discreetly silent till I afterwards learned. 
 
16 A Canadian's travels in egypt. 
 
 incidentally, that it was a peculiar kind of house- 
 boat, used only on the river Nile by small 
 parties desiring to travel leisurely. Under the 
 guidance of our gorgeously attired dragoman we 
 saw Cairo thoroughly. We drove in carriages 
 to see the new town, the foreign quarter, the 
 Museum, the Citadel, and the Pyramids of 
 Gizeh, but we rode on donkeys to see the 
 bazaars and the Oriental life in the narrow 
 streets of the old Arabian quarters, which are 
 mostly inaccessible for carriages. 
 
 Most of the bazaars consist of narrow, and 
 often dirty lanes, covered over with an awn- 
 ing, to shade them from the sun, having shops 
 about six feet wide and a dozen feet deep, to 
 which no light is admitted except what comes 
 in at the door. In some of these Uttle dark 
 shops the artisans are working industriously and 
 skilfully, and in others are seen all manner of 
 cunning wonders, such as carpets, rugs, gold- 
 embroidered silks, silver-embroidered cashmeres, 
 sapphires, emeralds, amber, sham antiquities and 
 
A Canadian's travels in egypt. 17 
 Soudan weapons of warfere. The streets are 
 flUed with a busy throng of men of all colors 
 and costumes, mixed up with camels and camel- 
 drivers, donkeys and donkey-attendants, gener- 
 aUy called donkey-boys by travellers, though 
 they are often grey-bearded men. Whenever 
 I walked the streets near our hotel I was always 
 pestered by donkey-boys wanting me to ride, by 
 be-j-ars asking for "backsheesh." or by persons 
 wanting to be my guide. 
 
 Once a donkey-boy called out to me "Does 
 Yankee want to ride good donkey named Yan- 
 kee-doodle?" when another donkey-boy, seemg 
 that I paid no attention to the question, called 
 out "Shentleman want ride good donkey named 
 Jubilee?" The donkey-boys run barefooted 
 behind the donkey when you ride and hold the 
 donkey while you are off. I have had some 
 experience in riding little donkeys. When I 
 took my first ride I got quite a distance behind 
 Mr. Perley and my donkey-boy seeing this, and 
 thinking he would not get so much "backsheesh" 
 
18 A CANADIAN'h travels IN EGYPT. 
 
 if he did not keep up with the procession, lashed 
 n.y donkey into a full run and I got afmid of 
 lo.)sniK my b,Uance, and calletl out, "StopI stopf" 
 which the Arab donkey-boy thought was a call 
 from n,e for more whipping, so the more I 
 shouted "Htopl" the more he whacked my 
 donkey, till I ran ahead of all the rest. On 
 two other occasions my donkey has turned a 
 complete somersault, throwing me over his head 
 but fortunately doing me no injury. 
 
 It is a common thing to see passing through 
 the wider streets, at a rapid rate, a handsome 
 covered coach and pair of horses, driven by liver- 
 ied coachmen, preceded by two men. running a 
 little m advance of the horses and coach, dressed 
 down to their bare feet in goi^eous Eastern 
 Iivenes and carrying poles in their hands, and 
 mside the coach an Egyptian grandee or a 
 couple of ladies, veiled up to their eyes. When 
 visiting the Mohammedan Mosques we had to 
 put slippers on over our boots before being 
 allowed to enter. To each Mosque is attached 
 
A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 19 
 a Minaret tower, which may be likened to the 
 dome on our town-hall, provided that dome were 
 placed over the corner of the building, and 
 raised to three times its present height, and a 
 balcony put all around it near the top. From 
 the Minaret of the Mosque, the hours of prayer 
 are proclaimed five times daily. 
 
 The mUitary band of a Scotch Highland regi- 
 ment of the British army used to play at our 
 hotel two or three times a week, and wherever 
 you go in Cairo you will see a British soldier. 
 Over the door of a lai^e building, near the 
 barracks, in conspicuous letters, are these Eng- 
 lish words, "Head-quarters of the army of 
 Occupation." Heading this gave one a feeling 
 of security, which was enhanced on going to the 
 Citadel, which is a strong fortress, erected on a 
 high hiU, occupied by British forces and British 
 batteries commanding the whole city. A magni- 
 ficent view is obtained from this hill. We see 
 below us, the yellowish-grey city with its count- 
 less minarets, domes and gardens, and off to the 
 

 » A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 west, in the distance, the Pyramids, towering 
 above the desert, and far away, both north and 
 south, is a green plain traversed by the Nile. 
 One evening Mr. Perley and I went to an Amb 
 music-hall. When just about entering the place 
 we were warned by a British soldier that we 
 would find no Europeans there. He was correct 
 The audience was of every type and every color 
 except our flesh color. There came on the stage 
 a hidy, dressed in a crimson and blue silk gown 
 leaving a smaU strip of her person bare, just at 
 and around the waist, with bangles on her ankles 
 stnngs of large beads around her waist, and many 
 gold chains aromid her neck, and began to dance 
 The band struck up-two men twanging strings, 
 one man beating his fingers on a small drmn and 
 three women lifting up a loud nasal chant in one 
 phra«e over and over again without any tune. 
 The dance was a waggling of the belly to keep 
 time with the twanging and the jangling of the 
 band, while the lady kept moving slowly on the 
 stage from right to left, and from left to right 
 
A CANADFAN's travels in EGYPT. 21 
 
 with her face to the audience. Then she would 
 turn around and cross and recross the stage, pre- 
 senting only her back to the audience, and pro- 
 ducing all the while the same kind of constant 
 waggling or twitching of that portion of the back 
 of her body which is Ijelow the waist. It was a 
 wonder how she could do it, but interesting 
 mainly to the anatomist. This is what tourists 
 call the Egyptian belly dance. We soon had 
 enough of it. 
 
 We spent one day in visiting the enormous dam 
 across the Nile, which is sixteen miles north of 
 Cairo, and which has locks and weirs and gates, 
 that can be raised or lowered, so as to regulate 
 the height of water in the Nile and irrigation 
 canals, and we gave another day to viewing the 
 wonders of the Museum of Gizeh. But the best 
 day we spent at Cairo was the day we spent in 
 going to see the Pyramids of Gizeh. We drove 
 out from Cairo eight miles, over a beautiful road, 
 lined on both sides with fine shade trees, through 
 a level plain, green vrith grooving crops, to where 
 
M A CANADIAN'6 THAVE18 IN EOYIT. 
 
 the Pyramid, „f Gizeh stand on the very edge of 
 the vast Libyan de«rt. It wa. a g^t refresh- 
 ment to look at them-«> en„rmo„, s„ „ovele«, 
 «. battered by time and «poile«, and yet «, inde- 
 «motible. The great Py„mid of Kheop8coye« 
 over twelve acres, and slopes up, in steep high 
 »teps, here even like a staireaae, there broken 
 away like a cliff-face, and the diflicnity in making 
 the ascent is that you often have to cock your 
 leg as high as your head to get from one step to 
 the other, besides which I am liable to giddiness 
 so I only went up as ftr as the entrance to the 
 chamber, where, by the aid of a magnesium Ught, 
 I had a look down into a long, deep, sloping, nar- 
 row shaft. This is surely the sublnnest menu- 
 ment in the world ! 
 
 We then went to a spot, near by, where a lot 
 of camels were lying down, to have a camel ride 
 to the Sphinx. I climbed on and sat side-saddle 
 Then the camel raises himself half way up on his 
 hmd legs, giving one a furious heave backwards 
 next comes a hurl forwards, and lastly, a milder 
 
^^i9^k 
 
 ■^; 
 
>»•* 
 
 A I A \ 
 
 tl... {■, 
 
 • I •!!! 
 
 ''tfp.H, JhTC m ... 
 
 awHV likt' 1 . ;, 
 
 tlH' {».««*« t Ik 
 
 the ollur. f>ejsiii«'- 
 SO I .ilijy »>.„{, „j, j^ 
 
 f lianiJH-r. whorr, hv ; 
 I hftsi a l(H.k <l.iwn u 
 
 meiit in tlu' uoHfi 
 
 t'> Mk Sj)l,inx I djn, = n 
 Tht'fi ti.e aiijifl mj:4f^^ himw,^ 
 hiui] iog8. giving (Hit . funouf. 
 next comosahurJ farwrm!^. »,, 
 
 = H4 TK*V»?t^ IS FAiMT 
 
 awl \vt .so iuifo- 
 KIu'f)pH f'uvcrs 
 
 ij», ill ^*l^'^^^, Iiij^-I, 
 
 ■ 'iify in makini.' 
 ■ I ( iK-k v,,,-j- 
 
 trmno 
 
 ••'iU'st ri!=.iiti 
 
 ^* ll'T-p H }<,( 
 
 . uniel Hfji- 
 ^ip on hi« 
 
a 
 
A J'ANADIAN'h TRAVKIX rN K<JY1T. 23 
 
 pitch hackwftr(l«,iKJiin, ami the h.^iwt stiinds omrt, 
 and I am awRy up in the air, on /'„, iuunp i.f hi8 
 back, whtw I rido to the Sphin rji.l wo lu.io r 
 photoKraph tnkon of onr jwrty, ;u.;l ti.on ri.lo 
 Iwck to the jfroat l»yranii<l. 
 
 Our «lahal>cah named the Cairo hail started 
 from Cairo on hor v«»yji«o up tho Nih» «m the 
 10th Doomnhor, ami. in (!onso(iucnr<^ of having 
 oncountcnMl advei-Ho winds, hIio had only K<.t to 
 llo«lah, distjint 180 milos J)y rail fnmi (^ain), 
 l»y tho ftth January, IHM), and wo dcci.lod to 
 go on hoard of hor at onco. It wouhl take 
 tho dahal)oah at kwiHt seven woc'ka jwrhapa 
 more— to go tho Iwlance of tho way up to 
 Assouan at the first oRtaract and down tho river 
 again to Cairo, including tho time ro<pilro<l to 
 visit the ancient temples, tombs and monuments 
 on the way. The dahabeah had been started up 
 river seventeen days Iwfore we joined lior, in 
 order that we might arrive at Assouan before 
 the weather got too hot. Accordingly, taking 
 with us our dragoman, wearing his coat of many 
 
>* A Canadian's travels in egypt. 
 
 colors, well-named Joseph, we took the railway 
 train to Rodah, which place we reached in about 
 seven hours, after the most dusty railroad ride 
 I ever experienced. The track of the road is 
 always dry-no rain at all-^nd is exposed 
 every day to the burning, blazing, red-hot 
 African sunshine. Oh I the dust of Egypt I such 
 dust ! It is finer than Peter Sherk's patent- 
 process flour. It permeates everything. It goes 
 everywhere. We were glad indeed to leave that 
 dusty train and go on board our daha?3eah, which 
 was awaiting us here, tied fast to the chocolate- 
 colored bank of that great river, the NUe. 
 
 A dahabeah is a sort of cross between a house 
 boat, a sailing yacht and a row boat, and is 
 about 100 feet long and about 20 feet wide. 
 The after-part is a long house, with twelve 
 windows on each side, and an open balcony at 
 the stem, and above the house part is a deck 
 with an awning, sofas, cushions, hammock and 
 lounge chairs. In front of the house part is a 
 low deck about twenty feet square, and only 
 
A CANADIAN'S Ti AVEL8 IN EGYPT. 28 
 
 some three feet above the water, where the 
 sftilors do their work of changing the sails to 
 suit the currents in the air or the windings of 
 the river bed, or the work of pulling, pushing 
 or rowing the boat along, when becalmed or 
 opposed by an adverse wind. Two masts are 
 carried and two triangular sails, one small sail 
 on the rear mast and an enormous sail, balanced 
 on top of the forward mast, towering up to a 
 great height, and at the very apex of this sail 
 is suspended a red and white flag of immense 
 length and tapering down to a point, while over 
 the rear mast floats the Union Jack, to denote 
 the British nationality of the six Canadians 
 aboard. The dining saloon is handsomely car- 
 peted, upholstered and decorated. There are 
 two well-fiimished state-rooms, having two beds 
 in each, and two more with one bed each, a 
 bath-room and another pretty saloon at the stem 
 connected with a balcony. 
 
 The dahabeah is completely equipped down to 
 the last table napkin and is provisioned during 
 
«• A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 the Whole voyage by its owners, Messrs. Horn- 
 stein and Peristiani of Cairo, without any trouble 
 to us. There are twenty-one persons employed 
 in our service on board, consisting of a dragoman 
 and his assistant, a cook and his assistant, a 
 steward and a stewardess, a captain and his 
 assistant, twelve sailors and one man for scullery 
 and laundry work. We are supplied with the 
 very best of everything that the markets of the 
 world afford-good food, good wine, good ser- 
 vice, good beds— auu now for the comfort and 
 luxury of a two months' cruise on the Nile in 
 this dahabeah, which we can stop when and 
 where we like, and as often and long as we like, 
 and in which the only passengers are our little 
 family party of five persons and a lady friend of 
 my daughter. 
 
 We soon settle down in our ready made home, 
 our sails are unfurled, and we sail off slowly,' 
 going up stream, against a strong current, and 
 see another dahabeah named the Bedouin going 
 in our direction, but flying the American flag, 
 

 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 27 
 
 showing the passengers to be Americans, and 
 ever so many sharp-nosed sailing boats, barges 
 and row-boats going up, down and across the 
 river, then along comes a steam tug towing a 
 great black iron hull laden with sugar-cane, then 
 another tug towing a procession of a dozen 
 barges, and presently we hear a steam whistle 
 sound, and immediately see a great white-painted, 
 three-decked, stem-wheel steamer come ploughing 
 through the water at a rapid rate, and carrying 
 on board nearly a hundred passengers, and as 
 she passes our dahabeah she salutes us by blow- 
 ing her whistle three times and we return the 
 salutation by lowering and raising our British 
 flag the same number of times. 
 
 This is what is seen on the water, but now 
 look on the shores of this wonderful River Nile, 
 which has washed down from the mountains of 
 Abyssinia every inch of tillable soil that Egypt 
 possesses. On the one side is a steep dark- 
 brown bank of hard dried Nile mud, varying 
 in height from ten to twenty feet at this season, 
 
28 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 but graduaUy increasing in height from day to 
 day as the river falls, and on the other distant 
 shore a similar steep bank, or perhaps a gradu- 
 ally sloping bank, covered, when sloping, with 
 bright green growing crops to within a couple 
 of feet from the water's edge. All along both 
 banks are water hoists of two kinds. One vari- 
 ety is a large wooden cog-wheel, fitted with 
 scoops of wood or earthenware, and turned by 
 cattle or camels going around and around, caus- 
 ing all the while a constantly creaking noise. I 
 wonder why they never grease or lubricate those 
 wheels ? They don't. 
 
 The other sort is an apparatus resembling the 
 old-fashioned bucket, attached to a weighted 
 pole over a well, worked by one person, drawing 
 the water in leather basket-like pails, and ar- 
 ranged one man above the other. At the bot- 
 tom a man pulls down the cross-bar tiU the 
 bucket dips in the river, the weight at the other 
 end of the beam pulls it up and he empties it 
 into a mud hollow six feet up the bank. Down 
 
A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 29 
 
 dips, from the next man above, another bucket 
 to meet it and lifts it to the next pool. Then 
 down dips a third bucket and the dark muddy 
 water is at the top of the bank, swishing away 
 through the ditches, fertilizing and irrigating the 
 fields. These water-lifters wore less and less 
 clothing as we went further south. At first they 
 had on skull-caps and blue shirts, then no shirts 
 and only a breech-cloth, and hf^er that only a 
 napkin, and finally as we approached the first 
 cataract some of them were perfectly nude ex- 
 cept for the head-covering. Most of them were 
 protected from the north wind by a wind-break 
 of com stalks. One of these water-lifters is 
 always singing a monotonous chant or long- 
 drawn-out howl in the same key all day long. I 
 suppose they take turn about at it. An Arab 
 cannot work without hearing constantly this so- 
 called singing. 
 
 On either side of the river bank is a flat green 
 plain extending on the west to the base of the 
 rocky Libyan mountains and on the east to the 
 
«0 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 base of the rocky Arabian mountains. Over and 
 beyond the green rim at the top of the river banks 
 rise groves of palms. Women are filling water 
 from the river into jars and stri-^ing erect up the 
 bank bearing the water-jars on their heads. Men 
 in turbans and shirts, barefooted, but occasionally 
 wearing red or yeUow shoes, are in great numbers 
 walking on the shore, or working in the fields, or 
 riding on donkeys or camels, or bringing to or 
 from the boats on the river heavy loads of sugar- 
 cane, cotton, farm-produce, stone, etc., balanced 
 on the backs of camels or donkeys. Men are 
 carrying on their backs, or in baskets on their 
 heads, loads of stuff to and from boats on the 
 river. No waggon or wheeled vehicle of any kind 
 is seen in all Egypt except in the cities or larger 
 towns. 
 
 After sailing for a while in one direction the 
 river winds off in another direction and we are 
 met by a head wind or no wind at all. When 
 this occurs on the up-river voyage a lot of the 
 sailors go ashore, and pull us along with a rope, 
 
A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 31 
 
 or else take the anchor, attached to a long rope, 
 up stroam in a row-boat and nink it and pull our 
 dahabeah to the anchor, or else push us along by 
 means of poles when in shallow \,ater, but on the 
 down-river voyage twelve sail .>rs, v ith heavy oars 
 attached to rowlocks, row us along down stream 
 whenever the wind is unfevorEble, chanting in a 
 kind of nasal wail, with each stroke, as the oars 
 take to the water, these Arabic words, " Ah, sal 
 Allah" repeated six times, and when at the 
 seventh stroke all the oarsmen cry out together 
 " a-a-ah " and so on for the next seven strokes, 
 continuing for a long time, till at last they weary 
 of it and row silently for a while, until suddenly 
 they break out again. 
 
 When we came aboard this boat we decided 
 to do no sight-seeing, during the first few days 
 of our voyage, but to take in that part of the 
 river on our return trip. In consequence of 
 continued adverse winds we did not make 
 seventy miles in the first few days of our Nile 
 cruise, but we were in no hurry, for in any case 
 
/ 
 
 Si A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 
 
 we should get back to Cairo long before the 
 12th of March, when the rainy season in Palestine 
 ends, and, therefore, long before we could start 
 for Jerusalem. So we just took everything as it 
 came, during our whole Nile trip, contentedly. 
 We did not worry, we did not phin, we did not 
 arrange about anything. We lounged or walked 
 in the sunshine on deck, or sat easy in one of 
 the saloons and read or loafed, or else we went 
 ashore and walked amid the green fields under 
 the burning rays of an African sun, which was 
 baking out of us the effects of all the Canadian 
 winters we had passed through. 
 
 When on these walks we would sometimes 
 be shooting pigeons, which are numerous, and 
 would pass whole villages of mud huts, or an 
 isolated little mud hut pierced by a loop-hole for 
 a window and covered with a roof of corn-stalks 
 or palm leaves, smeared thinly over with Nile 
 mud, and occupied as a dwelling-place for the 
 family, to which was attached a small yard, 
 surrounded with a fence made of dried mud, in 
 
A Canadian's travels in eovpt. sj 
 
 which to keep the cow or the goats and the 
 donkey or camel when not tethered in the fields, 
 and then see young children half blue shirt and 
 half brown nakedness or wholly nude, when the 
 very youngest of them would scream with terror 
 at sight of our white faces, while the older ones 
 and their parents would run after us with the 
 never-ending cry for "backsheesh." "backsheesh." 
 It has never rained a drop since we came to 
 Egypt- No one here ever remarks to you " It is 
 a fine day." .. ■ the days here are fine alike. 
 You come up on . 3ck in the morning and see, 
 winding around through the plain, the great 
 wide Nile, whose waters are now steel blue in 
 the sunshine but were coffee brown the previous 
 evening in the shade, and perhaps this morning 
 she is running close along the base of the Libyan 
 mountains on the west, while last night you saw 
 her waters flowing right up against the very rocks 
 of the Arabian mountains on the east. Here lies 
 before you an island of yellow sand and mud 
 recently uncovered by the gradually receding 
 
y 
 
 S4 A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 
 
 Nile, and the captain is uncertain which channel 
 around it he ought to take, as often the deep 
 channel of last year id the shallow channel of 
 this year. On the distant green shore stands 
 a single tall palm, looking, fi'om afar off, like one 
 of our high telegraph poles having an open um- 
 brella on its top, and soon this solitary palm 
 thickens into groves with an occasional clump of 
 acacias. You are never out of sight of sailing- 
 boats on the river or of palms on the land. The 
 palms bear yearly a profitable crop of dates an'! 
 the owner has to pay an annual tax of eight cents 
 for every palm tree he owns. A tax on trees in 
 our Berlin would hit Mr. Rumpel and me rather 
 hard. You see constantly fields of sugar-cane 
 which ' t *ing harvested ever since we came on 
 the river. When sugar-cane is standing in the 
 field it looks just like a field of our Indian-corn 
 sown broad-cast for fodder, only the sugar-cane 
 grows higher without any tassels, and is cut 
 green and the leaves are left in the field and only 
 the stalks sent to the sugar factory, of which 
 
A Canadian's travelb in eoypt. 35 
 
 there are many, with long rows of great black 
 smoke-stacks over them, all along the river. 
 You see whole delds and fields of onions 
 wherever you go. 
 
 On the fifth day of our sailmg on the river we 
 reached Assiut, where we were to get our letters, 
 and make our first excursion on land. Oui^ 
 dragoman Joseph and his assistant Michael went 
 ashore and selected six donkeys for our party 
 and two for themselves, and then, taking ashore 
 four side-saddles for the ladies, the donkeys were 
 saddled and mounted, and, preceded by Joseph 
 and followed by Michael, we were off, riding 
 single file or two abreast, raising a storm of 
 dust through the town and its mud-walled alleys, 
 and along the narrow roads through the bright 
 green fields and arrive at the bottom of the 
 mountain. We climb up the crumbling shale on 
 its steep eastern slope to the tomb of a prince, 
 who was buried here 4,000 years ago. Joseph 
 shows to the guardian at the entrance our tickets 
 from the Egyptian Government entitling us to 
 
M A Canadian's tkavels in eoyft. 
 
 see the antiquities, and the new iron door to the 
 forty -centuries oUl tomb is thrown open. Joseph 
 Iiands each a lighted candle and. we step in. 
 Half a dozen chambers are hewn out of the solid 
 rock which underlies the ilesert sand. Pictures 
 of the deceased and of women are carved on the 
 solid stone walls which are covered with hiero- 
 glyphics. We wander around these great dark 
 vhambers and their recesses, till suddenly we 
 are warned not to fall into the mummy-shaft, 
 and we hear the squeak of a bat. Then Joseph 
 drops a stone down into a great square hole and 
 asks us to listen till it strikes the bottom. We 
 listen, and at last we heard it strike the bottom 
 at an enormous depth, where the remains of the 
 dead prince had been deposited thousands of 
 years ago. Then around the dark chamber 
 whirrs a bat. I always did hate bats, so I 
 hunied out, followed by the rest. 
 
 We then entered some more tombs of the 
 same kind. The ladies seemed to enjoy it 
 immensely — aske<i why — they said it was so old. 
 
A CANADFAN's travels in E<JYJT. 37 
 
 SO very o-I-d, but for myself I was not sure there 
 was very much in it after all. and I ventured to 
 say 80, when Joseph cried out "Just wait till 
 you get to Luxor." We then decided to push 
 on, 200 nnlos farther up the river, to Lux(,r, an<l 
 see the jrrand disphiy of auti(|uiti.,s tht^re. first, 
 and take in the intermediate places (m (mr way 
 »)ack. When we returned to our welcoming 
 dahahe^h we found, cloHcly by, another daha- 
 l>eah, flying the British flag, occupieil by a 
 Canadian and his wife from Moncton, New 
 Bnmswick, whose acquaintance we made, and 
 finding them very agreeable people, we had 
 them to lunch on hmn\ our dahabeah, and, on a 
 subsequent day, they had us lunch with them on 
 their boat. 
 
 Our sailors struggle and toil, from day to day, 
 against wind and current, till, at last, after we 
 had been seventeen days on the Nile, we see 
 Luxor on the eastern bank and along the shore a 
 string of dahabeahs, amongst them being that of 
 our Canadian friends, and we draw up alongside. 
 
38 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 Our guide book has eighty pages devoted to a 
 description of the monuments and ruins in and 
 around Luxor, but I Iiad purposely avoided read- 
 ing any of it, that I might form my own impres- 
 sions. We .spent six days here. There are ruins 
 of two temples on the east bank, situate a couple 
 of miles apart, formerly connected, and now the 
 temples of Luxor and Kamak. We decided we 
 would first view the temple of Kamak, so, 
 mounted on donkeys, wearing white helmets on 
 our heads, we gaUoped away to the niain entrance 
 to the temple of Ammon at Kamak, the portal 
 of which is a stone wall, 16 feet thick, about 400 
 feet wide, and about 160 feet high. We enter 
 and pass through various courts and vestibules 
 and then go outside over heaps of rubbish that 
 have been carried and piled here, when uncover- 
 ing the buried temple, till we come to the double 
 rows of huge stone sphinxes, which lead from the 
 Nile to one of the temple-portals, and we then 
 pass between these rows and come to what is 
 caUed the great Hypostyle Hall, and look at its 
 
A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 39 
 
 forest of 134 stone columns nearly lOO feet high 
 and nearly 40 feet in circumference, standing 
 amidst gigantic figures of gods and kings, and 
 supporting enormous stone roof-slabs, while other 
 columns, with the roof they supported, have either 
 fallen or seem about to fall,*and we suddenly stop, 
 and stand speechless with wonder, till, presently, 
 we all exclaim " Oh, my ! Oh, my I" Then we 
 wander around amongst the immense ruins of the 
 most magnificent and gigantic temple that the 
 world has ever seen. It waa commenced at least 
 4,000 years ago and was built piece-meal by many 
 of the different kings of Egypt who kept thou- 
 sands of men working at it for hundreds of years. 
 It is impossible for me to describe the enormous 
 proportions of this vast temple. 
 
 Then we go to the temple of Luxor which, to 
 my unpractised eye, seems to be just as huge 
 and grand as that of Kamak. Here we see 
 great colossal statues of one of the Pharaohs, 
 cut out of solid stone, and each of them being 
 nearly fifty feet high, and obelisks, each being 
 
 *8iiKM thia WM written aemml 'v«»»««»»nT h»v* UUml 
 
40 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 cut from a single piece of solid stone, towering 
 up to an enormous height and covered over with 
 hieroglyphics, then more vast colonnaded halls 
 These two temples were in the ancient capital 
 city of Egypt. " the hundred-gated Thebes " that 
 Homer sang of. and were much injured and 
 'lefaced by the Persian and Roman invaders and 
 by the early Christians, but were saved from 
 further injury by having been completely covered 
 up. for hundreds of years, by soil, sand and 
 rubbish brought over them by the wind and by 
 the waters of the yearly inundations of the Nile, 
 and have been only recently partially excavated.' 
 The work of excavation is still gomg on. 
 
 We devoted one day to a long canter on 
 donkeys to see more temples of the same kind 
 and some rock tombs, and then after resting a 
 day we got an early start-crossed the river in 
 our small row-boat-accompanied by Joseph 
 and Michael, who brought along a weU-filled 
 Imicheon basket, a table, and camp-stools, which 
 were lashed on the back of a donkey_we all 
 
A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS FN EGYPT. 41 
 
 mounted donkeys and galloped over a small 
 island and waded through a shallow branch of 
 the Nile, then away we scampered over the 
 bright green cultivated plain, followed by the 
 donkey-boys, shouting "hah," "haw" (meaning 
 "get along") till we arrive at the edge of the 
 fertile belt, and then, after a very long, slow, and 
 hot nde, over a path winding up and through 
 the Libyan mountains, we reach a point in the 
 edge of the desert where all is solitude and 
 desolation and here in the side of a hill of rocks 
 IS a square hole which is the entrance to the 
 tomb of one of the ancient kings of Egypt 
 enclosed now by an iron door, but formerly 
 covered and concealed by huge rocks. As we 
 enter, each takes a lighted candle, and om- 
 dragoman has also a magnesium Ump. and we 
 first come into a small square chamber, hewn 
 out of the rock, and figured over with hiero- 
 glyphics and with pictures of queer-looking men 
 and monstrous-headed gods. 
 The gods are pictured in the form of a man 
 
48 A Canadian's travels in egypt. 
 
 from the feet up to the neck and then, instead of 
 a human shaped head, they have the head of a 
 hawk, or a jackal, or a lion, or a crocodile, or the 
 like. They still shine, and sometimes brilliantly, 
 with the blue, yellow and vermilion that was 
 put on them 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. You go 
 on through a long corridor, then down a steep 
 slope, then through another long corridor, and 
 then down another steep slope, then a third long 
 corridor, and lastly down a third steep slope, 
 and there, before you, 330 feet from the entrance, 
 is the great black granite sarcophagus m which 
 was placed the mummied body of the dead 
 Pharaoh thousands of years ago. On coming 
 out of this tomb we go a little farther along 
 the mountain trail, and enter another tomb of a 
 king, and then another, and find the structure 
 of these tombs is much the same in all, and 
 that the walls throughout are covered with 
 hieroglyphics and pictures. 
 
 There are dozens more of such tombs in the 
 vicinity, but we had visited enough eiyoyable 
 
A Canadian's travels in egypt. 43 
 
 tombs for one day, so we had our luncheon table 
 spread right inside of the entrance to a king's 
 tomb and after lunch we played a few games of 
 pedro. What a desecration ! Then we visited 
 another vast temple at the foot of these moun- 
 tains, and going around, along the edge of the 
 green plain, we came to a lai^ge group of ruined 
 temples in which were standing giant pillars and 
 lofty stone colonnades, and in front of a portal to 
 a temple is the gigantic stone statue of Rameses 
 II, the "Pharaoh of the oppression" mentioned 
 in the Bible (Exodus, Chapter xi). This statue 
 is of most enormous size and weight — nearly 
 sixty feet high and its total weight is over two 
 million pounds— and, where not battered and 
 iiyured, is beautifully chiselled and polished. 
 The wonder is how they ever brought here the 
 immense block of solid granite for this statue 
 from the stone quarries over a hundred miles 
 away. 
 
 We return to our dahabeah in time, and with 
 an appetite, to eiyoy our evening meal and, after 
 
 ijj 
 
«»" our boat ia sal ' °''" ""'™''«' "« 
 
 ««»«ve day». with ,t.ady wi, If '""■ 
 
 them, when our sailors *• ^ *™°"«^ 
 
 With Joseph and half a H "'"'' *"'«• 
 
 ■■'■<'-- row-boat if '"^"'" ''^ »" go 
 
 then .c«««e^X^^r:'' *"»'-". and 
 
 -on-e. We ^deordlfrr """'"" 
 ri«s from which th« ' '"•"« ^»"- 
 
 ™PP>- of ^;~^'-««°t their 
 
 - -ues~: x~' "'^"■"'' 
 
 J"ig m the quany an 
 
Bp 
 
 •e 
 h 
 
 y 
 
I 
 

 ? *' 
 
 
 .#■ 
 
A CANAOIAN'h TKAVKL8 IN EtlVPT. 4ft 
 
 enormous unflniHhe<i stone oWliMk. We s|H>nt 
 another day in riding on donkeys across the 
 desert to the shore of the Nile, opposite the 
 Island of Philae, where we hired a large row- 
 boat, which took us, first to that island to view 
 the very large and imposing temple upon it, and 
 then down the river, over the rapids of the first 
 cataract to Assouan. These rapids, while ver} 
 considerable, are not to be compared with the 
 great rapids at Lachine on our own St. Lawrence 
 River, but they cannot be seen much longer, as 
 enonnous numbers of men are now working 
 under an English contractor and English engi- 
 neers at building a dam across the Nile, right 
 over this cataract, at a cost of twenty-five million 
 dollars, in order to hold back the waters of the 
 Nile till wanted for irrigation purposes. While 
 at Assouan we had a photograph taken of our 
 dahabeah, having on board our whole party, 
 boat's crew, and staff of servants, except Michael, 
 who happened to be away at the time. 
 I am always on the lookout for a Canadian in 
 
46 A Canadian's tkavkl8 in »ivpt. 
 
 this far away land, aikI I found one here in the 
 peroon of the Kev. F. J. Steen. M.A., of Mont- 
 real, Canada, formerly of our own Berlin, who 
 has been in Assouan since early in November, 
 1898, and looks exceeilingly well. We had him 
 dine with us on our (lahabeuh and he and I 
 enjoyed a lonj? two hours' walk away out on the 
 sandy, silent desert where we found that all the 
 smaller stones were as round as marbles from 
 having been rolle<l around liaek and forwards 
 over the desert by the action of the winds for 
 thousands of years. We had been in Assouan 
 for five days, and we now started, on the 2nd 
 February, 1899, on our return voyage, going with 
 the current down stream, on our way back to 
 Cairo, and I have concluded not to write any 
 more till after we reach (^airo and then add a 
 brief description of our return trip and conclude 
 this article at Port Said on our departure from 
 Egypt. 
 
 It is now just a month since I commenced this 
 article, when away up at the first catoract, and 
 
A Canadian's travblb in EtjYiT. 47 
 
 we have been all tliat time on board our dahalieah 
 sailing or beinK rowed ilown the Nile or making 
 excursioHB on Hhore. We made a great many 
 more visits ashore on our return trip than we 
 made when going up, and we have seen all the 
 important temples, tombs, pyramithi, monuments 
 and relics of antiquity on both sides of the Nile 
 between Oairo and the first cataract. The 
 weather has been just perfect ever since we 
 came to Egypt. In the laytime it resembles a 
 lovely fine June day in l^nada, while the nighU 
 are deliciously cool and pleasant. The keynote 
 of life on boartl a dahabeah on the Nile is peace. 
 The variety in it is the excursionising ashore antl 
 the ever-changing scenes presented to your view 
 while sailing along from <lay to <lay. Now you 
 see an Egyptian ploughing his fields with a pair 
 of oxen yoked wide apart, drawing, by a long 
 pole or wooden tongue, a queer-shaped wooden 
 plough, in exactly the same way it was done 
 6,000 years ago, and you at once recognize it in 
 the pictures of the ploughman at his work as 
 
48 A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 
 
 chiselled on the ancient monuments. When you 
 get dowa the river to within about fifty miles of 
 Cairo you begin to see pyramids again. We 
 went to see the first one that came into view. 
 It is known as the false Pyramid of Medum— a 
 vast structure built «,000 years ago— now much 
 battered and injured. On another day we went 
 ashore and had quite a long ride to see great 
 groups of the Pyramids and Tombs of Sakkara. 
 It would take up too much space to describe 
 them here. 
 
 One day, on our down-river voyage, we stopped 
 in the morning at Dendera. to visit the lai^ 
 temple of Hathor, situated a couple of miles 
 back from the river, after we had got pretty 
 weU cloyed on temples tombs and ancient 
 monuments, and so were in a mood to get 
 amusement out of any unusual incident of 
 modem everyday life and we got it here. 
 Standing moored to the shore was a large 
 steamer having on board eighty of Cook's tour- 
 ists— " Cookies " as they are often called— and 
 
A Canadian's travels in Egypt. 49 
 standing on shore in a long line of pens or open 
 stalls were at least a hundred donkeys and along 
 side of these pens were as many donkey-boys 
 and all around the pens were shoals of natives, 
 old and young, shouting "backsheesh," and then, 
 as the passengers came on shore, the donkey- 
 boys would call out incessantly "good donkey" 
 and crowd around every tourist trying to force 
 him to take his mount. It was pandemonium. 
 Some of the ladies mounted chairs and were 
 each borne off by means of two poles, palanquin 
 fiishion, on the shoulders of four men. The rest 
 of the ladies were lifted on to donkeys and thfe 
 men climbed on the little beasts, with their feet 
 in saddle stirrups reaching nearly to the ground, 
 and then the donkey-boys screamed and yelled 
 " hah, haw " and whacked the donkeys, and they 
 all streamed off over the green plain, when we 
 see three lead off in a gallop and suddenly the 
 leader falls and the two behind him tumble over 
 too and all are in a heap, but they immediately 
 rise up and mount again and are off, so none are 
 
60 A CANADIAN'8 TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 hurt. We returned to our dahabeah and sat 
 down to break£Et8t, and Joseph went out to get 
 donkeys. Just as we were done breakfast we 
 heard the awful bray of a donkey, so we thought 
 Joseph had returned, but on looking out no 
 donkeys were to be seen, but there sat on the 
 bank a blind man imitatmg the hideous bray of 
 a donkey to perfection. Then he unitated, in 
 the most wonderful manner, the gobbling of a 
 turkey, the crowing of a cock, the cackling of a 
 hen, the crying of a child, the barking of a dog, 
 and finally the noise made by two dogs when 
 fighting. Tf this man could stand the climate of 
 North America he would be worth a lot of 
 money to Bamum's circus. 
 
 When the moon shines at night on the calm 
 and placid waters of the Nile and on the bright 
 green rim along the top of its shores, and on the 
 yellow mountain frame around the flat preen 
 plain, the scene is one of great beauty, but when 
 there is no moon the night is, or seems to be, 
 much darker than a star-light night with us. 
 
A Canadian's traveus in eoypt. 51 
 The most beautiful sight of all is a Nile sunset. 
 It is unique and wonderful. We often sat on 
 deck and watched the sun go down behind the 
 Libyan mountains and although lost to our view 
 she was stUl shining on the yeUow sands of the 
 Libyan desert, when behold I in the western sky 
 we saw large mountain-shaped spots of turquoise 
 blue, surrounded by yellow saffron and golden 
 clouds of various shades, sizes, and shapes, and 
 then looking to the east we saw an after-glow 
 of pink and azure in the blue eastern sky and 
 turning again to the west, just as the sun was 
 ceasing to shine on the desert, we saw the yeUow 
 aaflfron and golden clouds change color to various 
 shades of red, pink and crimson, and then, 
 suddenly, it all disappeared, and there was 
 "darkness over the hind of Egypt, even dark- 
 ness which may be felt," to quote from the Bible. 
 It was the most goigeous and glorious sunset I 
 ever saw. 
 
 On our voyage down the river on the 23rd of 
 Februaiy at about noon we reached Rodah or 
 
 
82 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 Rhoda, being the place at which we had gone on 
 board our dahabeah on the 6th January, and we 
 decided to go ashore to be shown through a 
 large sugar factory. This was a very interesting 
 thing for us to see, as we followed the process 
 from its inception, when the sugar water was 
 squeezed out of the sugar cane by powerful 
 machinery, and thence on through all the differ- 
 ent stages till the finished article of fine white 
 sugar was produced. 
 
 One day a small native boat, loaded heavily 
 with stone, came too near our dahabeah and 
 broke one of our oars, which was said to be 
 worth f 7 in our money. Our captain immedi- 
 ately boarded the small boat, with two of our 
 saUors accompanying him, and took possession 
 of the native's boat and tried to get paid for his 
 oar, but the boatman in charge of the small boat 
 would not or could not pay, whereupon our 
 captain gave him a blow on the head, and this 
 not having the desired effect, our captain and 
 two sailors remained in possession of the small 
 

 A CANADFAN'8 travels IN EGYPT. AS 
 
 boat and carried the man off to the nearest town 
 and brought him before the native judge. Our 
 captain retained a native lawyer to plead his 
 case for which our captain had to pay the lawyer 
 a counsel fee equal to ten cents in our money. 
 The judge decided the case against our captain 
 on the ground that Allah (that is, God) did it, 
 and we went on our way, but there was no 
 thought of punishing our captain for his action 
 in the matter. 
 
 Whenever we went ashore and moved around 
 among the curious natives we had to depend on 
 our dragoman Joseph Bassil-^i most satisfactory 
 servant— to keep the native Egyptians at a safe 
 distance and to protect us from all kinds of 
 worry. Joseph always carried a rawhide whip, 
 which he often had to use on the donkey-boys 
 and other natives to keep them in order. At 
 Edfti on the left bank of the Nile some twenty- 
 five or thirty donkey-boys (at least half of whom 
 were old men) actuaUy fought with one another 
 for the right to carry only eight of us (including 
 
54 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT. 
 
 our two dragomen) on their donkeys to a temple 
 near there. The fee to be paid by the owner of 
 the donkeys to each of the eight donkey-boys 
 who would be successful in this fierce struggle, 
 would be only eight cents for each trip to the 
 temple, but they all showeil the most terrible 
 and crazy anxiety to get it and Joseph could 
 only prevent them from tearing our saddles in 
 pieces by striking with his rawhide the ones he 
 did not want, and, strange to say, these poor- 
 spirited Egyptians did not seem to resent such 
 treatment. WhUe the thirty donkey-boys with 
 their thirty donkeys were all crowding around 
 us, and while Joseph was lashing at them with 
 his whip, one of the donkeys stepped on little 
 Ethel Perley's foot and she began to cry. At 
 this juncture along came a little bare-footed 
 native boy. wearing only a skull cap and a white 
 shirt, who caUed out in good Bible English, 
 "Why does the little girl weep?" This put 
 Ethel and all of us in good humor and we soon 
 mounted and rode off to the temple, followed by 
 
A CANADIAN'h TRAVEL8 IN WJYPT. 05 
 
 a crowd of the natives and that little boy nin- 
 ning close alongside of Ethel's donkey all the 
 way there and back and chattering all the time 
 in that peculiar English he had learned at the 
 Mission school. 
 
 During all day of the Ist of March there was 
 such a high wind from the north, blowing up the 
 Nile, that our sailors could make no headway 
 against it, and accoi-dingly our oahabeah was 
 tied to the shore, under the protection of a high 
 bank. Joseph went off to the nearest railway 
 station and telegraphed the state of affairs to our 
 tourist agent, Mr. Homstein at Cairo, who soon 
 afterwards came up by rail and joined us, and 
 while we were aJI in bed and asleep that night 
 the sailors began rowing us down the river and 
 early in the forenoon of the following day we 
 came in sight of the city of Cairo and soon 
 landed just above the great iron bridge which 
 crosses the Nile in that city. We had now been 
 nearly two months on board of this houseboat, 
 which in Egypt is universally called a dahabeah, 
 
•• A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN BOYPT. 
 
 and WO had spent a most eiyoyable time and at 
 the end of our Nile trip we were all well and 
 happy. 
 
 After sending the ladies in a hack to our hotel, 
 Mr. Periey and I went, with our tourist agent, 
 to the bank to get money put up in seventeen 
 different parcels to be given by us as "tips" or 
 presents, or as "backsheesh," to our two captains, 
 twelve common saUors, two cooks, and the scul- 
 lery man. These people get very small wages 
 from the owners of the dahabeah. but they 
 always expect to receive, and, in &ct, do invari- 
 ably receive, at the end of each trip on the Nile, 
 from those who hired the dahabeah, a certain 
 fixed sum dependent on the amount of each per- 
 son's wages and the length of time occupied in 
 making the trip. Any tourist agent in Cairo can 
 teU you just how much is the proper amount to 
 be paid for this purpose to each of the natives com- 
 posing the crew of the dahabeah with as much 
 accuracy as he can teU you the price of a railway 
 ticket On our return to the dahabeah each of 
 
A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN EtJYPT. 47 
 
 these seventeen persons was callwl. one at a 
 time, before Mr. Perley and me anri receive<l his 
 Uiiefess. Our four white servants were then given 
 such "tips" or gratuities as we thought proper. 
 Tlie steward and stewaniess, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Balgi, informed us that they were going immedi- 
 ately to Turkey where they hiU keep the Hotel 
 or Pension Bel-Air at Pera in the city of Con- 
 stantinople and if they manage it as well as they 
 did their part of the management of our daha- 
 beah I am sure it wiU be a well-kept place. As 
 our dragoman Joseph is a native of Bayreuth 
 in Syria, we engaged him to guide us on our 
 contemphited trip to Jerusalem, and through the 
 Holy Land. We then left the dahabeah in 
 which we had enjoyed such a long and pleasant 
 cruise and joined the Udiei^ of our party at the 
 Grand Hotel. 
 
 In the evening of the first day of our return to 
 Cairo there was a grand Egyptian wedding, at 
 which an official of the government, aged about 
 forty, was married to a young girl of about fif- 
 
I 
 
 ■• A rANADIAN'R TRAVRL8 IN WJYPT. 
 
 teen years of age. Our agent in Cairo had 
 "ecured for the Udie« of our party the privilege 
 of attending this wedding, but no foreign gentle, 
 men were allowed to go. Shortly before nine 
 o'clock p.m. the Udies, with our dnigoman, left 
 the hotel in a closed hack, each lady taking a 
 bouquet of flowers to be given to the bride's 
 mother on their arrival, and on their return they 
 informed us that they were not allowe.1 to see 
 the actual wedding ceremony. After a long 
 tirive through many narrow streets they reached 
 the house of the bride's father and entered by the 
 women's quarter, where they were met by a 
 colored man, who showed them through many 
 halla and passages, after which they reached a 
 large crowded room, which was packed fiiU with 
 women and chUdren, aU of whom were guests 
 and a few of whom were English-speaking ladies. 
 It was a strange sight and difficult to describe. 
 They were permitted to view the bridal chamber 
 which was a mass of white satin and gold em- 
 broidery. After waiting for hours the bride at 
 

 A rANADIAN'H TRAVKIJ< IN ElJVKT. 59 
 
 iMt arriviNl, ,lre«HiHl beautifully in white wtin. 
 and glitterinK all over with (liamoniln and jewel*. 
 She took her fieat on a rained platfi.nn, which 
 wan covered over on top, with a canopy. IV-. ^ 
 throne dain. Beside* the chair that she or ...r .? 
 there wa* an empty chair, along Hide o*- 1. r for 
 the bridegroom, when he came, but tk. hu.: 
 alloweil to witnew his entrance into lu, r.on. 
 The English strangers were pt^rmitteW to '.,o! 
 through an open window into the men's noun 
 or apartment, which appears! to be fille<l wi^ 
 Egyptian male guests. Before leaving the ladies 
 had an exceUent supper, and returned to our 
 hotel at a late hour. 
 
 We decided to stay ten days in Cairo and 
 during aU that time we had beautiful sunshine 
 every day, though during part of the time there 
 were very strong winds. The 7th of March was 
 the anniversary of my daughter's birthday and, as 
 if to celebrate that event, there happened to be, 
 on that very day, a great military review, given 
 in honor of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught 
 
•0 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN WJYPT. 
 
 Who were paHning thmugli Cairo, on their way 
 Iwtk from Assouan, where the Duke had been to 
 lay the foundation stone of the great (kini across 
 the Nile. Everybody seemed to be present at 
 this review and besides seeing the Duke and 
 Duchess, we saw the Khedive of Egypt, Lord 
 Cromer ami other notables, and we enjoye<l it aU 
 ever so nuicu. 
 
 On our arrival in Cairo in December we made 
 the acquaintance of a young Canadian (who has 
 greatly distingui8he<i himself in Egypt) by means 
 of a letter of introduction to him, which we 
 brought with us from his father in Canwla. I 
 refer to Major Girouard, a son of one of the 
 judges of the Supreme Court of Canada, who 
 was then Director-General of all the Egyptian 
 Government railways ami was getting a salary 
 of $10,000 a year, which is much more than our 
 government pays to his father. He had been 
 a young lieutenant in the railway department 
 of the Royal Engineers in the British ar y and 
 was selected, with two othu ubaltems, to 
 
■ 
 
 A CANADIAN'S TRAVELS IN K<iVIT. 61 
 
 superintend the conHtructicm of the Sou. Ian 
 military railway, but. a« tlie ,.ther two Uie«l 
 from the eflectH of the clinmte, our hanly young 
 Canailian had to go on an<l do the work alone 
 and he <lid it well and in time for the UttleH of 
 Atliara and Omdunnan and was i-ewarde<I with 
 his responsiWe office umler the Egyptian Goveni- 
 ment. 
 
 Early in January, before we ma<le our trip up 
 the Nile, the Major had our party to dinner with 
 him at the new Hotel Savoy, and we ha.1 intended 
 to return the compliment by having him dine with 
 us on our dahabeah when we wouhl be at Luxor, 
 as he expected to be up there when we would 
 reach that point, but owing to mlverse win<ls we 
 only arrived there two days after he ha<i gone ; 
 ««»nlingly, as we had been unable to see him 
 up the river, we had him dine with us at the 
 Grill Room of Sheppanl's Hotel on the evening 
 of the nth of March, being the eve of our depar- 
 ture from Egypt tor the Holy Und. When the 
 Miyor bade us good-bye, he was very fiartieular 
 
•2 A Canadian's travels in egypt. 
 
 to know what train we would take on the 
 foHowing day for our journey by mil from 
 Cairo to Isniailia. 
 
 On our arrival at the railway station the next 
 day at noon we found we were being anxiously 
 watched for by several liverietl servants of the 
 railway, who immediately took us to a special 
 car, which had been reservcil for our use by 
 Major Girouard. Since the above was written, 
 and before this edition was printe<i, the M^jor 
 has l)een knightetl and been transferred by the 
 British Government from Egypt to South Africa, 
 where he has become well and favorably known 
 as Sir Percy Girouard, chief director of the Brit- 
 ish military railways during the war with the 
 Boers. 
 
 In this special car we travelled from Cairo to 
 Ismailia. going at first through bright green fields 
 till we left the fertile belt which lies along both 
 sides of the Nile, and then we passed through a 
 ImiTen waste of desert sand and in a few hours 
 we reached Ismailia, where we had to change 
 
 MM 
 
 ■i-ilii--\ 
 
A Canadian's travels in eoypt. 63 
 
 can*, and then go for fifty miles along the l«nk« 
 of the Suez Canal, on the narrow gauge railway 
 owned by the Canal company, to Port Said. 
 
 Immediately after leaving Isniailia we saw a 
 great German steamer, the Prim Heinrich, which 
 seemed to us to be sailing along through the 
 desert sand, but on coming ne^irer we found she 
 was steaming her way slowly along on that nar- 
 row strip of water known as the Suez Canal. In 
 the Camil itself we saw, all along, great steam 
 dredges constantly at work, scooping up sand and 
 spouting the sand out over the banks of the 
 Canal. We arrived at Port Said at about seven 
 o'clock p.m., and immediately went, by means of 
 a small row-boat, to our steamer, which was 
 standing out in the harbor, and which was owned 
 by an English company and of which the captain 
 was an Englishman, and we then steame<I away 
 from Port Said on the Me<iiterranean Sea on our 
 way to Jaffa in Syria. After we had our dinner 
 on lK«rd we went to bed, exjiecting that when 
 we would rise in the following morning we woul.l 
 
** '' CANADIAN'S TKAVEU. IN EOVIT. 
 
 •« able to »ee, from ...e deck of „ur M«^„, tfc, 
 « Jaffa before noon of that d.y unu then go. d«r- 
 tra^n f„n. Jafli ,0 j«^,„ 80 ,«,„„„„' 
 
 Pari . T T ^^° ^•'^ ^*^ «f N'<^« and 
 
 Pans to London, and expect to „^h home in 
 Canada early in the month of June. 1899.