YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

ARRIVAL AT ALEXANDRIA.

Travels in the East
INCLUDING A VISIT TO EGYPT
AND THE HOLY LAND.

BY
HIS IMPERIAL AND ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE CROWN PRINCE RUDOLPH.

WITH NINETY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS BY PAUSINGER, ETC.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON,
Publisfjtrs in ©romarg to f^er JMajratn tfje ©item.
1884.
(All rights reserved?)

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

PREFACE.

Legendary lore and the pious faith of men have
alike placed the cradle of humanity in the distant East.
The migrations of the great families of mankind have
all, as a matter of fact, had their origin in the East ; and
the mightiest religions, similar at least in their being and
their birth, have all sprung from the land of the rising
sun, where the glory of nature incites to thought of the
supernatural. The earliest history of the human race — the ruins of
primaeval culture — the home of philosophy, of fable, and
of myth — of our speech and of our faith — all meet us
face to face in the resplendent sun-illumined East.

a 3

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

Preparations for the Journey — Departure from Vienna —
The Ship " Miramar "—Corfu— Zante— The Voyage to
Alexandria ... ... ¦¦¦ •¦¦ -•• ¦¦¦ 1
CHAPTER II.
Arrival at Alexandria— One Day in Alexandria— Journey
to Cairo — Arrival in Cairo— Four Days in Cairo ... 20

CHAPTER III.
/ Journey to Abuskar— Sport in the Province of Fayum-
Return to Abuskar — Journey to Siut

71

CHAPTER IV.
Arrival at Siut— The Nile Steamer— Voyage up the Nile
to Assuan— The Island of Phil.e ... ••• •¦• i°5

CHAPTER V.
From Phil^e to Siut— Memphis Sakkara— To Cairo

'55

Vlll CONTENTS.

l-AGE

262

CHAPTER VI.
A Day in Cairo— Damietta— Port Said— Through the Canal
of Suez to Ismailia — From Ismailia to Cairo — Four
Days in Cairo — Journey to Suez — The Red Sea —
Journey to Ismailia — Stay there — To Port Said
CHAPTER VII.
Voyage to Jaffa — Arrival in Jaffa — Ride to Latrun —
Journey continued to Jerusalem — Two Days in Jeru
salem CHAPTER VIII.
Journey to Tantur — Hy^na Hunt — Bethlehem— Ride to
Mar-Saba — The Convent on the Rock — Ride to Nebi-
Musa — Ride to the Dead Sea and Ain-es-Sultan ... 298
CHAPTER IX.
Ain-es-Sultan — El Audje — Abd-el-Kader — Baisan — Mount
Tabor — Nazareth— Journey to Haifa — Embarkation ... 335
CHAPTER X.
Journey Home by Candia, Zante, Channel of Ithaca, Corfu —
Some Hours' Detention at Corfu — Bocchi di Cattaro —
Ragusa — Zara — Trieste — Journey to Vienna — Conclusion 378

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Arrival at Alexandria
Study of the Crown Prince
The Passage of the Semmering
Miramar
Bay of Ipsa
On the Albanian Coast
On the Greek Coast
Off Zante
Mount Skopo
On the Wing ...
An Evening at Alexandria
In Lower Egypt
An Evening at Mokattam ...
Fellaheen at Work
The Torchlight Procession
At Prayer
A Carpet Bazaar
Egyptian Beggars
Jackal Hunting on the Pyramids
Our Evening Ride at Cairo
Heliopolis
Our Larder ...
Landing at Bezir£ Karun ...
The Lynx-Hunt

Frontispiece

To face 2

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To face

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Luncheon in the Desert ...
Our First Pelican
March through the Desert
The Ichneumon and the Dogs ...
A Race on the Birket-el-Karun
The Bearer of the Booty
The Return from Hunting
Wolves Up the Nile
The Dancing Girl
Temple at Abydus
A Fellaheen Village with Dovecotes
A Nile Scene
DenderaKarnak
Temple at Karnak
ThebesA Contested Meal
The Temple at Edfu
Kum Ombu
A Native Dance at Assuan
A Ride from Assuan to Phil^e
Wolf Shooting at Assuan
PhiL/E
Temple at Phil^e ...
Nubians swimming the Cataracts
Jackal Hunting
A Wolf Decoy
A Ride across the Stream
Memnon
Shooting in the Palms at Keneh ...
Our Fellow-Passenger ...
Excitement among the Vultures
Memphis
The Sphinx
The Festival ...
Night on Lake Menzaleh ...
The Citadel of Cairo ...

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The Turning Dervishes 234
The Howling Dervishes 236
The Springs of Moses 250
The Hawking Expedition 258
Arrival at Jaffa 262
The Orange Market at Jaffa 268
The Crown Prince's Entry into Jerusalem 276
Cemetery at Jerusalem 292
The Valley of Kedron 294
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives 296
A First Glimpse 302
Women at Bethlehem 306
An Ambuscade 320
A Difficult Ascent 322
Striking Tents at Mar-Saba 328
An Accident on the Way 330
The Grass on Fire 332
A Quiet Pool 334
Sheik Ali 336
Smoked Out 342
Achmed in Danger 344
With the Bedouins 346
The Bedouins of the Jordan 348
On the Banks of the Jordan 354
Chased by the Flames 364
The Bedouin Camp at Baisan 366
A Romantic Meeting 368
Mount Tabor 372
On the Road to Haifa 376
Cattaro 378
Harbingers of Home 380

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

CHAPTER I.
Preparations for the Journey — Departure from Vienna — The
Ship " Miramar " — Corfu — Zante — The Voyage to Alexandria.
My Eastern tour had been quickly decided upon, and
the preparations for it were made with speed. Various
books of Eastern travel were rapidly looked through, and a
few days before our start the luggage, a skin-dresser with
all his apparatus, the servants, guns, plenty of ammunition,
and several dogs, were sent off to Trieste, where the yacht
Miramar, which had graciously been placed at our disposal,
awaited us. i

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

On the gth February our travelling party assembled at
the Southern station in Vienna. It was a cold, bleak, winter
evening. Snow lay in the streets, and thick clouds covered
the sky ; right gloomy weather for departure, and such as
our treacherous climate too often bids our poor European
race endure.
But two days before I had left the railway, after a long
and rapid journey from the distant west of Europe. I had
hastened home to follow a faithful friend on his last journey
to his long home. With this saddening thought I stepped
into the carriage The cold we then endured alone filled
us with pleasant anticipations — for soon it must give place
to the glorious warmth of the glowing East. A whistle,
and the train moved puffing out of the station. It was
pitch dark outside ; snow, sleet, and storm were our
farewell. A small but enterprising travelling party were assembled
in the sleeping-car. My uncle, the Grand Duke of Tus
cany, General Count Waldburg, the Court Chaplain, Abbot
Mayer, Major von Eschenbacher, Count Joseph Hoyos,
the artist Pausinger and I, were the pilgrims of the East.
Count Hans Wilczek accompanied us to the sea, whence
his way lay to Italy. One after another soon retired to
rest, and only Wilczek and I remained engaged in con
versation, until at length, far on into the night, sleep
overcame us also.
The icy cold awoke the travellers in the early morning,
and shivering we drew closer to each other. The guard
told us that the thermometer showed twenty degrees of
cold, and the frosted, palm-like foliage on the windows

THE PASSAGE OF THE SEMMERING.

EMBARKATION — " THE MIRAMAR.

bore witness to the truth of his statement. Soon, soon we
should rejoice in other glorious palms, in the abiding summer
of Egypt. Adelsberg rose from amidst deep snow, and the last
dark pine woods made a beautiful winter picture. A clear
sky gave us a distant view from Karst towards the Alps.
There was snow everywhere : at Nabresina, even, there
were still some white patches ; but towards the south
glowed a different light — a richer blue and warmer sun
beams—the first greeting of the sunny South. Below us
lay the sea — majestic, calm, smooth as the mirror of a
mountain tarn — not the grey ocean which I had so lately
seen, but the glorious, warm, blue Adriatic. Two of my
companions saw this grand element of nature for the
first time in their lives, and gazed on it with admiring
wonder. We stopped at the station of Miramar, and drove to
the little harbour. The castle, finely placed on the rocks
above the surging waters and amidst evergreen southern
vegetation, was a most picturesque object. Near it lay the
ship which bore the same name — an old friend, for I had
already made two voyages in the Miramar — and at sight
of her, pleasant memories rose dreamlike before me.
A boat waited at the steps and took us quickly to the
ship. At the gangway stood the commander, L. S. Captain
Rodiger, and to the sound of the National Hymn we went
on deck, and passed in review the ship's company there
drawn up. The other officers were Lieut. Count Chorinsky
(with whom I had formerly made my Spanish journey),
and in addition Hahn, Sachs, and Resnicek. Dr. Hirsch,

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

whom I knew from a previous expedition to Corfu, was to
accompany us as physician.
I took a hasty glance round the vessel of which I had
grown so fond — the cabins, my own quarters, and all the
places associated with so many happy recollections.
Wilczek had accompanied us to the ship, on board
which he had two years before spent some pleasant days
with me. After dining with us he went on shore, and a
few minutes later waved, from the castle terrace, farewell
greetings to the departing ship.
We all remained on deck enjoying the scenery. Castle
Duino, Miramar, the precipitous heights of Karst, and
the beautifully situated Trieste, as it lay in the sunlight,
seemed the first pleasant picture afforded by our journey.
We passed close to the Austrian squadron and the Russian
corvette Ascolt. Ships of war when they salute have
always a combative aspect. From the admiral's ship the
strains of our national air sounded, and as we came by the
Russian corvette we sent forth those of the solemn but
beautiful " Hymn to the Czar."
Trieste soon vanished from our sight, and we steamed
south along the flat Istrian coast. We remained for several
hours on deck. The temperature was really low, but
seemed to us deliciously balmy after the delights of a central
European winter. The arrangement of our cabins and
unpacking filled the afternoon, and a genial social life was
soon set on foot below deck. A late dinner shortened the
evening, and bed-time came quickly.
A grey, cloudy sky, wind, and a rough sea and lowered
temperature was what the morning of February nth had

LISSA — ALBANIAN COAST.

in store for us. The greater part of the travellers were
ill ; and that depressed mood which the humours of the
tricksy sea produce in many persons was very apparent.
Sick and well sat on the deck looking at the unquiet
waves. About io a.m. the steep cliffs of Lissa came in
sight. Every Austrian looks with emotion on that island,
the witness of the noble deeds of our heroic sailors.
In point of scenery Lissa has nothing to offer— a barren
stony island with cliffs and hills without variety or pic
turesque character.
In the afternoon the sea rose, and towards evening
flashes of lightning were followed by distant thunder. The
day passed monotonously, as the motion of the vessel for
bade reading or writing, and our course lay far from the
coast on the open sea. The night was even worse, and the
sea-sick passengers could but endure, while the tedious
hours went by. The morning of the 12th brought us at
sunrise a much quieter sea, and as we hastened on deck
the white summits of the Albanian mountains greeted us.
Much snow lay upon the highest tops.
The mountains of Albania have a special charm for the
traveller. From the ship you see them rise in terraced
layers, and catch glimpses of the fine rocky valleys, or
admire the cliffs which descend precipitously into the sea.
To me the mountains of the South are far more attractive
than the Alps of Central Europe. Their forms, the warmer
light, and the contrasts between snow, deep blue sky, and
southern vegetation are far more interesting than the
uniformity of the pine woods, with the dull, leaden, lightless
sky above.

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

There are singularly few towns on the Albanian coast.
Here and there you catch sight of the flat-roofed, brightly
coloured houses of a village built in steps on the declivity
and standing amidst gloomy cypresses and grey green olives.
By noon the lovely Greek island of Corfu came in sight,
and to the west of it the rocky islets of Merlera and Fano.
The passage between Corfu and the mainland is unques
tionably one of the most beautiful pieces of scenery known.
To the east the Albanian mountains stretch round the broad
basin and valley of Butrinto. In the midst of the valley a
fine mountain lake, surrounded by extensive forests of oak
and great marshes, contrasts with the bare limestone
mountains, whose lofty summits, soaring in the background,
are visible from afar.
Westward, i.e. to the right, lies the green island, with
its beautifully formed hills, its proud Mount Decca, its
rustling oak and olive woods, its many Cypresses and its
flowering fruit trees, and, scattered everywhere over the
whole island, dazzlingly white houses and villages. Truly,
a remarkable contrast — to the left, the wild uncultivated
Albania, inhabited by quarrelsome mountaineers ; to the
right, the flowery Corfu, converted by the tractable, com
merce-loving Greek into a luxuriant garden.
We passed the bay of Ipsa, and both citadel and town
of Corfu came into view, well placed on the central and
salient promontory of the island.
Whenever I see Corfu, Homer takes possession of my
thoughts, and fills them so long as the ship is passing
amongst these Ionian Islands. In younger days, when
reading the Odyssey, I formed a picture of these islands

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which experience has since confirmed : green isles, washed
by the light blue waves, under- a heaven of deepest blue,
and gilded by laughing sunbeams.
The individual details — the trees, entwined with ivy,
stretching above the rocks, the flowering shrubs, the
rippling springs, all have (forgave me the profane com
parison) something decorative which reminds one of a
magic ballet-scene. One almost expects to see a lightly
girt Diana, waving her golden lance, step from the thicket.
But, to return to reality, the Miramar ran in close to the
town, where we were to stop for some hours, to coal.
Corfu, usually so tranquil, now had a warlike aspect. On
the island Vido, opposite to the town, a camp had been
pitched, and the little island swarmed with blue-clad
soldiers. Some parties were shooting at the targets.
Numerous boats were taking soldiers to a steamer. As we
afterwards learnt, one of the battalions mobilized on the
island was that evening to go to Greece. The Hellenes
were dreaming a heroic dream, and the good Corfiotes, not
a little excited, thought that the days of Leonidas would
dawn once more.
As we lay at anchor the doctor, representing the consul,
who was ill, appeared, and a valet de place whom I had
known before — a lank little man of hideous appearance, the
luckless descendant of the god-like Greek.
The tidings that confluent small-pox prevailed in the
town was a blow to most of my companions, who had never
visited the island before. Landing was of course strictly
forbidden, and we spent the afternoon in an excursion in
the ship's launch. We passed near to the town. The old

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

closely ranged houses rising step above step, with their
dazzling white walls, green windows, and flat roofs, remind
one of Italy. Yet there is a specifically Greek character
attaching to the whole, intensified by the round cupolas
of the orthodox churches.
Passing by the rocky wall of the citadel, which dips
vertically into the sea, we came along the southern side of
the promontory, covered with the luxuriant gardens and
handsome villas of the rich Corfiotes ; we saw the beautifully
situated royal country-house, Pondikonisi, the suburb of
Kastrades, and below, on the shore, amid wild myrtles, the
ruins of the ancient temple of ^Esculapius. We steamed
further to the bay of Kardaki6, whose entrance is barred by
two islets. That in front, a great rock covered with orange
trees, quinces, and cypresses, with an ancient Greek shrine
and a house for two monks, of the strict order of St. Basil, is
called Pondikonisi, and is the ship of Odysseus turned to
stone by Poseidon, — " But the earthshaker nigh to her drew,
And with flat hand striking, he smote her, and turned the ship to stone.
And rooted her there to the spot ; and behold ! the god was gone."
Od., Bk. viii.
These lines came to our recollection, and lost in thoughts,
partly of toilsome days of gymnasial study, and partly of the
magic world of the old Greeks, we stepped on the island
and climbed its side.
The filth which covers the island is anything but poetic.
Two monks, in tattered blue frocks, bare-footed, with
long hair and unkempt beards, greeted the strangers.
The church is of the true orthodox type ; it is divided

z<7*<

SPORT AT CORFU.

by a richly gilt partition into two. Various blackened
pictures of saints, glittering ornaments, and some Greek
inscriptions are on the walls. On the terrace in front of
the church, flowering fruit-trees gladden the eyes of the
winter-weary northerner. The view from the island towards
Corfu and the sea is enchanting ; a fitting home for
visionary hermits.
The poor monks, however, had no look of thought or
devotion, but rather one of complete stupefaction from the
monotony of their life. The younger is a lover of cats, and
several half-starved specimens, mewing pitifully, followed
his steps. The opposite island has on it a building with a
tower, inhabited by a solitary recluse. After a brief visit
we resolved on a shooting party in our boats over the
marshy bay of Kardaki6.
Some herons, cormorants large and small, numerous
divers and ducks, as well as a host of sea-mews, took flight
at our first attempt to approach.
The Greeks are like the Italians, they kill and devour
everything, so that sport in these countries is a very
uncertain pleasure. After long endeavour I succeeded in
bringing down a small cormorant, and content with this we
set our faces homeward.
A beautiful view of the verdant coast of Benizza,
and the lofty Mount Hagioi Decca, consoled us for our
unsuccessful sport. We soon* rejoined the Miramar.
It began to grow dark, the coaling was completed, and,
dinner over, we started once more. A bad night was to
follow on our tranquil day.
Early on the 13th I woke to realize, to my no small

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

disgust, that everything was in motion around me. Tables,
chairs, bed, everything was dancing. The ship rolled and
shook perceptibly and creaked wofully under the pressure of
the waves.
Hastening on deck I had a fine sight of the heavy
storm ; the waves rose mountains high, broke over each
other and scattered in crystal foam. A storm at sea is
perhaps the grandest sight that nature affords, especially
when fine effects of light, shade, and cloud contribute their
share to the general impression. The heavens were on
this occasion covered with heavy clouds, and only here and
there a ray of sunlight broke through.
We were off Cephalonia. The grand mountains of this
island overtopped the mist. In their centre was the loftiest
and most beautiful of them, the snow-capped Monte Nero,
the ancient Ainos. Stern and gloomy were the cliffs, grey
and unfriendly the shadows, and we feared that the
weather would grow still worse.
Our brave ship fought her way but slowly against the
waves, and it was midday ere, passing along the west
side of the hilly, picturesque island of Zante, we reached its
southern point.
The storm increased, and instead of getting more sea
room, we fell off from our course, and the captain resolved
to run into the sheltered canal of Zante. We came slowly
round the south point and turned into the channel which
lies between the island and the opposite mainland. As
soon as Zante sheltered us from the westerly gale, sea
and air grew still, and after her hard fight the Miramar
glided towards the town.

ON THE GREEK COAST.

THE CANAL OF ZANTE.

We could now look at the lovely scenery at our leisure.
To eastward, beyond the level coast, the whole chain of the
Greek mountains lay before us — those of Peloponnesus,
Patras, Achaia, and Elis, their higher peaks covered with
snow. On the north lay the bleak Cephalonia. To the
west Zante ; this lovely island embellished, like the others,
by finely formed rocky mountains, has also plains rich as
gardens, and hills of luxuriant verdure. Corfu is more
pleasing, more cultivated, and would be pleasanter to reside
in, but Zante is " the flower of the Levant," as the Italians
say. The town stretches widely round the bay. The white
houses with flat roofs, the many churches and towers which
stand apart beside them, the Castle Hill and its little
citadel, each and all set in the richest vegetation, make a
lovely picture.
We soon anchored in front of the town ; several other
vessels sheltering as we did from the storm shared our lot.
After the doctor's visit we rowed on shore. Zante has a
character of its own, and is not without interest. There
are traces of former prosperity ; now, the pavement and the
dirt baffle description. Many of the streets have flights of
steps in them, and are only meant for foot passengers ; all,
without exception, are very narrow. Pigs wallow in the
principal square, and the whole town is pervaded by an
undefinable stench. Many of the houses — some of them
fine old buildings, which recall the Italian palaces — are
destitute of window glass, or at most a single shutter hangs
dangling in the wind as the only ornament. The churches
are the chief ornament of the town. They are genuine old

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

Greek places of worship, arranged in the orthodox fashion,
only, strange to say, with bell towers of the type of St.
Mark's. Here, too, the priests were noticeable for the
poverty of their dress. The day was the festival of some
Greek saint, and in the great church the faithful were kissing
the coarsely plated reliquaries.
A stroll through the town gave matter for interesting
reflection. One special fact noted was the striking re
semblance of the interior of the towns in the three southern
kingdoms of Europe.
In Zante you might easily have supposed yourself in
a decayed Italian or Spanish town. Life in all of them is
carried on in the street. In front of the numerous cafes
the men sit with broad-brimmed hats, a plaid thrown round
their shoulders, and shabby clothes, swinging lazily on old
three-legged straw chairs. The coffee-cup stands on another
chair before them, and in their hands is a cigarette. They
gossip, they laugh, they gesticulate. Here coffee, Turkish
cigarettes, Greek placards, priests with round high hats ;
there chocolate, Havannah cigarettes, Place of the Con
stitution, Catholic clergy with three-cornered hats — but
in the life and habits of the people the greatest re
semblance. Among the young women you meet charming
figures and faces, and among the old, dragons such as only
the South can show.
We drove to the Castle Hill, through varied streets and
even poorer houses, in droskies which would have done
honour to a Residence town in Germany. The road winds
in zigzags up a steep slope. Right and left are hedges
of cactus, and fruit trees, with here and there a palm.

VIEW FROM THE CITADEL. 13
One cannot drive to the top. The road ends abruptly
in some heaps of stones. The last part we did on foot.
The hill was alive with soldiers ; for here, too, a battalion
had been called out. The commandant, a cultivated man,
who had lived much in Paris, explained everything to us in
the purest French. The citadel proper is in ruins. The
troops are therefore placed in casemates and huts.
The view from the citadel is very remarkable. To the
east, across the canal, is the Greek coast ; at our feet lies
the town ; along the southern side of the hill are luxuriant
gardens ; on the western slope loam and yellow clay for
mations, which reminded me vividly of the mountains in the
vicinity of Murcia, in Spain. To the northward this hilltop
runs up to a range of wooded hills, which extend along
the east coast of the island, while the west coast is charac
terized by its high bare chain of hills. Between these,
along the centre of the island, is a broad depressed plain.
.This is all separated from the southern point by a narrow
marshy strip of land, which begins close to the town.
The southern point is graced by Mount Skopo, an inde
pendent mountain mass, differing and apart from all the rest.
We seemed unable to satisfy ourselves with gazing on
the splendid tableau before us, the variety of the mountains,
wooded hills, rich garden-landscape and prettily placed
villages, the town of Zante itself, the calm light blue
waters of the canal, and beyond and across the isthmus,
the yet boisterous sea, made a combination of the most im
pressive kind. The view seemed even more magnificent
when heavy thunder clouds gathered over the mountains.
The wind rose, lightning flashed, and thunder rolled, and,

i4 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
drenched by heavy rain, we set forth in haste to return to
the Miramar.
The next morning brought no favourable tidings from
the open sea, so our captain resolved to spend at least a
day in Zante.
We decided thereupon to ascend Mount Skopo. On
the quay we got into carriages drawn by very small horses,
and drove through several streets, past the last houses of the
town, out along the coast. The carriage road very soon
came to an end, and we took our way on foot through
gardens and fields, among olive trees, and across dry water
courses, to the foot of the mountain. There the company
divided for the ascent into two parties. I climbed past the
last human habitations, and then up the steep slope, thickly
overgrown with evergreen shrubs, on to some slabs of rock
and heaps of rubble.
The ascent was laborious and uninteresting. The sun
burnt fiercely, and we had needlessly burdened ourselves
by carrying our guns. Four-footed game there was none,
and the feathered world was poorly represented : only some
central European species, in their winter quarters.
At the top of the mountain there is a small Greek shrine,
simple and unattractive, and beside it the abode of the
priest and his servant ; the whole dirty, ruinous, neglected.
Near this dwelling rises a cone of rocks of peculiar
formation. It is visible from afar, and had attracted our
attention^ from the sea the day before. This, as the highest
point, had to be scaled, and so we scrambled up toilsomely
over the large rock to the summit, to place there a pocket-
handkerchief on a pole by way of banner.

IlilKilllilillM!1: ¦ AiMAAA fj^ A '"A^M

MOUNT SKOPO. 15

The view in the distance was very fine, but we could
not long enjoy it, for the hurricane at sea brought us chilly
and abundant scuds of rain. The priest invited us into
his house for a draught of wine. The reverend-looking
man, with his long beard and flowing hair, gave us, in the
most friendly manner, some very bad cheese made of
sheep's milk, bread, and some of the very good wine of the
country ; but withal of such fiery quality as to recall the
common Spanish draught wines. The room in which we
were entertained was exactly like a little Spanish fonda.
A tiled floor covered with tattered matting, broken chairs,
bare walls, and damp heavy air. A blackened Virgin on
the wall vouched for the Greek nationality.
After our simple meal, we took leave of the hospitable
priest, and descended the mountain. We passed some
fine groups of palms, and, amongst thick shrubs, flowers,
and bubbling springs, there were spots such as one
imagines in reading Greek mythology, fit for the sports of
the merry gods.
Again we crossed through gardens to make our way to
the coast, which soon led us home. The afternoon and
evening were spent on board.
Unfavourable reports of the weather compelled us to
pass another day in Zante. A new excursion was there
fore planned. We started early on the morning of the
1 5th, to make for the northern point of the island.
In the same carriages as on the preceding day, we
drove, first through streets and then along a well-laid
country road, which led us through garden lands. On our
right lay the verdant range of hills ; on our left the lofty,

16 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
bare, and rugged mountains. We passed several solitary
farmhouses and small villages.
The road was the reverse of lonely. The peasants,
some on foot, but mostly on small miserable-looking
donkeys, or on two-wheeled carts, brought their produce
to the town. I looked well at them. They seem a some
what diminutive race, with dark skin and hair. Their
costume is neither becoming nor bright. Wide trousers,
the feet in shoes, like our Dalmatian slippers, and on the
head small caps or great broad-brimmed hats. Many
carried long single-barrelled guns.
After a two hours' drive the road approached the
mountains. The hills on the right end in a marshy
lagune, and in the distance sparkle the blue waters of the
Adriatic. The mountains on the left meet the coast in a vertical
wall of rock, and the road ends at a village built in steps
up the slope of the mountain side. The high mountains
which one now has close at hand are on this side perfectly
bare — steep cliffs and great masses of boulder, without any
vegetation. From the village we made our way on foot
round the base of the lofty cliff, between it and the sea.
We soon reached the northern point of the island, and had
a splendid view ; Cephalonia lay to the north ; directly in
front of us was the basin of a narrow valley planted with a
forest of oaks, and in the midst stood a convent half hidden
between the two hills.
We went over the convent chapel, which was richly
adorned with gilded reliquaries and the black pictures of
saints. It appeared to be a favoured resort of pilgrims.

COURSING A HARE IN ZANTE. 17
Some friendly priests invited us in to take luncheon
in the convent. When we inquired about sport in their
parts, the godly men at once proposed that we should course
a hare. When luncheon was over we started under the
guidance of the youngest priest, who wore a short frock,
broad blue trousers, and slippers. His head was adorned
with the priestly biretta, and he carried a long gun. Two
dogs, far removed from sporting breed, and a peasant
followed him.
We mounted for more than an hour through a gloomy
ravine — right and left high hill slopes excluding any view ;
nothing but smooth, dazzling white stones, the rocks
fringed with a narrow strip of dark evergreen shrubs. The
whole had the sunburnt character of so many mountain
districts of the South, such as those of Dalmatia and Spain.
The dogs snuffed about among the stones, and the
priest with much energy sprang from rock to rock, with
loaded gun at full cock, but nothing stirred. High aloft
§ome imperial eagles soared in the air.
At last we reached the ridge of the mountain. A fine
view of the sea opened on us, and we could see far along
the mountain plateau, with its confusion of stones, rocks,
peaks, and points.
We rested for about a quarter of an hour. We heard
several shots almost at hand, and soon some peasants
appeared with their guns. They had missed one of the
few hares of the island.
On our way back I kept along the height, taking the
shortest way to the convent. Suddenly a small hare (pro
bably Lepus Mediterraneus) ran out in front of me. The
2

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

distance was too great, and I did not fire. Thereupon
the dogs and the priest rushed in wild leaps after the noble
prey. The hare was naturally the quickest, and soon dis
appeared. A hare plays, thanks to its great rarity, an
important part in Zante ; and the poor priest returned to
me panting and declaiming in Greek.
When we reached the convent it was late in the after
noon, and we hastened to our carriages. The long drive
was fine but chilly, and it was evening before we reached
the Miramar. We took leave of Zante, as favourable
reports allowed of our departure being fixed for the
morning. The island showed itself beautiful to the last
in the clear moonshine.
The morning of the 16th brought us good weather and
a glassy sea. At four a.m. we were in motion. We glided
past lovely scenes. The snow-clad mountains of Arcadia
and Messenia reminded me of the mountains on the north
coast of Spain. The contrast of white snowfields with
the deep blue sky above them was most striking. The
further south we came, the lighter in colour, and apparently
the less rocky, grew the mountains. One lofty stretch
of hills wore the yellowish airy hue of the bare desert
mountains of the Iberian peninsula.
We passed Navarino, and later on saw the jagged out
lines of Cape Matapan. Soon after followed the rocky
islets of Arigo and Arigetto. In the afternoon the
mountains of Candia appeared on the horizon, and in the
evening we passed the western point of this large and
beautiful island. By moonlight we saw the dim and misty
contours of the Cretan mountains. We spent delightful

APPROACH TO AFRICA. 19
hours on the deck, enjoying the sparkle of the sea beneath
the radiant moonlight of the south.
The following day, as calm and fine as its predecessor,
was spent by us on the open sea. In the early morning
Candia was still in sight. The wonderful Mount Ida and
the other high mountains of this island were shrouded in
deep snow. By noon the vicinity of Africa, made itself
very perceptible, and we enjoyed for the first time the all-
pervading heat. How delightful it was to lie on the deck,
basking in the southern sun, and to think of the cold we
had been enduring but a few days before in the centre of
ice-bound Europe. We passed one of Lloyd's steamers ;
but, except this, all was still on the broad expanse of water.
We awoke on the 18th February to splendid weather.
" Land in sight yet ? " was the first question. Nothing
but water so far as the eye could reach. At eight a.m.
the coast of Africa rose slowly into view, and some minarets
of Alexandria appeared on the horizon. They were
greeted with exultation by the whole travelling party.
For the second time it was given me to see the Dark
Continent. The first time I had admired the rocky shores
of the Atlas region ; now I was rejoicing at the sight of
the low-lying strand of sacred Egypt.

CHAPTER II.
Arrival at Alexandria — One Day in Alexandria — Journey to
Cairo — Arrival in Cairo — Four Days in Cairo.
The Egyptian coast presents to view flat, yellow dunes,
rising here and there into undulating sandhills.
Some high minarets come first into sight — then the
lighthouse and sundry windmills outside the town. Soon
after, the vice-regal palace of Mustapha Pasha, built in
fantastic Eastern style, rises as it were from the waves.
Now our arrival is really at hand. A boat skims across
the water towards our ship. The pilot's flag tells its
purpose. Orientals, not true Arabs, seafaring folk of mixed
races, such as only the East can show, row the boat with
vigorous strokes.
Tawny fellows, in the garb of Asia Minor, with
turbans on their heads, shout and gesticulate as they ap
proach. Among them sits a swarthy man in fine-spun
Oriental dress ; a coloured scarf is twisted round his portly
person ; a curly black beard makes a frame to his expressive
and fairly genuine Arab countenance. His yellow-brown
hands are adorned with silver rings.
We slacken speed, and slowly and with dignity the pilot

THE HARBOUR OF ALEXANDRIA. 21
climbs the accommodation ladder, and after brief greeting
takes his place on the steering bridge, his boat being taken
in tow. We proceed towards the narrow rocky channel by
which the Old Port is reached.
On the right the half-ruined castle of Said Pasha-el-
Mek attracts our attention by its interesting architecture.
Several batteries and some extensive palm plantations fol
low, and bending round a well-built breakwater we enter the
harbour, and a splendid view of the whole city opens on us.
Were it not for the minarets and some large buildings
in Arab style which speak of the East, one might easily
suppose one's self set down in some southern seaport of
Europe. The character of Alexandria seen from without is
unquestionably European.
As we passed the breakwater a singular picture burst
upon us. The batteries saluted, so did the Turkish ships
of war Mehmet Ali, Makkarosa, and the Khedive's yacht.
The sailors manned the shrouds in their somewhat military
uniform, the fez on their heads. From one of the vessels
came the strains of the beautiful old air of the East, the
" Turkish Sultan's Hymn," recalling somewhat a Hungarian
Czardas, while from the yacht we heard the modern
melody of the " Hymn of the Khedive."
Several steamers of the Austrian Lloyd's were dressed
in gala colours. The harbour was full of vessels all dressed.
The standard of the Turkish Empire, the white half-moon
on a blood-red field, dipped to salute us.
The expanse of waters was thronged with boats filled
with Arabs of all classes, rich and poor ; but all, no matter
of what rank, in most picturesque draperies and full of

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

character. Many civilians were also to be seen, Levantines,
Greeks, Italians, and Jews, with or without the fez.
The members of the Austro- Hungarian community
came off to us in gaily decorated steam launches, and a
band gave us "God save the Emperor." Dalmatians in
the green and white costume of the valleys of the Bocchi
di Cattaro, their weapon-proof " Pas " round their slight
figures, waved their caps as they cheered. These Oriental
Christians were in remarkable contrast with the equally
splendid Eastern colouring of the Islamites. The medley
of flags, colours, costumes, uniforms all around us in in
numerable boats could only be compared to a kaleidoscope.
Long after we had reached our buoy the people hovered
inquisitively around the ship.
The Consul-General, Baron Schaffer, soon came on
board with the officials of the Austrian Consulate. After
short greetings from them we had to receive the local
dignitaries, who came in a procession of gala barges. At
their head was Mustapha Pasha, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs. His master had sent him from Cairo to receive
us. Then followed several generals and the harbour
master. Abd-el-Kadir Pasha was also present in the
uniform of an Egyptian General of Division. The
Khedive had the goodness to assign this agreeable
and cultivated man of half- Turkish, half- Arab race to
attend upon us for the whole of our Egyptian journey. We
one and all of us learned to value and esteem him, and we
parted from him after our prolonged daily intercourse with
true regard. As soon as the Egyptian magnates withdrew
the Austrian settlers appeared.

ALEXANDRIA. 23

Besides numerous Dalmatians, holding places in the
great banking houses, it was remarkable how many Austrians
there were from all parts of the monarchy ; but by far the
larger portion of the colony consisted of those who were
not Austrian by birth — Levantines of all sorts, who for. the
sake of security in trade, and above all, thanks to the
reputation and conspicuous activity of our Austrian Lloyd,
which is far too little valued at home, had placed themselves
under the protection of our nationality.
After we had conversed for some time with these various
individuals, some of whom were our countrymen by birth,
and others only in name, they all left the Miramar, and we
retired to our cabins to change our uniform for civilian
attire. Soon after the whole party were rowed to the
harbour steps. Baron Schaffer was there to meet us, and
with him we entered the carriages which were waiting.
A crowd of porters called " hammal " and also " schey-
yal," a class of the poorest Arabs, tightly girt in blue shirts
with sinewy brown legs and bare arms ; custom-house
officers in European uniform, Turkish sailors, dock labourers,
many of them of most striking appearance, surrounded us
gaping at us inquisitively.
The Khedive was so good as even here to place some
of his carriages at our disposal. The carriages and horses
were English, the servants without exception French, in
modern European livery, the fez the only token of the East.
Outriders, or rather runners, were not wanting — those
swift-footed, lank fellows, in fantastic dress, with flowing
white sleeves, wielding long staves. They always ran
before the carriages, vociferating unceasingly.

24 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
In the narrow Arab quarters of the town one learnt
their value, for without them one would have passed with
difficulty and many stoppages through the throng of men
and beasts.
No sooner had we left the harbour precincts by its large
portal than full Eastern life burst upon us. A narrow street
of houses of Arabic style was crowded with people of all
descriptions ; screaming donkey-drivers, the indispensable
water-carriers, vendors of all kinds, blue fellaheen shirts
jostling pure white burnous. Women whose dresses hung
in rich folds, bearing antique pitchers on their heads ; blind
beggars with long staves ; urchins, clamorous and riotous
as nowhere else but in the East. The Turks and natives
of Asia Minor, in their richly coloured dresses, struck us
at once ; even in expression they differ entirely from the
Arabs, and their skin is lighter. The true Arab is dark,
his features are handsome and noble, his figure is slight but
muscular- — in every respect superior to, but still unmis
takably like, the Israelite. The fellaheen of the cultivated
hill lands is no true Arab. He is of the type ordinarily
found in the likenesses of the ancient Egyptians. I hold
him to be the original inhabitant of the country, and pro
pose in another place to enter more fully into this matter.
When we had traversed these short Oriental streets we
came to the European part of the town. . Broad streets,
with handsome Western houses and shops, form that
quarter of the town ; the central and most brilliant point
appears to be the Place Mehmet Ali. It were unin
teresting to dwell further on the common features of a
European seaport.

A DRIVE THROUGH ALEXANDRIA. 25
Alexandria has this character completely, and yet, elegant
and regular though the streets may be, a something clings
about them which is strange to us.
The Oriental dirt and neglect which lend a certain pic
turesque charm to Arab towns, accords ill with the straight,
stencilled lines of Western architecture. You feel at every
step the presence of the stranger, who seeks to put his own
impress on a foreign world. The free sand of the desert
bears unwillingly the European town, and yet more un
willingly bears with the pale-faced foreigners' greed of
gain. Driving through some of the principal streets we came
to the Place Mehmet Ali, in whose centre stands the
equestrian statue of the great warrior, Mehmet Ali, the
adventurous and successful son of a Macedonian watchman
from Kawala. Not without a motive did Mehmet Ali give
his full favour to Alexandria. If he succeeded in raising
it in all respects, it was that the world might liken him
to his model, Alexander the Great.
The traveller stands in Alexandria on historic ground.
But never will this town again attain such glory and such
grace as in the days of the great Alexandrian Library,
when art, literature, and the whole intercourse of the then
civilized world found its centre here.
The European streets are full of animation. The people
have that indescribable look of a mixed race to which one
gives the name of Levantine. It is a mixture of Italian,
Greek, Armenian, and Turkish features — almost all wear
European clothes, generally, however, with the fez. Besides
these, I saw Dalmatian and Albanian costumes, Turkish,

26 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
and those of Asia Minor too. Greek priests in plenty and
some Franciscans represented Christendom.
Arab donkey-drivers, porters, and water-carriers appear
in the European streets ; but the greater number of them
keep to the Arab quarter. Moors and Nubians stand
before the houses of the wealthy bankers, where they serve
rather for show than for any particular use.
We were very soon weary of the straight streets, and
went back to the Arab quarter. Through some narrow lanes
built in Eastern style, the houses with bay and grated
harem windows, we reached the centre of Oriental life.
The carriages had to go slower and slower till at last we
were obliged to leave them. We went on foot through the
bazaar. Alexandria cannot claim to figure as an Arab town,
and yet the insignificant little bazaar, with all its life and
movement, produces an overpowering impression on the
European, who, coming to it fresh from the West, has never
before been in contact with Oriental manners.
The crowd of idle on-lookers, of buyers, sellers, loitering
children and dogs, reckless donkey-drivers, strange dresses,
and varied types of race were here all represented, but on
a far smaller scale than in Cairo. I shall therefore confine
myself to describing as well as I can the Arab quarter and
the far-famed bazaar of the ancient city of the Caliphs. To
obtain full knowledge of this most interesting display of
Eastern life demands special study.
We made our way but slowly and with difficulty through
the bazaar. At the other end the carriages awaited us,
and we drove to the Southern station, the arrangements of

RAMLEH — GINENET-EN-NUSHA. 27
which, as well as the carriages, reminded me of England,
in all but its somewhat neglected look.
The train took us along the dunes, which separate the
lakes from the sea, to Ramleh, the summer quarters and
sea bathing-place of the wealthy Egyptians. Here and
there, especially close to the town, you see the dunes with
the yellow sands of the desert — the tents of the gipsy and
the Bedouin, dejected camels and braying asses, Arab huts
and dilapidated tombs, are scattered along them ; but for
the most the dunes have been transformed into gardens
and smiling villas.
Orange and lemon trees bowed with fruit, beside the
slender palm, make the whole place seem like a park. On
arriving in Ramleh we waited but ten minutes for the next
train to return to Alexandria. This short expedition gives
to strangers a glimpse of the paradise which human industry
can produce from the most barren soil. On our return to
Alexandria we drove along the Mahmudiye Canal to the
large public garden of Gin£net-en-Nusha. The drive along
the canal is very interesting.
The road was very gay. Besides country folk the beau
monde of Alexandria drove in carriages, flys, and handsome
equipages through the fine avenues to the lovely gardens
where the cool of evening yields refreshment. Men and
women of the poorer class performed their prescribed
ablutions in the waters of the canal, and on the banks knelt
pious Moslems murmuring the appointed prayers with their
faces set towards Mecca.
Among the well-dressed people one saw some over-
showy toilettes, and much bad taste, but undeniably

28 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
beautiful faces. There was no small sprinkling of a demi
monde of the same stamp as in Vienna or Pesth. In
Egypt this class is recruited in great part from Austria, as
I was told. The garden of Gin£net-en-Nusha has the
luxuriant, almost tropical character of Egyptian gardens ;
spicy odours fill the air and the flowery vegetation delights
the eye of the foreigner. A military band played merry
tunes, and many European-clad people walked in the
shaded paths.
We drove rapidly through the grounds, and paid a visit
to the handsomest of the country houses round — the villa
of the wealthy Greek, Antoniadis. The well-kept garden
and the lavish abundance of the African climate unite art
and nature in happy blending. The house itself is beauti
fully arranged, and the utmost skill directed to the mainte
nance of a cool temperature. The owner showed us over
it with courteous kindness.
We drove back towards the town through the avenue
by the canal, and then turning inland reached the famous
Pillar of Pompey outside and beyond it.
The way which we took interested me. I found in it
much that recalled home scenes. The outskirts of all
Oriental towns and those of the eastern parts of Europe
have the same character stamped on them. The houses
grow ever smaller, and the most elegant of cities terminates
in neglected gardens between nameless heaps of rubbish and
filth, beside tumble-down buildings and deserted graveyards.
Here the type was even more distinctly marked by
ruinous tombs, those small circular buildings with cupolas,
the dwindled palm-trees, the heavy-laden camels resting,

AN EVENING AT ALEXANDRIA.

THE PILLAR OF POMPEY. 29
the half-savage dogs, buffaloes, and asses, and the all-
pervading yellow dust.
Amidst the last houses of the town rises a round arti
ficially made hill, and on this stands the ancient Pompey's
Pillar, a monolith sixty-three feet in height, of the red
syenite of Assuan, and with a roughly worked Corinthian
capital at its summit. In ancient times it bore the statue
of the Emperor Diocletian.
We came at a favourable moment and enjoyed a
splendid view from the hill. The town lay outspread
before us in golden light, to the north the open sea, and to
the south-east the yellow dunes and Lake Mareotis.
The sun was setting ; its disc appeared in the warm,
thick air as on many a misty day with us — the western sky
tinted with the richest orange, red, blue, all sharply defined
and the whole bathed in golden light, while the eastern
heavens were already veiled in the blue shades of night
and here and there bright stars looked through. Only the
East, and above all Egypt, famous for its lights and
shadows, can summon up such magical effects.
Whilst we were in the full enjoyment of the prospect
from the hill, noisy crowds were passing through the streets
at its base. First came flocks of black goats with their
hanging ears, then a string of camels : they were going
to their night quarters, accompanied by the yelling guides.
Next followed a funeral. Men bore the coffin, a wooden
box without a cover, with a cloth thrown over ; at the
head a turban cut in wood told that a man was being
borne to his last rest. Several hired mourners surrounded
the coffin wringing their hands and wailing aloud. A number

3o TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
of men saying prayers came slowly after. The whole was
an extraordinary picture.
We made a circuit and returned into the town through
the gate " Porte de Moharrem Bey " of the ancient and
now useless fortifications.
In the evening hours there is far more stir in the
streets than by day, and the noise, shouts, and ceaseless cries
contrast with the stillness which night has shed over nature.
The shops were all still lighted and the cafes open. The
names in the European quarter are put up either in Greek,
French, or Italian.
Night had set in ere we reached the Miramar. The
German Consul-General, Baron Saurma, came to dinner.
From this time forward this gentleman was much with our
travelling party, and to him, especially in matters of the
chase, we were under many obligations.
Early on the 19th we left the Miramar, bidding her
farewell for a long time. An Egyptian gala-barge of
the Viceroy's brought us to land. This very singular vessel
was fitted up in Oriental fashion. Everything was red;
the clothing of the sailors no less than the covers of the
cushioned seats, the richly draped sides, and the baldacchino
over us. Eastern sailors row quite differently to European
ones, but it is undeniable that the perfect time of the
stroke, accompanied as it is by a strange humming song,
has a pleasant effect.
We drove from the harbour to the station, where a
great crowd had gathered, almost entirely Austrians or
members of our colony. A band played " God save the
Emperor," and the Dalmatians in their rich costume waved

JOURNEY TO CAIRO.

their caps as they cheered. In a few minutes we left the
station. The Viceroy had placed his own train at our
service, with its spacious carriages, and in the middle an
open one for the view. Good galleries enabled one to pass
from one end of the train to the other.
Besides our own party, we had with us Baron Schaffer
and the officers of the Austrian Consulate, Baron Saurma,
Abd-el-Kader Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Mustapha Pasha, some Egyptians, and the members of
the railway directorate, at their head M. Zimmerman, a
most agreeable and cultivated Frenchman, whose kindness
to us was unbounded.
The train was a quick one, so we barely caught a glimpse
of many interesting places as we sped by. At first the
way lies along a low ridge, which separates the two great
marshy lakes of Mareotis on the right and Aboukir on
the left from one another. The broad surface of these
waters was covered with water-fowl of all descriptions,
and on the yellow sandbanks stood dark herons with
outstretched necks.
After a while, the water and marshes of the northern
Delta were left behind, and gave place to richly cultivated
land. Everywhere there was tillage, broad cornfields, and
downright forests of cotton plants, deep canals and high
dykes, here and there groups of slender young palms,
dusky gardens, and ruined villages, brown and clay-built,
with their lofty minarets. Such is the uniform type of the
cultivated part of Lower Egypt.
There was plenty of life on the dykes, which serve as
roads, and also in the fields. The fellaheen dig and

32 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
plough, and half-naked brown fellaheen are busy at the
water-wheels. Women, in scanty blue skirts, leading naked
children, step beside the proud caravans of camels. Be
douin families on their passage across the cultivated land,
from one desert to another, on foot and on horse, the women
on camels — a diminutive people, but proud and independent.
Pure Arabs, white burnous, fine horses, long guns, scimitars,
turbans, and simple fellaheen caps ; long-haired goats
and wolf-like dogs ; tawny half-starved donkeys of the
peasant, beside the well-fed white or black riding asses of
the rich ; a cavalcade of well-to-do people, the men in garish
garments on horseback, the women on camels in painted
tower-like erections, which screen them from the eyes of
the unworthy. The fields swarm with white gulls, which
follow the ploughman, and nimble peewits. Among the
bushes on the banks the red palm doves coo, and the long-
billed fishing gulls mew — most genuine Egyptian creatures.
At the sight of the train, a wolf scuds across the. fields,
and kites in number, falcons, and vultures hover over the
villages. A varied, animated, and interesting display of human
activity and of animal life, veiled in the grey blue mists of
the midday heat— thus old Egypt meets the traveller's view.
Damanhur, a genuine little Arab town, is left far behind;
and, constantly on the watch and drinking in each new
impression, we traverse the plain. We reach the Nile.
The train rattles across the iron bridge, and for the first
time we greet the dark majestic flow of this oldest of
historic rivers. On the right bank we run through the
station of Kaffr-ez-Zayat, a small town lying hard by.

IN LOWER EGYPT.

TANTA — THE PYRAMIDS. 33
A little further, and we reach the famous old town of
Tanta. Seen from a distance, the town might be taken for
a heap of rubbish, surrounded by flowering gardens, palms,
and dusky sycamores. A nearer view shows the bustle of
ever-moving Eastern life, and the masses of houses built
of grey clay and tumbled, so to speak, on the top of one
another in wild confusion, but all decorated picturesquely in
Arab style.
Tanta is known for the fair held there thrice a year.
Even in the days of Herodotus, these fairs were held in
Lower Egypt, and mostly in the eastern Delta. They put
the whole country in commotion, and often degenerated
into most dreadful orgies. In ancient days these festivals
were in honour of the goddess Bubastis ; now they are held
in that of Said of Tanta (Seyd-Achmed el-Bedawi), who died
here as a saint, a.d. 1200, but they maintain their character
for riotous dissipation.
The train stopped but for a few moments at Tanta.
The remainder of the journey brought similar scenes to
view. At Benha-el-Asl we crossed the Damietta branch
of the Nile.
A great castle, standing amongst gardens, is known for
the dreadful deed done there. In 1854, Abbas Pasha, son
of Tussum, who was governor in the days of Mehmet Ali,
was murdered there by two Mamelukes. It is said that
his fate was not altogether undeserved.
A delightful moment is at hand, when the monotony of
the landscape of Lower Egypt draws to an end.
Here and there across the meadows we see, rising to the
south-west, the yellow horizon of the Libyan desert ; right
3

34 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
in front, in the midday haze, as though veiled in orange
grey, are the Pyramids of Ghizeh. It is a solemn moment,
and unbidden thoughts of grave import fill the mind oLthe
traveller, who sees for the first time with his own eyes
these tokens of a civilization which flourished in long-past
ages, in this everlasting land of the Pharaohs, which is the
corner-stone of the history of the world.
To the south-east the table-like desert mountains of
Mokattam rise in masses, Below them are the walls of the
citadel and the minarets of the mosque of Mehmet Ali.
Between all these, in the hot mist, lies the sea of houses of
the chief city of Africa. The nearer we approach to the
ancient, much-praised city of the Caliph, the more luxuriant
are the gardens beside the railway. Forests of palms and
sycamores surround isolated houses, and at length the dark
green of the Schubra Avenue opens on our view. In a few
minutes the train enters the station.
The Viceroy, surrounded by his officers of state, stood
on the steps with most friendly greetings.
The numerous members of the large Austro- Hungarian
colony received their countrymen with resounding ovations.
We went to the carriages in waiting — handsome thoroughly
European equipages — a battalion of infantry playing the
National Hymn in our honour. The first sight of life in
Cairo is enchanting. We drove through a short street to
the bridge which crosses the canal, and into the rich green
of the shady Schubra Avenue. One picture follows another,
and as in a dream the most bewitching scenes pass before
the eye. Crowds of human beings move to and fro ; heavy-
laden camels, small asses, noisy Orientals in coloured

KASR-EN-NUSHA. 35

raiment ; half-open shops and coffee-houses, customers
squatting in front of them ; children tumble in the dust ;
every one shouts and hustles ; no one steps aside ; terrified
fellaheen women in blue skirts, carrying nurslings or
waterpots on their heads, escape screaming at the quick
approach of the carriages. The runners clear the way for
our equipages with blows from their staves. To the right
and left I notice neat houses within their own beautiful
gardens. In a few moments we turn in through a trellised
gate, where, amidst shrubs and thick plantations, stands the
Castle of Kasr-en-Nusha. A division of infantry greeted
us with a blast of horns.
The charming abode which the Viceroy had with the
greatest kindness offered to us is a castle consisting of two
square buildings. A gallery with large glazed windows
over the entrance gate unites the two blocks ; without and
within everything is European, but the variety of the
decorations, the gay hangings, the Eastern bath-rooms, and
innumerable small details remind one at every turn that one
is in the East.
We settled ourselves quickly, and were drinking in with
delight the first impressions of Oriental life. The arrange
ment of the apartments, as well as the numerous charming
terraces, the perfume of the flower garden, and the soft
delicious air, reminded us of all the glories with which
Eastern fancy adorns its tales. After a hasty breakfast
some of our party went out hunting with Baron Saurma.
The town had to be traversed, and so we came once
more across the canal, and drove through the European
quarter, with its broad streets and the handsome houses

36 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
and rich gardens of the wealthy. We saw from afar the
entrance of the Arab quarter. The wild confusion of the
streets amused us — European carriages, miserable droskies,
donkeys for riding and for draft, mules, camels, rich and
poor, beggars and gay Eastern folk, genuine Islamites and
half-European Levantines ; and besides all this the great
crowd of Western folk — tourists, and the like. Passing
Kasr-en-Nil we soon reached, driving across the bridge,
the dykes and avenues which run between all the great
gardens opposite to the city.
Near Tussum Pasha's castle, surrounded by canals and
water-meadows, are extensive sugar-cane plantations. In
one of these we proposed to hunt. Prince Taxis and the
brother of Baron Saurma were on the spot waiting for us.
The guns were placed and the dogs loosed.
For a long time the dachshunds seemed to find no
scent ; at last the chase began ; a loud yelping approached
the border of the field. Unluckily the wolf left his hiding
at a spot where no gun was posted, and so we crossed a
broad canal to another plantation. The dogs were let loose
once more, but we were soon compelled to desist from our
sport by the melancholy discovery, made while the dogs
were driving the game, that the cutting of the sugar-cane
had commenced on one side of the field.
Numerous labourers — very poor and scantily clad fella
heen, though some of them of most striking appearance —
were working under the direction of an overseer robed in
long full garments, and wielding a scourge made of thongs
of rhinoceros hide. This worthy approached me with much
dignity, and made a long speech accompanied with much

¦*">¦:/¦

OLD CAIRO. 37

gesticulation.. I made out with some difficulty that he
desired that I should leave the ground.
As the tones of his voice and the motions of his hand
grew more energetic, I called for Osman, the black kavasse
of Baron Saurma, to come to me. When the worthy
Oriental saw the livery of the Consul's servant his voice fell
to the gentle, imploring tones of entreaty, and he hastily
withdrew in fear of menaces, and sought shelter in the thick
sugar-canes. We all returned to the carriages. Our first brief attempt
at hunting beasts of prey had been unsuccessful, but we
had shot some smaller game.
Baron Saurma drove with us to the most ancient part of
the city, Old Cairo lying to the south. The bridge had to
be crossed once again, and then, turning near the Nile to
the right by a vice-regal palace, the way led us quickly into
a most interesting labyrinth of rubbish, ruins, filth, and
ddbris of all kinds.
The poorest part of the population reside in wretched
tumble-down houses. The carriage road came to an end
between stones and sand-heaps, and we had to leave the
carriage between two palm trees, and pursue our way on foot,
From a high heap of rubbish, one of whose sides forms
with the ruins of an old wall the last house of the town,
and where at night hyaenas and jackals howl in company
with wild dogs, we enjoyed a magnificent view. The sun,
encircled by misty clouds of the most varied hues, dipped in
the orange Libyan desert, and as it sank, it bathed in gold
the Pyramids, the battlements and minarets of the city, the
citadel, and the steep cliffs of the Mokattam mountains. It

38 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
was a picture so rich and grand in colour, and so full of
points of natural and architectural interest, that it would
be difficult for imagination to conceive anything finer.
The disused and ruined mosque of Kasr-el-Ain stands
amidst heaps of wreck and decay. Its old walls are
inhabited by quantities of stone-plovers, that curious marsh
bird of nocturnal habits. At nightfall they leave their
hiding-places with the shrill unceasing cry whose tones are
heard all night long in Egypt, and make for the Nile.
We posted ourselves all along the mosque, and watched
for the appearance of this strange bird. As it grew dark,
several of them left their holes ; but they were so swift,
that Hoyos was the only one among us who succeeded in
bringing one down. We scrambled over the ruins, pur
sued by the yelping of the dogs we had roused, and stared.
at inquisitively by Arabs, who crept out of their holes, till;
we regained our carriages.
The drive home had to proceed slowly at first. We
could only grope our way in the darkness through the
complicated ruins of Old Cairo. We then came to gardens,
and at last reached the modern town, with its well-lighted;
busy streets.
On reaching home, we dined ; and after dinner came
a brilliant torch-light procession, got up by our countrymen,-
in the gardens of Kasr-en-Nusha. " God save the
Emperor ! " and their shouts and cheers, sounded strangely-
through the still splendour of an African night. When
this ovation came to an end, we all retired to rest.
Early on the 20th we drove through the older part of the
Arab quarters, to be present at Mass in the Coptic church.

THE TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION.

THE "HOUSE OF THE CHRISTIANS." 39
We reached the doors of the ancient edifice through a
narrow alley, available only for foot-passengers.
The adjoining buildings are inhabited by Christians,
chiefly Copts ; and, in course of time, a Christian colony has
gathered around the so-called " House of the Christians."
Some clergy, with -dark complexions, long beards, and
strongly marked Jewish features, in their full-plaited black
garments, so different from those of all other confessions,
awaited us, with their bishop at their head.
The Coptic religion, like everything else in the East,
has remained unchanged in usages, customs, liturgy, and
vestments. As the first Christians who brought the faith
from Asia to Africa read Mass, went through ceremonies, or
preached, so do their successors, the Copts of the present
day. Their ritual never having come in contact with that
of the West, has maintained itself pure and incorrupt ; and
we see in the Egyptian Copts the faithful image of the
early days of Christendom. They are the representatives
of our faith in North- Eastern Africa; but their diffusion
extends far into the interior of the Dark Continent.
They belong by race to the people among whom they
live ; and though surrounded by the stormy and victorious
advance of Islam, this little colony of ancient Christians,
small as compared with the opposing creed, has been able
to maintain its existence and purest traditions intact to the
present day.
We saw among the priests and choir-boys the swarthy
or dark brown faces of the genuine African. In the
simple, poorly appointed church were many worshippers,
chiefly Copts, but some of them the followers of other

40 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
rituals. The women wore the old Eastern dress, like that
of the Oriental female Christians, of which we were after
wards to see so much in the Holy Land. The Coptic
women were shrouded in white veils, like the Moham
medans. Mass was said by the Court Chaplain. At its
close, we took leave of the representatives of this most
interesting religious body, and proceeded thoroughly to
explore the Arab quarters.
The old Oriental part of Cairo is a picture rich in
colour, effect, and interest, such as only the East can offer.
Much space, minute study, and special work would be
required to record its characteristics accurately and fully.
I must, therefore, on the present occasion, confine myself
to the leading points which struck me.
We made our way amongst shops, bazaars, coffee
houses — the teeming tumult of Arab life — to reach the
ancient and historically most interesting mosque, which
was our first object.
The narrow streets are hung in many places with mats
or carpets to keep off the sun. The houses, built of grey
clay, with bewitching bow-windows, or the gratings of the
harem, and all the scrolls and decorations of Arabian
architecture, are a wonderful medley to look upon. Nothing
is symmetrical, while everything is picturesque. Even
decay, with its touch of impending ruin, gives to the picture
the impress of its genuine Oriental characteristics.
We entered first the court of the large and handsome
Mosque Gama-el-Hassanen, built in honour of Hassan
and Hussen, the sons of Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet.
Hussen fell a.d. 680, at the battle of Kerbila. His head is

GAMA-EL-HASSANEN. 41

preserved in the mosque, and a great festival celebrated
in his honour each year, during fourteen days of the month
Rablet-Tani, the fourth of the Mohammedan year.
We drew on slippers, and a kindly dervish conducted
us into the building, the interior of which is of handsome
architecture and richly decorated.
Several people, by their dress wealthy Orientals, were
seated in a circle on rich carpets, and read in low tones
out of ancient books the wise maxims of the Koran. Mean
while, a specially learned man squatted in the midst of the
faithful, and explained the most important passages. Other
worshippers knelt or lay flat on the ground, and went
through their prayers with faces turned towards Mecca.
Here, as elsewhere in mosques, a point, gaily adorned
with green velvet and gilding, marked the direction of the
Mohammedans' holiest spot on earth. Great chandeliers
hung from the cupola, and the genuine Oriental arrange
ments of the temple, no less than the demeanour of the
faithful, claimed the full attention of the strangers.
In an adjacent court, of fine architecture, is the basin
for the holy ablutions. The look of this bath, with its
border of flat stones, gives the idea of exquisite cleanliness.
On further inquiry, one realizes how disgusting is the
practice which the Koran imposes on its votaries. Before
a Mohammedan may enter the holiest part of a mosque,
he must undergo a certain minutely prescribed purification.
In a squatting posture, to the accompaniment of murmured
prayers, the washing begins. Propriety forbids that I
should describe its further course. When all is done the
pious man prayerfully enters the house of God.

42 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
I frequently saw several persons at a time go through
this pious purification, and the little basin has neither intake
nor outlet ! In all the corridors, courts, and halls of the
mosque, throngs of people pass in and out, often most
striking in appearance in their long robes ; and frightful
cripples wait and implore your charity. As we left the
mosque, an old man with snowy beard and robes of rich
Oriental stuff, and wearing the green turban in token of
descent from the Prophet, rode to the doors, dismounted
from his richly caparisoned horse, which he gave to the
servant who followed, and entered the house of prayer with
an air of dignity.
This distinguished Oriental was a picture — as it were, a
study — just such as I had always imagined the sages in the
gorgeous fables of the East.
Our way led next to the famous mosque Gama-el-Azhar.
Its date is that of Cairo itself. Djohar, the general of
Caliph Muizz, began the structure. The description of
this hoary building demands that we should look back at
the history of Cairo.
When Amr ibn el-Asi, the general of Caliph Omar in
683 a.d., had taken the Castle of Babylon on the site of the
present Old Cairo, and was about to proceed against Alexan
dria,, the story goes that a dove had built her nest on the
tent which he had occupied during the siege, and begun to
breed. Amr commanded, therefore, that the tent (Arabic,
fostdt) should not be struck.
He returned to the tent after he had taken Alexandria,
and founded here a city, which bore the name of the tent.
Amr himself built the mosque, which is called after him

at prayer.

THE RISE OF CAIRO. 43
and when, under Caliph Othman, Arabians settled in the
valley of the Nile, Fostat became the centre of government.
A school of learning was already in existence there when
Caliph Mamun (813-833), the son of Harun al-Raschid,
visited Egypt. Fostat became still more prosperous under
the Governor Ahmed ibn Tulun, who made himself Sultan
of Egypt, and his building-loving successors. Scarcely a
hundred years later, Fostat lost its position as capital, when
Djohar, general of Sultan Muizz, who had become ruler of
Maghreb (Tunis), conquered Fostat in the name of his
master, and founded a new capital not far from the old
town. In this new town Muizz took up his abode, and
called it Masr-el-Kahira.
Cairo thus became the capital of the empire of the
Fatimee Caliphs, and advanced rapidly.
Muizz, son and successor of Aziz Billah, founded the
university, el-Azhar. Under his successor, Hakim, the town
extended to Bab-en-Nasr and Bab-el-Futuh, the old gates
of which we shall speak by-and-by. The Salaheddin
Eyubide, who built the citadel and surrounded Cairo with
walls, bestowed no less care on the city than the Fatimee
Caliphs had done. Several of the Mameluke Sultans, notably
Kalaun, El-Aschref-Chalil, Hassan, Barkuk, Kait-Bey and
El-Ghuri, adorned the town with handsome buildings., while
the inhabitants, it is true, suffered from the unbridled
tyranny of the greedy, plundering Mamelukes. In 1 5 1 7,
the Osman Sultan, Selim I., put an abrupt end to the
further growth of Cairo. After the battle of Heliopolis, he
took Cairo by storm. The last of the Mameluke Sultans,
Tuman-Bey, was hung at Bab-es-Zuwele, April 15th, 151 7,

44 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
and Cairo disappears from the page of history, and only
enters it again with the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon
Buonaparte. All these historical incidents from the days of old Islam,
are present to our thoughts as we enter the mosque, con
verted into a school in the reign of Caliph Aziz Billah,
975-996. It is still the most famous university of the East,
and likewise the breeding-place of Mohammedan fanaticism.
The whole range of buildings is very extensive, and
halls, galleries, and colonnades follow each other. Beside
the principal gate I amused myself by watching the ways
of the genuine Eastern barbers. Squatted on the ground,
they hold the heads of their victims between their knees
and rub in acrid soap. Hereupon they scrape and shave
till the skull is as smooth as glass, for the true Islamite
wears no hair on his head ; only the poorest peasant or
wild Bedouin will wear hair. In the towns a bald head
counts for a great mark of beauty.
With graceful movement the hair-dressers of the East
toil, clip, and wash, and an odour of rose oil and other
scented ointments pervades the scene of their activity.
From hence we went past a small subsidiary mosque
into the great court, with its cisterns for the holy ablutions.
The surrounding corridors are divided by wooden partitions
and lattices into halls, in which the manuscripts are kept.
On the eastern side of the court is the vast sanctuary of the
mosque, adorned with three hundred and eighty columns of
marble, porphyry, and granite, and decked with relics of
antiquity brought together without much regard to con-
gruity. Four praying-places for the four recognized sects

THE UNIVERSITY OF CAIRO. 45
of Islam — Shafeites, Malekites, Hanefites, and Hambalftes
- — are attached in the rear. Innumerable coloured lamps
hang from the roof, and a decorated side chamber is shown
as the tomb of the saint Abd-er-Rahman-Kichya.
The most remarkable spectacle, however, by far, is
afforded by the ten thousand students from all Moham
medan countries who crowd the sanctuary no less than
the halls, courts, and vestibules of this great building.
The various types of humanity, from the black of the
negro to the pale yellow of the Cherkesse, are there
represented. The extraordinary combination of colour and
costume delights the eye ; right studious Bedouins even, in
their white mantles, range themselves among the scholars.
The teachers sit on raised seats in little sheds made out
of plaited and latticed reeds ; most comic figures they are,
mostly old, often deformed, in Oriental garb, turban on
head, and spectacles on nose. With the most ridiculous
gestures they shriek with hoarse voice their lecture at the
hearers. Old dusty Koran books, the pros and cons of
Eastern lore, lie before them, and with the help of a long
bamboo rod they maintain discipline and attention in the
ranks of their scholars. Round each teacher, squat, lie, or
sit on the bare earth a thickly set circle of apathetic-looking
youths. Some listen, others repeat aloud. It may be
imagined how noisily everything goes on in this so-called
High School and these interminable lecture-rooms. The
sight is perplexing indeed for any European, for it would
be difficult for us to conceive any more astonishing spectacle
than the course of proceedings in this world-renowned
University of Cairo.

46 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

After a short stay we left the hot rooms, from which
the horrible smell and the multitude of flies soon bid the
Western stranger to retreat.
Our course next lay past three mosques, remarkable for
their bright colours and slender lofty minarets. The first is
the Gama Sultan Kalaun of the year 1287. The second,
Gama Mohammed-en-Nasir, dates from the thirteenth
century, and the third, Gama Barkukiye, from the four
teenth. These buildings afford little interest beyond their
historical associations.
The more remarkable, by comparison, was the old
triumphal gate, Bab-en- Nasr, flanked by square towers.
Its venerable grey stones recall the days of the Arab middle
ages. Passing through the gate we followed a path which led
us past an ancient Mohammedan burying-ground, amongst
heaps of wreck and ruin, along the dark wall of the city to
its well-known gate, Bab-el- Futuh. Both the above-men
tioned gates — the one signifying victory, and the other
conquest — spring from the same time, and were built under
the rule of the" Fatimee Caliph Mustansir. We now
turned back into the more lively part of the Arab quarter,
to give our full and undivided attention to the manifold
activities of the interior of the bazaar.
To describe the bazaars of Cairo, and to depict aright
its colours, is one of those difficult tasks which only a pro
fessed author on his travels could undertake. I shall con
tent myself with noting a few of the most characteristic
points of the brilliantly coloured picture.
The old Arab town is traversed by a street called

THE MUSKI. 47

Muski, which begins at the Place Atab-el-Kadra, and con
tinues almost to the tombs of the Caliphs. It is the artery
of Cairene Oriental life.
Not very broad, irregularly built, unpaved, damp, and
dirty from the filth of all the drains which discharge into it,
the fighting-ground of innumerable savage dogs, covered
in with matting, filled with deafening noise, and saturated
with a disgusting stench, it affords a faithful picture of
the Eastern capital.
Here may be seen every imaginable Eastern tribe, of
the most various hues — men with turbans in wide bright
dresses, soldiers, Bedouins, Jews in Biblical costume, Turks,
inhabitants of Asia Minor, Greeks, Midianites, Levantines,
and Armenians, rich and poor, fellaheen in blue shirts,
peasant women with babes at the breast, wealthy women
on donkeys followed and guarded by their eunuchs, riders on
camels, mules laden with merchandise, dark Nubians, pure
negroes, Mohammedan processions, solemn dervishes, men
of business, mutilated beggars, water-carriers with their
goatskin bottles on their backs — all moving up and down
in bewildering confusion.
The deafening noise tries the ear of the European. To
the roar of the crowd are added the piteous moans of the
beggars, the cries of the dealers, the chink of money, the
clatter of cups, the bragging vaunts of the hawkers and
of the coffee-sellers, the bellowing of the camels, the barking
of dogs, the warning cry of the donkey-drivers and of the
sais as he runs before the carriages.
New sights present themselves to the stranger at every
turn, and all this endless movement goes on from early

48 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
morning to late at night along the whole length of the
Muski. The bazaars stretch to the right and left, with a laby
rinth of narrow alleys and courts — the whole in guise of a
genuine rag fair whose interest consists chiefly in the dis
play of Eastern wares, in the genuine character of the
native architecture, and above all, in the demeanour of the
buyers and sellers.
The bazaar of the Christian traders, Suk-el-Hamzauwi,
and that of the spice-dealers, Suk-el-Attarin, and also Suk-
el-Fahhami, filled with Tunisian and Algerian goods, offer
much that is attractive. The quarter of the jewellers,
Ghohargiye, in the Jewish quarter, and beyond this Suk-es-
Saigh, the bazaar of the gold and silversmiths ; and lastly,
Suk-en-Nahhasin, that of the coppersmiths, were all
thoroughly examined by us.
I bought some Arab ornaments, some old armour, and
some gold and silver work. The turbaned shopkeepers
sit in the open shop, with crossed legs, in loose robes>
smoking the chibouk or gulping down coffee. They follow^
the stranger with eager looks, scanning his purpose.', If
they perceive that he is ignorant or helpless, and unwitting
of the Eastern wiles, they give free course to their eloquence,
press the dearest articles upon him, and without the aid of
a skilful interpreter the luckless European is lost; he
spends all he has about him, and brings home articles that
are probably false and certainly hideous. In the bazaar
the Arab proves himself of true Semitic race, own brother."
to the Jew, and scarcely to be distinguished from him.
The most interesting of all the Cairene bazaars is the

A CARPET BAZAAR.

THE BAZAARS. 49

Chan-Chalil — in a quarter of its own, with covered shops
and existing from the days of the Mameluke Sultan el-
Aschraf Salaheddin Chalil.
Here you find the varied movement of Eastern life, the
most genuine articles of all kinds, all Oriental ; and beside
them the products of negro lands, and especially of the
Soudan. In the carpet bazaar I went into the court of the house
of a rich merchant. The old man unrolled with the utmost
dignity his richest wares — -Turkish and especially Persian
carpets of great value.
After spending many hours in the Arab part of the
town we pushed our way through the thronged and narrow
streets back to the Muski. Glorious in colour and pic
turesque as Eastern life may seem, especially to travellers
accustomed to the moulded monotony of Europe, yet even
this Paradise has its dark side. I place in the first rank
the innumerable insects. Millions of large black flies fill
the streets, swarming round the Oriental, who never drives
them away, but allows his face to be quite covered by them.
These creatures carry dirt and infection with them into
the eyes, and this may explain the number of persons
afflicted with blindness and with the most loathsome
diseases of the eye. Generally speaking, one may say that
one sees in the street cripples and invalids and people
afflicted with diseases and defects of body of the possibility
of which the European had no previous conception.
In the Muski we hired asses — those little skinny beasts
which with .the high Arab saddle ply by thousands from
one end of Cairo to the other and take the place of cabs.
4

So

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

In a quick ambling trot, alternating with a gallop, the
unwearied donkey driver running after, we rode down the
length of the Muski and through the European quarter,
across the Canal-el-Ismailiye, to the Schubra Avenue, and
back to the Palace Kasr-en-Nusha.
After a short stay we drove to the Viceroy to pay our
first but not yet our official visit. The palace in which
the Viceroy passes the working hours of the day lies on
the western side of the modern town, and is a large,
completely European building, wholly devoid of character
or style. The Viceroy received us in a most friendly manner —
according to the Eastern custom, excellent coffee was
served in bewitching little Turkish cups, and chibouks were
smoked. The visit was soon over, and we took our further way
through the European, and then again through native Arab
quarters, to the Mosque Sultan Hassam, which stands near
the citadel. It is a large, ancient, but alas ! very neglected
building— by far the most beautiful mosque, and built in
the purest Arab style, of all which I saw in Cairo. The
tomb of the Sultan, the bathing cisterns, the praying-places,
and the pillared halls are all, sad to say, gone to ruin.
On the flags the blood-stains from the days of the first
massacre of janissaries in 135 1 are still shown.
We drove hence by the shortest way home, to take
a hasty breakfast and start once more, this time with four
horses and postilions, on an expedition to the Pyramids.
The way led us once more through the whole European
town. The buildings, constructed like country houses but

EGYPTIAN BEGGARS.

THE PYRAMIDS OF GHIZEH. 51

adorned with Eastern decorations, are charming in their
mixture of East and West ; the blooming gardens with
odorous flowers and shrubs and waving palms, enchanted
me. With amazement I saw in the midst of a town quan
tities of birds of prey — thousands of kites flying or sitting
on the roofs, and carrion vultures which swooped down in
the streets. I heard the song of birds, the moaning of the
palm doves, and drank in with delight the balmy air of
heavenly Egypt, thinking of the hardships of the European
winter which I for once had escaped.
At the extensive buildings of Kasr-en-Nil we crossed
the holy river and the island of Geziret-Bulak, drove past
some vice-regal villas and splendid gardens, and soon
reached the dyke on which the high-road, fenced in by
trees, leads straight through the cultivated land, between
fields and the still half-flooded meadows, past a wretched
Arab village to the edge of the desert.
The carriage drove some hundred paces on the yellow
sand of the Libyan desert, and stopped at the base of
the gigantic structures which have looked down for
thousands of years on the history of the world. A peculiar
awe overcomes each traveller who gazes for the first time
in near proximity on these monuments of a long bygone
age, and can touch with his hands the stones which cen
turies before the days of Abraham were piled on this spot,
where they now stand, by the labour and the skill of man.
To describe the Pyramids of Ghizeh would be to
repeat a task already done over and over again. They
belong to the domain of guide-books and the most beaten
tracks of travellers. The tombs of dynasties of hoar

52 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
antiquity have sunk to the level of a Rigi, and the insig
nificant names of the Western tourist desecrate the
venerable stones.
We viewed the Cheops, Chefren, and Menkera Pyra
mids, and also the Sphinx with its body half buried by the
sands of the desert, and then some Arabs were set to
climb the second pyramid, to dislodge the jackals which
house there. Unfortunately we were badly placed, and
so two jackals escaped unharmed and betook themselves
to the boundless desert, intersected by vales and hills.
Several shots were fired from below at the beasts as they
came down, hopping with extraordinary agility among
the stones, but none took effect, as the distance was too
great. The Pyramids gave me, especially when men or animals
were climbing upon them, the impression of being great
artificially constructed mountains rather than architectural
monuments. The sun went down and the landscape floated in a sea
of the most glorious light, the grey stones of the Pyramids
glowed like gold, and the Valley of the Nile, the mass of
houses of Cairo, the citadel, and the towering Mokattam
mountains beyond were dyed in crimson hues. We had to
hasten home, and drove quickly back by the road by which
we had come.
In the Schubra Avenue— the Prater of Cairo— we found
plenty of stir. Riders capered on beautiful Arab horses,
and there were two closely serried rows of carriages driving
up and down ; it was a Corso lively and gay, such as only
the South can show, and all unlike our northern caricature

JACKAL-HUNTING ON THE PYRAMIDS.

THE SCHUBRA AVENUE. 53
of shivering drosky-drivers on chill May evenings. There
were handsome carriages of European build, but the servants
all wore the fez.
Rich Mohammedans, Pashas, Levantines, well-to-do
Greeks, and the rest of the European world, breathed the
cool evening air in their carriages. We were most inte
rested by the closed barouches driven by Eastern coach
men. Behind them sat, instead of footmen, black eunuchs,
with their repulsive heavy features, in half-European dress.
Inside the carriages were the wives of high officials,
of the different Pashas, and even some princesses. They all
wore the white Eastern dress, and through their white veils
bright black eyes might be discerned, delicate features, well-
formed dark eyebrows, and long eyelashes. Poorer folks
disported themselves in droskies and on donkeys ; and a
fairly well got up demi-monde, some Parisian, and even
more in the style of Vienna and Pesth, made the place
perilous. On reaching home we dressed quickly and drove to the
Palace of the Khedive, where a great dinner was given,
to which the Ministers and the Consuls-General were
invited. We were introduced there to the Khedive's
brothers. The household of the Viceroy is kept on a
European scale, and the servants, with the exception of
those who served the coffee and chibouks, are Western.
After dinner we drove with the Viceroy to the large
Esbekiye Gardens, lying within the city, where the Austro-
Hungarian colony had prepared an Arab fete in our
honour. Lamps hung from trees and shrubs. Fireworks
were let off, and within the tents singers and dancers

54 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

displayed their skill; Arab music, serpent-charmers, fire-
eaters, story-tellers, negroes, Nubians, clowns from the
north coast of Africa, magic lanterns, and puppet theatres
with Eastern get up, were all exhibited. In a word, it was
a regular fair, with all the artists of this class in which the
East is so rich.
The garden gates had unluckily been opened too early,
and such a crowd had streamed in that it was impossible
to move about freely.
We got into a regular crush, and it was only by the
help of some Dalmatians in full dress, who made a living
wall round us, that we succeeded in reaching the gate and
carriages that stood outside. We were soon at home, and
after our busy day repose was doubly welcome.
Next morning we drove through great part of the
European city on our way to the Bulak Museum, on the
southern point of the island of Bulak.
The museum is one of the richest and most famous
collections of Egyptian antiquities, and in the spacious-well,
arranged buildings are stored the priceless treasures of the
ancient times of the Pharaohs. A Frenchman is director,
the successor of the well-known but lately deceased'
Mariette Pasha. The brother of the great Egyptologist,"
Brugsch Pasha, has also a post here, and pointed out to us
the most interesting parts of the collection. To describe
the Museum of Bulak would demand, on the one hand,
extensive scientific acquirements, and on the other it has
already been treated of piece by piece in numerous special.
treatises. We looked at everything carefully in the rooms, as well

OUR EVENING RIDE AT CAIRO.

RECEPTION BY THE KHEDIVE. 55

as in the little garden. Some Christian mummies from the
early days of Christendom interested me very much, as,
until I saw them, I had no idea that mummies of this kind
existed. They recall, with their bright, richly decorated
apparel and black faces, Byzantine Madonnas. After a
lengthened visit we left the museum, and drove home.
We had barely time to get ourselves into our Court
dresses, when a Pasha who holds the office of Court
Marshal under the Khedive appeared, to escort us on our
ceremonial visit to his sovereign.
We set forth in a great heavily gilt carriage, drawn by
six handsome English horses at a foot's pace, with outriders
and surrounded by cavalry, in a kind of procession on the
long journey to the Viceroy's Palace.
The style in which the equipages were set up was
peculiar. One handsome European carriage had as a coat
of arms the crescent and star ; the coachman and outriders
were in Western liveries, but wore the fez, and the pro
cession was opened by a sais in full Eastern costume.
Many people stood in the streets and stared at us
inquisitively. In the square in front of the palace, a
regiment of Foot Guards, in light blue uniform, presented
arms to the strains of the National Hymn, followed by an
Arab cheer, which one company after the other roared forth
as they presented arms. The Viceroy, in the full uniform
of a Turkish Pasha, awaited us, surrounded by his Court.
In the great hall every one took a seat, in a circle, on little
stools placed along the walls ; hereupon appeared the
customary richly ornamented chibouks and the coffee.
This is not only a grateful, pleasant practice, but also one

56 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
which has a certain grave resemblance to the pipe of peace.
After the visit we wended our way back in the big carriages,
in slow procession, to Kasr-en-Nusha.
Immediately after our return the Khedive arrived to
pay us his visit. When he had left the castle, the Grand
Duke and I received all the Austrian and Hungarian resi
dents, the Consuls-General, and some other gentlemen who
had wished to see us ; among these the Archbishop of
Alexandria, a Franciscan, born in Dalmatia — a fine sight,
with his noble countenance and long beard. Poor man!
he has since died at sea, and been laid to rest in the deep
waters. After some ceremonious hours, we were permitted to
change our uniforms for hunting suits, and, after luncheon,
to start for a hunt at Heliopolis. Baron Saurma accom
panied us. His brother and Prince Taxis had preceded us
to the hunting-ground.
We had to go through some streets, but soon the last
tumble-down houses were passed, at the margin of the
desert and of the arable land. On the left we saw the
great slaughter-house, whose vicinity was betokened by
the many carrion vultures. On the right we had a pretty
view of the desert landscape, and beyond that of the rising
cliffs of the Mokattam range. Windmills, old half-fallen
tombs, and ruins were the last buildings on the zone of sand.
The road keeps on the luxuriant cultivated ground,
among the gardens and avenues, but always close to the
desert. The green parks of Abassiye and of Tewfik's
palace, with its shady rows of trees and fruit-laden orange
groves, were crossed, and, after half an hour's drive we

VISIT TO HELIOPOLIS. 57
reached the " Tree of Mary," which stands among the thick
shrubberies and gardens. We halted, to look at the syca
more under which, the legend goes, the Holy Family
rested. It is a very old tree, remarkable for its knotted
branches, the size of its trunk, and the thickness of its bark,
and well repays the trouble of a visit.
In the neighbourhood we made a vain attempt to hunt
a small sugar-cane plantation with our dogs, and had the
same ill-luek in a plantation of areca.
The remainder of the way lay along high narrow dykes
— neck-breaking work with the heavy carriages — and we
approached our goal but slowly. On both sides of our
road lay the green tilled land, crossed by canals and orna
mented with sycamores and rustling palm woods. Some
small grey-brown Arab villages, built of clay, were the only
human habitations, but all along the route the industrious
fellaheen worked in the fields.
Buffaloes drew water at the wells, and camels bore
loads ; herons in thick flocks followed the countryman as
he drove the plough, and sundry birds rejoiced the eyes of
the sportsman. To the south-east we saw the desert and
its bare mountains. After some time the famous obelisk of
Heliopolis came in sight, surrounded with green meadows
and shrubs.
Here, on this classic spot, I will avail myself of the
words of my friend Brugsch Pasha, which I take from a
letter addressed to me, in which the Egyptologist speaks
of Heliopolis: "When the traveller from Memphis in
ancient times had crossed the Nile and entered the so-
called Holy Way, which leads on the east side of the

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

stream past Babylon (near Old Cairo) towards the north,
he soon saw in the distance a number of obelisks, which
mark the approach to the City of the Sun, far famed both
for its age and its history. Placed on the very edge of
the desert, whose orange sands mingle with the dark mould
of the fields, a sanctuary was reared to the god of Light,
Ra, whose existence the oldest inscriptions in the pyramid
tombs proclaim.
" To him, as well as to the neighbouring town, the
records of all ages give the most ancient and popular
name of Annu. It is the On of the Bible, in which that
priest Potiphera dwelt, whose daughter Asnath was given
to his minister Joseph to wife by the Pharaoh of that day.
Besides the name we have mentioned, the temple and the
town belonging to it bear a second, ' Pi-ra,' i.e. the ' City of
the Sun-god, Ra,' from which has arisen the Greek name of
Heliopolis. The first laying out of the sanctuary and of
the place is attributed, with great probability, to Arabian
immigrants, who came from the East into the Delta, and
settled on the site of the later city of Heliopolis.
" Worshippers of the sun and stars, the new-comers in
stituted on this spot a cultus, whose leading idea pervaded
Egyptian mythology, and formed a distinct body of
doctrine, which, even in the later periods of Egyptian
history, when Greek philosophers, such as Plato and
Eudoxus, visited the town, was imparted in the priests'
schools as the principal secret of their teaching. The
above-named philosophers succeeded with difficulty in in
ducing the learned priests of Heliopolis to impart to them
some of the most important dogmas of astronomical import.

THE PHCENIX — HELIOPOLIS. 59
" The Arab origin of the town is shown with unmistak
able distinctness, especially by the worship of a bird which
was dedicated to the sun, and to which a special sanctuary
was consecrated in the temple of the Light-god. This
wonderful bird was called Phoenix by the Greeks, and
the records of antiquity are full of its journeyings from
the Arabian incense-bearing lands to Heliopolis at the
completion of a great astronomical cycle.
" The Egyptian monuments are familiar with this bird ;
but their holy records strip him completely of the mysterious
character under which the Greek and Latin authors were
never weary of describing him. According to the declara
tions which the hieroglyphical inscriptions make about him,
the so-called Phoenix (in old Egyptian, Bennu) belonged
to a species of Ardea, remarkable for its shining plumage,
which glittered like gold. This bird was wont to migrate
to Egypt from the East at the time of the overflow of
the Nile. The lore of the old Egyptian priests placed this
bird in relation not only to the sun, but also to that morning
star which daily heralds the sunrise. We may assume, with
out exposing ourselves to delusion, that the plantations
of incense-trees (of Arab origin), accredited by inscriptions,
convey a very definite reference to the burning of the
old Phoenix in the ashes of its incense-built nest. In the
Middle Ages the traces of the plantations of these aromatic
trees still existed.
" Heliopolis, and the whole district of which this city
was the metropolis, counted as one of the most ancient and
most renowned places even in the days of Egyptian
antiquity. Together with Memphis and Thebes, Heliopolis

60 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

appears as a city of historic note. It represents the earliest
period of the historic development of Egyptian civilization,
as Memphis does the ages which succeeded, i.e. those of
the kings who built the Pyramids, and Thebes the brilliant
period of Egyptian greatness from the eighteenth to the
thirteenth centuries before the Christian era. In Helio
polis we have the first settlement of the Kushite Arab
stock on their wanderings from the East. They after
wards took possession of the eastern portion of the Delta,
and introduced the worship of the sun where they estab
lished their first fixed abodes.
"In the course of ages, from the time of the oldest dynas
ties, Heliopolis was adorned by the kings of the Egyptian
realms with temples, statues, and obelisks, whose number
and size used, even in the Middle Ages, to fill the Arab
writers with amazement. The Ptolemies, with their
Grecian culture, left the memorials of their predecessors
untouched, and strove to protect the temples from all
profane depredation. The Roman autocrats began to rob
the ancient holy places of their monuments. Two obelisks
travelled under Tiberius from Heliopolis to Alexandria, to
be placed in front of the so-called Caesareum, or Temple
of Caesar. Others were taken to Rome and Constanti
nople to serve as the mysterious witnesses of pre-historic
times. "Only one obelisk has maintained its ancient place.
This it is which now rises in the midst of a tilled field, near
the village of Mularfye, from below the surface of the soil
(its height is 20-27 m.), as the last token of the once
renowned City of the Sun, and the oldest of all known

RUINS OF HELIOPOLIS. 61
obelisks. The inscriptions which cover its four sides are
all the same.
"They name the king Usertasen I. (who ruled in the
middle of the third century B.C.) as its founder, and state
that the erection of this massive monolith of syenite coin
cides with the commencement or recurrence of an astro
nomic period of thirty years. Its point was formerly coated
with shining sheets of copper, which, in the time of the
Middle Ages, were sold by the Arabs. The spot on which
the obelisk stands marks also the position of the principal
entrance into the most ancient sanctuary of the Sun-god.
The rampart-like boundary walls, which still remain, indi
cate at the same time the total extent of the formerly
existing groups of temples. We may further remark
that, according to the evidence of papyri of the thirteenth
century before our era, Heliopolis was a strongly fortified
place, which formed the southernmost point of the long
line of fortifications which stretched past Bubastis (now
Tell Bast) and Tanis (the Zoan of the Bible, and now
called San), as far as Diospolis (now Damietta) on the
Mediterranean, and were designed to protect the territory
of the Delta against the attacks of hostile tribes from the
East. " The road from Cairo to these old ruins is now marked
by a causeway, which runs for a length of nearly five
English miles along the edge of the desert, broken at several
points by building ground or plantations. When you leave
the iron gate (Bab-el-Hadid) of the City of the Caliphs
behind, the long road opens in front, bordered on each side
by trees, and affording an extensive view over the desert to

62 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the foot of the Mokattam mountains (of so-called numulite
limestone). The isolated ' Red Mountain ' (Gebel Ahmar)
rises dark red in colour. This mountain is of silicious
sandstone, and is much quarried for making mill-stones,
and in antiquity supplied the most durable material for
statues and monuments of all kinds. The two famous
colossal statues of Memnon on the west side of the great
Theban plain came from the ' Red Mountain.'
" On the right hand follow each other in unbroken suc
cession the tombs and mosques of the Caliphs, the pumping
station of the Cairene Water Company, the modern tombs
of deceased Moslems ; the desert residence of the last
Viceroy but one, the old castle of the Viceroy Abbas
Pasha — a modern ruin in the fullest sense of the word ;
barracks for cavalry and infantry; lastly, fountains and
other small structures of no importance. To the left are
the rich plantations of the Schubra Avenue, and nearer to
the road a palace belonging to the mother of the Khedive
Ismail Pasha, and the grounds of the meteorological and
astronomical observatories.
" A shady road perfumed with flowers, with vineyards
and fruit gardens on either side, leads, a little further on, to
the villa of the present Khedive, hard by the village of
Kubbe. " The flourishing plantations stand on the soil of the
desert, and seem to have been called to life, as it were, by
magic. But they confirm by their presence what Napoleon
so truly remarked, at the time of his stay in Egypt, ' If the
desert comes to the Nile, indigence and want follow; but if
the Nile comes to the desert, riches and well-being spring

AN OSTRICH FARM. 63
forth. In fact, the constant irrigation of the soil of the
desert at this point has produced a luxuriance of vegetation
which is scarcely equalled elsewhere.
" After you have turned to the left in front of Tewfik
Pasha's palace, a broad cultivated plain opens behind an
olive wood. Here, on the 20th day of March, 1800,
General Kleber, with 10,000 French, won a splendid victory
over 60,000 Turkish and Egyptian troops.
" Beyond the village of Matariye, to the left of the road,
you see the much-visited and often -described 'Tree of
Mary ' — a sycamore some two hundred years old (its
predecessor perished in the year 1665), under whose shade
the Virgin and Child are said to have rested on the flight
into Egypt. The garden round the tree is watered from a
spring, after which the Arabs have sometimes called Helio
polis Ain-sherus, i.e. ' Fountain of the Sun.'
"At some distance from the garden, and entirely on
desert ground, is the ostrich farm, recently established by
a French' company, under the immediate superintendence
of a Swiss gentleman, named Wetter. The eggs of the
ostriches are hatched by artificial heat, and the young
birds tended with the utmost care. For four years past
birds have been bred, whose parents came partly .from the
Soudan and partly from Abyssinia. In March, 1881, the
total number of birds, without distinction of age or sex,
was sixty.
"A quarter of a league distant from this farm lie the
above-described ruins of Heliopolis. In this still solitude
the obelisk, sole witness of a long bygone day, wafts its
greeting from afar to the modern traveller, and waits the

64 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

hour when it too shall fall, and with it will vanish from the
land of Egypt the last proof of the existence of the once
glorious City of the Sun. We have but to expect that it
too will follow its companions to some spot of European or
American ground."
Let us now return from these eloquent descriptions of
Brugsch Pasha to our own experiences.
Not far from the obelisk is a garden belonging to the
Khedive. It is an orange grove, well tended, with pleasant
walks adorned with flowers and a luxuriant growth of
African plants. The garden, no bigger than many that
belong to country houses in Europe, is fenced by a low
earth wall, and stands near a village in the midst of tilled
fields. Baron Saurma urged us to beat it for game. As we
entered the gate, the thought came to me unbidden that
here we should find at most the pretty African palm dove
or other southern small birds, but we were soon to be
taught something different. Several gentlemen placed
themselves under cover of orange trees laden with fruit,
near the principal road which crossed the garden. To me
was assigned the last place near the wall.
Eight excellent dachshunds of Saurma's were set
loose, and soon their glad bark recalled the hunting-grounds
of our home. I followed with the utmost watchfulness the
course of the hunt. After a few minutes there was a shot
on the road, then a brief pause, but quickly followed by the
bark of the dogs in the opposite direction. It drew nearer
and nearer to my post. Suddenly I heard an animal in
rapid flight coming through the bush towards me, and

OUT IN THE DESERT. 65
in a moment a jackal came full gallop past under the
wall. A successful shot brought him down. I rescued
my booty with difficulty from the assaults of the excited
dogs which had followed the track closely.
It was a specimen of the true African jackal — a reddish-
yellow, thin, long-legged beast with pointed ears. Amongst
my comrades, Hoyos had been so fortunate as to secure
a pretty large she-wolf of the African species, Canis
Lupaster. When we had had the garden beaten a second time
with the help of some natives, a second wolf appeared. I
heard it rustling in the bushes, and my huntsman even saw
it, but unluckily the crafty beast escaped unharmed over the
wall. Two wood-snipe were also seen, but not within shot.
Cranes soared aloft, and birds of various kinds abounded in
the leafy orange-trees.
After short but very successful sport, we left the garden
and set out for home. The sun had set, the shadows grew
deeper, and twilight came on.
The road, dangerous enough by day on the top of the
high narrow dyke, was little suited for the night, and so we
resolved to leave the canal which crosses the cultivated
land, and to drive straight across the desert. At first all
went well, but the strength of the horses soon gave way,
and slower and slower they dragged the heavy carriages
through the deep sand. It would have taken us several
hours to reach Cairo in this fashion, and so, with the help of
some torch-bearers, we made our way back to the arable
land. We passed the garden of the Kub castle. Bats flitted
5

66 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

among the murmuring palms and the thick sycamores,'
Delicious odours were wafted from the shrubs and. the
fruit-laden orange groves — the intoxicating perfume of
Eastern vegetation. Countless stars filled the heavens',
and the warm soft air was enchanting to the poor European.
It was a true African night in its full splendour. One
must have known the delicious magic of those happy lands
to understand their indescribable charm and boundless
attraction, and the yearning after them which lays hold of
every one who has ever lived in them. Only there, in
the smiling flowery East and its undying summer, could
the cradle of humanity have been placed-— not in the
bleak, gloomy, frosty North.
A good road leads from Kub to Cairo, and we quickly
reached Kasr-en-Nusha, where our dinner and a night's1
rest prepared us for the next day.
On the 22nd, we started in the morning with Baron
Saurma, to drive through part of the European town and up,
along the Muski to the point where the carriage road ends
at the last house, and the waste and dreary domain of the
old tombs begins. The broad, stony desert region between
Cairo and the steep cliffs of the Mokattam mountains is
filled by what one may call a city of ancient funereal
mosques and Mussulman graves of all kinds. A similar
colony of the dead exists also on the further side of the
citadel, but those, the graves of the Mamelukes, are much
less worth a visit.
Among the many smaller and greater mosques of the
graves of the Caliphs, the most noteworthy is Gama Kait-
Bey, a fairly well preserved edifice with a richly decorated

A CITY OF TOMBS. 67

cupola. In the sanctuary are two cubes of stone with the
print of the Prophet's feet, which the founder, Kait-Bey, is
said to have brought from Mecca.
A ride through this city of tombs offers many very
interesting points of view. Before us were the solemn
cliffs ; to the right the citadel, built on the rocks, crowned
by its slender, lofty minaret ; around us lay a medley of
tombs, grave-stones, mosques, all falling to pieces and bat
tered by the sand of the desert ; between rose bare hillocks
with stone-built Arab windmills like towers on their tops.
A gloomier aspect is given to this picture by the many
signs which indicate that hyaenas, jackals, wolves, and dogs
howl funeral dirges here by night over the dead Moslems.
We had soon reached the stone quarries with their
steep sides and great blocks of stone lying in confusion
around. We left our asses here and clambered by a
narrow path between stones and precipices half-way up
the mountain side. At some points the sportsman has
need of a good head, and the smooth yellow-grey and
dark -brown slabs of this desert mountain demand a certain
dexterity to escape mishap.
In a narrow ravine, hemmed in by cliffs, and not far
from the highest fortress-like ridge of the mountain, we
found an Arab beside a dead ass.
Here Baron Saurma had caused a wall to be built
across the mouth of a hole in one of the cliffs, so as to
make a hidden battery in the mountain side. My uncle,
with Saurma's servant, the clever Nubian Osman, my
huntsman, and I, climbed hand and foot over a narrow
ledge into the small and uncommonly uncomfortable

68 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
ambush. The Baron and the Arabs went back down to
the quarry to watch the course of the sport. From our
elevated look-out it was just the right distance for small
shot to the lure lying at the bottom of the ravine.
The weather had become cloudy, and small rain was
falling. This is the greatest rarity in Cairo, where they
say that it only rains seven times in a year, and one of
these seven fell to us for our hunt, for which we should
have desired a perfectly clear sky.
For a long time nothing came. The unceasing prac
tising of bugles and trumpets reached us from the citadel,
while the heavy close air and the small space, which
prevented all movement, was stupefying. At last a pair of
ravens fluttered down, and thereupon some kites, impatient
for their breakfast. The loathsome carrion vulture fol
lowed with its bare skull.
The tedious and prolonged waiting determined me to
advise my uncle, who had never shot one of these vultures,
to fire. No sooner said than done, and, as the smoke
cleared off, I hastened down to the spot. I begged my
uncle to wait a while longer, as the sun was breaking
through, and I descended with this most unsavoury spoil
to the quarry below. On arriving there, Baron Saurma
and I found a favourable post of observation, and awaited,
telescope in hand, coming events.
In a quarter of an hour the first great vultures ap
peared — the mighty Vultur fulvus. With slow flapping
wings they moved round the summit of the mountain.
One followed another, and soon sixty had assembled in
the air.

AN UNSAVOURY BURDEN. 69
Now came the exciting moment, when the first stayed
his pinions and dropped into the ravine. At this signal all
the others did the same, and, like an avalanche of stones,
vulture after vulture came tumbling down. The last had
scarcely reached the goal when we saw smoke rise from
the battery above. Speedy dispersion and wild confusion
among the group of huge birds were the first effects of
the shot.
With the aid of the telescope, I could see a badly
wounded vulture rolling on the stones, and immediately
after Osman appeared to seize the prey. As the other
hungry comrades would not leave the spot and kept circling
around, I ran as fast as I could up the rocky path to the
ambush. The Grand Duke had with one shot killed five
enormous vultures, at the moment when their heads were
all together over the carrion. This ample booty lay now
in the small battery in the rock.
It may be imagined what the stench was in this narrow
space. The ravenous creatures hovered for another half
hour over the edge of the ravine, but would not swoop ;
and then one after another they left the spot, streaming
back to the mountains. We, too, set out on our way down.
Osman had been despatched before, and my huntsman was
waiting in the valley, and so the laborious and noisome
task devolved on the Grand Duke and me of carrying the
heavy booty down the steep path on our backs.
When we reached the quarry it was afternoon, and the
other gentlemen, who had placed a carcase by a ruined
mosque and tombs on the plateau of the Mokattam moun
tains, had long since returned. Their spoil consisted of

70 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
a carrion vulture and some kites. No great vultures had
come their way.
We rode back through the tombs of the caliphs to the
nearest houses of the town, where our carriages waited.
The drive through the long line of the Muski took much
time, for, in the early evening hours, a vast throng of
human beings moves up and down these purely Arab
streets. At the furthest end of the eastern quarter, at the
beginning of the Muski, close to the European town, is
the workshop of the famous Parvis, a native of Trieste.
This extraordinarily skilful workman produces Oriental
things of all descriptions, and notably fittings for rooms.
The Austro- Hungarian colony here have given me a
complete set of everything belonging to a smoking-room, in
perfectly correct Eastern style. So we stopped on our way
home at Parvis' to inspect this just completed and most
charming suite. After a short stay, we returned to Kasr-
en-Nusha, where we dined and went early to rest.
We were to leave Cairo next day, on a hunting party in
the province of Fayum, to be followed by the voyage up
the Nile.

CHAPTER III.
Journey to Abuskar — Sport in the Province of Fayum — Return
to Abuskar — Journey to Siut.
Early on the morning of the 23rd February the whole
travelling party gathered in the station of that southern
line of railway which leads, not only to Siut, but also has a
branch into the province of Fayum. Besides ourselves, the
two brothers Saurma also put in an appearance.
Herr Zimmerman had again the goodness to conduct
our train, and to accompany us to the last station, Abuskar.
Prince Taxis had started the day before, with a dragoman,
for the lake of Birket-el-Karun, to pitch our tents and
arrange the hunting days.

72 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
The line lay at first beside the narrow strip of tilled land
which stretches along between the western bank of the
river Nile and the desert. The thorough character of
Egyptian cultivation was very apparent here — high-pressure
tillage confined to a narrow space. Simple fellaheen
villages alternated with palm forests, larger than those of
Lower Egypt. Townships, one might almost say, of
circular dovecotes, built in Arab mode, struck us. Doves
are here provided with shelter and protection only for the
sake of the valuable guano they afford. Occasionally their
eggs and down are made use of. These birds never acquire
a domesticated character. In colour and size they are true
rock pigeons, and are quite untamed in habits.
The line often approaches the Nile, always on the left
bank. To the east the desert mountains advance close
to the stream ; to the west, on the other hand, lies the
wave-like, moving, almost flat, Libyan desert.
The railway passes all the Pyramids, and, in fact, near
enough to see them well. At first, the grey heads of Ghizeh
appear, the proudest of their race. Next come to view the
smaller members of the family, those of Sakkara. We
Europeans are accustomed to see a solitary palm in a
hothouse, or on the southern coast of our scantily portioned
quarter of the globe. Only in the rustling, far-spreading
palm forest has this tree its full significance as the symbol
of sunny Africa.
At ten in the morning our train turned from the
main line, which follows the course of the Nile to Siut,
and took us along a branch-line westward into the bare
and barren desert. A railway journey in such a region,

OUT INTO THE DESERT. 73
so grand and magnificent in its loneliness, is a wonderful
thing. In a moment we had stepped across the limit of the
inundation of the Nile and passed suddenly from the
abundant teeming vegetation, evoked by its beneficent
irrigation, such as only the Dark Continent can bring forth,
into the dead stillness of the lifeless desert.
Whoever thinks of the desert as flat and a dead level,
like many Hungarian reed swamps, or a marsh of North
Germany, is much mistaken. The desert is wavelike and
varied, often deeply indented, crossed by valleys and
crowned by hills ; yet always solitary, without the smallest
trace of plant life, and only inhabited on its extreme verge
by quite peculiar forms of animal life adapted to it.
But the desert shows itself to the traveller as great and
beautiful, an image of unbroken rest and withal rich in
colour, and glowing from the burning sun of Africa. The
colours are due to the various stones, which are often pale
yellow, then again dark, and sometimes streaked or pie
bald ; the variety of stones evokes the most magical com
binations of colours.
We saw nothing living as the train rattled swiftly
across the waste. Some Bedouins in white burnous, with
long guns, came from behind a hill. Genuine Berbers
dwell in this part of the desert, free sons of the earth, in
their way the happiest of men ; brave, predatory, uncon
trolled, and insubordinate in the highest degree. The
different tribes differ greatly in appearance and costume,
and also in their characteristic qualities, and in their arms ;
but Egypt, as regards the beauty and picturesque bearing of

74 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

its desert tribes, comes far behind Morocco on the one
hand, and Asia on the other — for Asia also in its south
western part is inhabited by Semitic Arabs. Towards
midday tillage reappeared, a verdant moist spot in the
midst of the yellow sands. This was the great oasis of
El-Fayum ; downright good land, well cultivated, circular
in shape, and surrounded on all sides by desert. The great
lake of Birket-el-Karun forms the western boundary and
division of the cultivated land from the desert. We passed
through a small portion of this well-tended bountiful oasis,
which was planted with sugar-cane, and reached the station
of Abuskar. We had come to the extreme point of the
railway. A ruinous station, not unsuited to the interior of
Africa, and some buildings belonging to it, form, together
with the sugar-factory, a small settlement.
Let no one suppose that a sugar-factory means an
establishment on a European scale, such as we find in
Bohemia ; it is merely a very simple and somewhat neg
lected building in which the produce of the large sugar-cane
fields is turned to account. Some low chimneys justify the
appellation of factory.
We breakfasted quickly in the more than primitive
waiting-room of the station, and then hastened to put our
caravan in order. This is no easy task in the East, for
every one presses his services, his horse, his ass, with the
utmost vehemence ; one pushes the other aside, and all yell
and gesticulate, till at last the poor deafened stranger
throws himself into the arms of the first comer. With the
help of some soldiers, and thanks to the solidity of our
sticks, chaos was soon reduced to order.

OUR BEDOUIN HUNTSMEN. 75
Each gentleman got a horse, and our servants also ;
we had, moreover, to engage bearers to carry our
dachshunds, so indispensable in this country. A regular
pack they made. Baron Saurma had ten, and we four,
brave powerful animals. With some difficulty the crowd
of curious staring people which had gathered round was
got rid of, and prevented from following us.
Our hunting Bedouins, whom we had in fact compelled
to accompany us, rode and ran in front. They are a small
isolated tribe, robed in white, or, to speak more truly, dirty
yellow, burnous, with long guns and bent knives, the
primitive tobacco-pouch, together with a bag of powder and
chopped lead, tied at the waist, their long legs bare, and red
slippers on their feet. They were here, as everywhere in
North Africa, but poor beggars. No colours, and no good
clothes, not even a turban on the head ; only the brown,
close-fitting fellaheen cap ; the younger ones were even
bare-headed. The type of these people was interesting. They were
genuine Berbers from the Libyan desert, dark brown and
much more strongly coloured than those of Lower Egypt ;
for the most part tall and slender in figure, but with features
less noble and beautiful than those of the northern
Bedouin tribes. Southern and even negro blood is quite
apparent ; some quite black fellows with short curly hair
might have passed for Moors. They have been stolen as
slaves when children in the interior of Africa, and have
obtained their freedom from the tribe. They assume the
language, clothes, and manners of the Bedouins, and quite
forget their extraction and even the land from which they

-6 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
came. I found their like in all the tribes with which I had
the opportunity of becoming acquainted, both in Africa and
Asia. Even the agricultural labourers about Abuskar struck
me as being of a different type to the fellaheen who inhabit
the valley of the Lower Nile. They were bigger and
darker, more like the Bedouins, who, here in the oases
enclosed by the desert, are often brought into contact with
them ; obviously a mixed race. And no less notable are
the numerous Moors amongst them.
No sooner was our caravan got together than sport
began. In the garden, by the factory, we found the blue-
faced bee-eater, a green bird, with a long blue stripe
on pinion and head. A flight of them was fired at with
success. These birds belong to the interior of Africa, but they
are common in Upper Egypt. They never get so far as
Cairo, which seems too northerly for them. Large peewits
were about the field, a charming and genuinely Egyptian
bird, and troops of herons. Here, as elsewhere in Africa,
an amazing wealth of animal life is gathered into the strips
of moist and luxuriant country. The first aspect of things
promised us good hunting days.
The crack of our shots was soon heard, and much
feathered spoil was brought in by our Arabs from the wet
fields. Sportsmen seldom come so far as this neighbour
hood, and so we had the pleasure of instructing a most
unwary foe in the wiles of Europeans.
The caravan went on its way with horses, servants, and
baggage, but all the gentlemen were dispersed at their

A WOLF-HUNT. n

sport, when Baron Saurma summoned us to him. He had
discovered a great sugar-cane plantation, and had resolved
to drive it with dogs. Our only difficulty was to get rid of
the numerous labourers, in order to secure a free range for
our guns. The gentlemen were to post themselves round
the field, and Saurma proposed to drive, with my huntsman
and the pack of fourteen dogs, through the canes, which
were the height of a man. We had not all got to our
places ere we heard the merry bark of the dogs, followed
by two shots. One of our party, rightly taking in the
situation, had hurried forward, hoping to be the first to
reach the further side of the field. He was still on his
way, when the dogs drove a large wolf within a few steps
of him into the open field. Unfortunately, through dire
ill-luck, the small shot destined for plover and heron was
still in the barrels, and, vainly fired at from both, Master
Isegrimm hastened across an open space to the nearest
cover. In a short time the dogs were driving with noisy barks
in all parts of the cane-field. Many shots were heard.
Two of the sportsmen had fired twice at wolves, but all in
vain, as the crafty beasts only left the canes for one or two
bounds, and again disappeared into them. Many shots
were fired at the wolves on chance as they rushed through
the thick plantation. Frequently the baying of the dogs
and streaks of blood showed that some at least of the shots
had taken effect. Several of the gentlemen, overcome by
the ardour of the chase, left their posts and followed the
baying ; but among the canes it was impossible to see two
steps in front, and all their efforts were fruitless.

78 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
During all this wild and somewhat irregular sport, I
had not got a single shot. After half an hour's waiting,
when most of the gentlemen had already left their places in
order to get nearer to the barking dogs, I discovered a
cross road which led through the plantation.
I hastened along it to a spot where an irrigation channel
which ran into the interior of the cane-stock afforded a
narrow passage, not a yard wide, down which I could fire.
I planted myself there to await the advancing game. The
dogs approached but slowly, for the wounded wolf fre
quently turned to bay upon them. When at length the
great wolf passed within range, the dogs which surrounded
him prevented my firing. Further on the fight recom
menced, and I heard the snarl of the wolf mingle with
the clear bark of the dachshunds. In a few moments the
pursuit stopped, and all was still. The dachshunds hunt
the wolf unwillingly, and one cannot therefore depend either
on their persistent pursuit of one that has been wounded,
or on their giving tongue when one has died. The wolf
which does not drop on the spot is for the most part lost.
A few minutes more, and the bark of other dachshunds
in the opposite corner of the field told of the commence
ment of a new hunt. Again the hunt came across the
sugar-canes in my direction ; again it came on, but very
slowly, and one could tell that the dogs had to deal with a
wounded wolf. When they came within a hundred paces
of me, I perceived that the eager dogs were at bay. Whilst
listening attentively to this contest, I heard suddenly, close
beside me, a gentle rustling, and immediately an unwounded
wolf crept along the narrow glade.

THE RIDE TO BIRKET-EL-KARUN. 79
I . fired at him instantly ; the sound of his fall forthwith
gladdened my ears, and I hastened to the spot. His back
was broken, and he slid along, half sitting, half lying, and
showing his teeth. Some of the dogs, hearing the shot,
came up, and now began a battle for life or death, to which
I, at a favourable moment, put an end by a final shot.
One wolf was the spoil of a whole hunt, which might
easily have been a brilliant one, for at least four wolves had
been fired at. We could not attempt a prolongation of our
sport, for the dogs came out one after another, dead beat,
to the border of the field. The brave beasts had worked
famously in the scorching heat.
We now all returned, more or less content, to our
horses. We discussed with wonder the wealth of the
country in wild beasts, and the comic effect of hunting
them, as we do partridges, in well-cultivated fields.
The caravan was soon in motion again, and wound
along a. bad and, in many places, marshy road, between
fields of richest green. The sun did its best by us, and
burnt us up in true African fashion. The intense heat of
the atmosphere was shown by a Fata Morgana. Even a
Berber who walked beside my horse swore at the heat,. and
perspired profusely. He was a singular creature. Negro
blood flowed in his veins, for, his black face, covered with.
scars, and his pointed, curly beard bespoke it; but his
finely formed features showed that Arab blood had also
had its part. I had allowed him to carry my gun, and,.
grinning with delight and showing his white teeth, he
looked at the foreign weapon with the air of a connoisseur.
We had a fine view in the distance from our road,

80 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
across the smiling fields and the grey-green shrubs on the
shore to the broad mirrored lake of Birket-el-Karun, and
beyond it to the long orange outline of the desert of
Sahara. An eagle buzzard, a bird of African race, stood on a low
hillock not far from our line of march. I jumped off my
horse and crept up to him, but failed with too weak shot.
The confiding bird only came nearer to me, and I fired
again, but once more without success ; this only moved him
to flutter still closer, and so it went on till the fourth shot,
despite the inadequate loading, laid him low.
Soon after this brief interlude, we came to a miserable
poverty-stricken village. Low and, for the most part,
ruinous clay huts were unworthy of the splendid accessories
of towering palms and wide-spreading sycamores. The
inhabitants came out in airy garments and the children in
entire nakedness to look at us. The road turned at the
village, and soon brought us to the shore of the lake.
As soon as all the horses and beasts of burden were
unladen, we got into boats. They were, in truth, sorry
craft ; worse one could not imagine in the days of our ances
tors and their lake-dwellings. The square, flat boxes were
slowly propelled by five or six strong fellows with oars of
the most primitive description. The inside was full of old
fishbones, and the stench of filth of various kinds, and in
particular of putrefying fish, was so strong that nothing but
incessant smoking could even partially protect us.
The fishermen in old Egyptian times probably used no
other, and certainly no worse, boats than their brethren of"
to-day use on the Birket-el-Karun.

BEZIRE KARUN.

With melancholy songs and plashing oars we glided
over the blue lake. This interesting lake has cultivated
land on one side, but is surrounded by desert on all the
others. Along the shores there runs a now narrower,
now broader strip of thick low shrub, which gives the lake
a peculiar character. No human habitation is to be seen,
and it is a grand, but unquestionably depressing picture,
intensified, too, by the deep leaden blue of the salt water.
It appears singular to the traveller to find, so far from the
ocean (the reader will kindly refer to a map), an inland
sea, in whose waters real sea fish and animals abound.
The whole desert is quite salt, and the lakes on its mar
gin are so likewise. After about half an hour's rowing, we
saw some pelicans swimming about ; we went in pursuit, but
could not overtake these birds, as they paddle at great speed.
We sent a few fruitless shots at them from our unsteady
boat. At last, after many attempts, the great fat creatures
rose, and took their heavy flight to seek tranquillity on some
other part of the lake. We saw, besides, only wild ducks,
divers, gulls, and an extraordinary number of river eagles.
The evening drew on, the sun went down, disappearing
into the desert with the most glorious effects of light and
colour, and a grand stillness reigned over the vast landscape.
We approached the island Bezire Karun, whose rocky
cone stood out picturesquely against the dark blue sky.
We put in to the flat eastern shore of the island. Our
camp of tents stood about a hundred paces from the water's
side. Fires had been lighted, and the Arabs cowered
among the bushes on the strand. Prince Taxis greeted us.
He had arrived early in the morning with the large caravan,
6

82 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
and promptly after our arrival an excellent dinner, prepared
by an Arab cook, was served to us in one of the tents, fitted
up as a dining-room.
The tents were made of pretty material, and were ex
tremely comfortable. There was one for every two gen
tlemen, and beds, and even tables, were provided in the
airy dwellings. None but Easterns really understand how
to cook out of doors, and to pitch tents quickly and
comfortably, therefore let all who can travel among
them. After dinner we talked, smoked, and made our plans for
the next day, and by ten o'clock silence reigned in the
camp. The Arabs lay around on the sand, in the 'open
air, looking like ghosts in their white burnous.
The night did not pass so smoothly as the beautiful
evening had led us to expect. A violent storm rose and
swept roughly over the tents. Hassan, the dragoman, stole
from tent to tent; and drove the stakes more firmly in. In
my uncle's tent and mine, for we were put up together, the
wind carried one side of the tent away. The cool air woke
us, and we lay admiring the starry sky smiling down on our
dormitory. All damage was fortunately soon repaired, and
towards morning the force of the storm abated.
Very early, before sunrise, we breakfasted ; we wished
to disperse along the shore of the island to watch the flight
of the water-fowl, and select suitable points for our
stations. We had scarcely left the tents when we saw many flocks
of birds on the wing : cormorants, various ducks, herons,
and pelicans. These last look extremely comic. Their

THE PASSAGE OF THE BIRDS. 83
long bills hang down so funnily, and the big plump body
appears barely to be sustained in the air by the immense
wings. Nevertheless they count as birds of long and good
flight. The Grand Duke and I went to the flat coast near
the tents, and hid ourselves as well as we could in the
willow bushes.
All kinds of game went past us, and some was shot.
The campaign was a good one. We had to wait but a
short time between each shot. Grey fish-gulls, those big
but also deteriorated specimens of our ice birds, were among
our spoil ; but alas ! no pelican. Where we sat none came
within fire.
We heard shots on all sides, and hoped for abundant
success. The first day the birds were confiding toward the
strangers, but by the third we had driven away all the game
frequenting the island, and birds of passage avoided the
perilous rock by wide circuits.
In an hour our morning campaign was over, and we
went back to our camp. Hard by it, however, I shot,
within a few minutes, two river eagles which were flying
over my head.
The gentlemen came in one after another, each one with
some spoil. Pausinger had the best. He had hidden
behind an insignificant shrub close to the camp. After
brief waiting a pelican came by, flying low, and a lucky shot
from our accomplished artist brought it down.
Before I record the further events of the day, I must
give a description of the island itself. A part of the eastern
as well as the south-eastern coast is flat, and covered with
shrubs ; all other parts of the coast fall steeply down in

84 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
broken rocks — only at the northern point of the island there
is a small strip with a flat shore, and a marshy lagoon in
miniature. Between the shore and the central rock there is
a level space seldom exceeding three hundred paces, and
covered with fine sand.
On the northern side of the island this little plain is in
many places full of great stones and boulders, which have
broken from the central mass and rolled down. Except the
bushes on the shore, all is bare ; even the scantiest grass
will not grow. The waters wash the crumbling shore
unceasingly, and before long the whole island will be
reduced to the imperishable rock in the centre.
After a short stay the Grand Duke and Prince Taxis
left the camp, and were quickly followed by Baron Saurma
and myself. Our plan was to start in two parties from one
point, each with some dachshunds, and to beat the moun
tain cone, driving one against the other till we met at the
north side.
Among the first rocks two stone plovers rose, one of
which I shot. The invaluable Osman led the dogs, which
he loosed among the stones. Now began an interesting
but most fatiguing hunt. One had to jump over smooth
rocks and rough heaps of stones to follow the dogs. The
formation of the mountain is most remarkable. You find
stones of incredible shapes, many like huge mushrooms;
beneath it is hollow, pierced in all directions with passages ;
through crevices, and sometimes between wide rifts across
which you must leap, you catch sight of the dark passages
in which the dogs are hunting, and every now and again.
creeping out into sight.

THE LYNX-HUNT. 85

In front of one of these innumerable clefts the dogs
gave tongue, and disappeared, searching among the stones.
In a few seconds a lynx appeared, leaving his hiding-place
with great bounds. I stood on a projecting rock below
which he must turn. At my first shot he broke down, but
recovered, and it took a second charge of shot to finish
him. He was a very powerful beast of grey colour, with
tufts of hair on his ears — the true African desert lynx,
larger and stronger than his European relative.
The Grand Duke had meanwhile searched the opposite
slope of the mountain with dogs. Twice lynx had been
seen by him, but for such a brief moment that there was no
chance of a shot. We met at the appointed spot, and now
drove together with all the dachshunds. The merry tongue
of the dogs was soon heard, and we hastened forward ; but
unluckily my uncle, whose turn it was to fire, had not
followed fast enough over the rocks, and the lynx left his
cover unhurt and disappeared quickly among the stones.
The dogs strove as quickly as their short legs and the
sloping rocks would allow to follow his track. In a few
minutes they stood at bay in front of the funnel of a
burrow which led under a great rock. On the opposite
side of the rock was the wider entrance of this cover.
With but little urging several of the dogs pushed into
the dark hole. The lynx appeared to be caught in a cul-
de-sac, for a fierce fight began. The plaintive tones of the
beaten dogs, and the fresh voices of those who were
fighting bravely, mingled with the savage growls of the
lynx. We stood for nearly an hour beside the den, and the

86

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

situation remained the s.ame. The endeavour now was
to induce the dogs to come out, in order to give the lynx
the chance of getting away. At length the dogs appeared
One after the other, covered with dust and weary with their

% "A f^J^^0^M

THE LYNX-HUNT.

exertions in the fight ; only two very eager ones would not
leave the cover.
At last we detected a crevice through which we could
most distinctly hear the bark of the dogs. We enlarged

WE CAPTURE THE PREY. 87
this cleft as well as we could, and I sounded with a pole
the interior of the cover. When I withdrew the stake
it had some grey lynx-hairs on it. Looking cautiously in,
we saw the green eyes of the lynx sparkling. Hereupon
I drove the stake in as far as I could towards the beast,
and in a few moments felt that the soft body disappeared.
The hunt underground was now perceptible, and the
scuffle of the escaping lynx with the dogs.
In a few seconds more the grey fellow sprang with
long leaps from the funnel by which the Grand Duke
stood. A well-directed shot received him there. Half
staggering, half dragging himself along, the severely
wounded creature reached shelter under a big rock.
Luckily the brave dogs held the lynx by his hind quarters,
and so Prince Taxis succeeded, by creeping under the
rock, in giving him a thrust with his hunting knife. A
handsome but much weaker specimen, a female, not
nearly so big and powerful as the buck killed by me, lay
before us.
After this triumph we renounced further search and
went, with the weary and more or less injured dogs,
back to our camp.
The weather had grown worse during the forenoon.
A light grey cloud covered the whole sky, and fine rain
fell between whiles, which in these regions is a most rare
occurrence. The north wind increased, and instead of the
scorching heat of the previous day came coolness which
the contrast made very perceptible. The water broke in
high waves, and the watermen declared that it was impos
sible under these circumstances to leave the island.

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

Here we were then, like Robinson Crusoe, cut off from
all the world and confined to this little island. In our
camp our huntsmen set up a very pretty and singular dis
play. From the cords of the tents they hung the game
we had caught. Two lynx, the skin of yesterday's wolf,
Pausinger's pelican, and two eagles, looked right well. Our
skin-dresser had his hands full and worked well and
quickly. After a sumptuous luncheon, which our excellent Hassan
served to us, we smoked pleasantly outside the tents,
enjoying the glorious life of an Eastern camp, until
suddenly I discovered that the northern point of the
island, the level between the shore and the rock, was
covered with birds of all kinds. With the glass I could
see flocks of herons, pelicans, gulls, and among them some
river eagles.
I crept as best I could along the shore, under cover,
towards the half-sleeping, brooding company. I had nearly
reached them when, to my dismay, I saw two pelicans
swimming about on the lake as sentries. On two sides
I had no cover. It was all up : the crafty birds had
already spied me, and rose. That was the signal for the
multitude on land, and with noisy flapping of wings
the company dispersed in wild disorder in every possible
direction. Only the inquisitive gulls wanted to know what the
cause was, and floated over me screeching. To my great
delight I discovered, among many smaller birds, one of the
large brown-headed fishing-gulls, a fine and to me new
species. A successful shot brought it into my bag.

LUNCHEON IN THE DESERT.

SHOOTING A PELICAN. 89
The spot where the winged company had rested must
be a daily frequented after-dinner haunt, for the whole
ground was covered with thick white guano. Long
feathers, too, were there, and the putrid remains of fish in
plenty. On my return to the camp we resolved once more to
divide the coast for our afternoon and evening campaign.
I chose the spot where friend Pausinger had killed
his pelican in the morning. I crouched under a shrub
as well as I could, and hid my Arab porter behind me.
Each one of us had one of these dusky companions.
They fetch for you birds that drop in the sea, etc., only
one must never fall into long discourse with these money-
loving gentry, nor betray special pleasure at any particular
piece of success. Otherwise they begin to bargain, raising
the price constantly. With cunning foresight they cal
culate on the rising love of sport. The moment the game
falls one must show them a coin, and, before the dealing
begins, with well-meant friendly pressure drive them into
the water.
I may have waited in vain for half an hour when a
pelican, visible from afar, took the direction of my ambush.
As soon as the bird was near enough I discharged
both barrels. The shot rattled loud on its thick feathered
coat of mail. The severely wounded bird sank with
languid flaps of the wings to the water. For a few
minutes it swam slowly round, but its head with its thick
beak sank lower and lower. At last the waves turned
it over and the pelican lay lifeless on its back.
Neither money nor threats could persuade my Arab

go TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
to take to the water, as the distance was, in fact, a con
siderable one. I hastened back to the camp to summon
more assistance. When I returned I saw, to my great joy,
a brown fellow already near the pelican in the foaming
waves. The Grand Duke was in ambush not far off, and
when he saw the dead bird, had despatched his companion,
a bold swimmer, into the flood.
After a few minutes the brave Arab returned, drawing
the heavy bird after him by the beak as he swam. I was
glad of my first pelican. It was an exceptionally large
specimen. In the evening hours I went up and down on
the shore, on the look-out for the small strand birds.
When it was too dark to shoot, the gentlemen all
came in to dinner. Again there was a fair show of game.
After our interesting day, slumber soon settled over
the camp.
We were to have rowed early the next morning to the
opposite side of the island, to await on a tongue of land
the passage of the birds. During the night, alas! the
weather grew still worse, and before sunrise the storm
had increased so much that the boatmen refused to put out.
There was nothing to be done but to pass one more day on
the island. We all slept late, and went in the forenoon
with the dogs to the rocks, where we searched in vain ; no
lynx was to be found. The rest of the day was therefore
devoted to the strand.
The water-fowl flew untowardly for us, carefully avoid
ing the island. Towards evening I made the circuit of the
whole island, and shot a fine Berber falcon arid some strand
birds, and also a raven.

FIREWORKS ON THE ISLAND. 91
The storm abated, the sky cleared, and some pleasant
sunshine and beautiful effects of light cheered us. I did
not feel quite satisfied or at ease as to our prospect for the
next day until I saw a fishing-boat come quietly round the
western point of our island. They came from the west, and
were going to the cultivated land, passing close to my
hiding-place in their course.
Wild-looking brown fellows, in miserable rags, rowed
the boat, singing as they toiled ditties which sounded
gloomy and uncanny. A wonderful sight ! Far or near no
trace of human activity. There, beyond the lake, the
eternal desert, and here on its waters the native African
boat with its black tenants. The good people were not
a little surprised when they saw me, a European "pale
face," on the barren island, heretofore only inhabited by
pensive pelicans. My companion began a long conversa
tion with the travellers, of which I could only make out
that it related to the weather and the crossing.
We got proportionately very little game this day. The
island had been exhausted. After dinner our Arabs let
off some fireworks, the delight of all Orientals, and made
a most fearful din. We did not let them go on very long,
for to pass the night quietly and not to scare the game with
sudden glare was of more importance to us than the finest
fireworks of our worthy dragoman.
Very early on the 26th, long before the break of day,
we left our tents. We started after a hurried breakfast.
The water was quite calm, so that we were able to cross
the lake to the desert side. In the evening we were to
find our camp transferred to the opposite coast, on the

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

cultivated land. All Orientals are unpunctual, and so
it was long before our men appeared to put out the boat.
Only half awake, they blundered up and down the strand,
and it took time and trouble to bring chaos into order.
After a while the party, consisting of the gentlemen, the
huntsmen, and the dogs, were got into three boats. Our
Arabs rowed in their usual style, chanting songs with
hoarse voices. The smell in the boats was well-nigh
intolerable. Happily the lake lay smooth and still before us, for, in
such boats, with the drowsy Arabs, and in the pitch-dark
night, we might have had some unpleasant experiences in
the event of a storm. After an hour's voyage, we reached
the shore at a point where a headland, formed of a tolerably
large mass of rock, stretched into the sea, and is only con
nected with the mainland by a very narrow neck. Here
we went on shore, and sent the Arabs with the boat to the
back of the rock. It took some time before our vigorous
and emphatic instructions reduced our brown companions
to silence ; but there was no time to lose ; there must
soon be perfect stillness on the neck of land, for the day
began to break from the east. We made short work —
hunted the Arabs into their hiding-place, and left Osman
behind to mount guard.
We ranged ourselves apart all along the neck of land
and by the rock, crouching behind the thick shrubs or big
stones. With the dawn the passage, of the water-fowl began.
The herons were the first. Next came the cormorants.
Then ducks, pelicans, sea-mews, the smaller sand-birds,
some moor buzzards, and river eagles. Many shots were

SPORT ON THE COAST. 93
fired along the whole line. The numerous companies of
pelicans, in particular, were greeted with a well-maintained
fire, but unfortunately the distances were too great. Only
two of those birds strayed to the lower heights, and were
shot by two of the gentlemen. The stars had already
vanished, a beautiful African sunrise followed the night,
and the heat of a cloudless day began to be felt. When we
left our places, the flight of birds was over. Every one
took up his spoil, and we returned to our improvised
landing-place by the rock. Thither the sportsmen all
gathered, and there were our boats and the Arabs and
Osman mounting guard.
Two pelicans and various other fowl had fallen, besides
one poor carrion vulture, who had inquisitively crossed the
line of fire, and had to part with his life.
After a short rest we broke up again, to drive the
underwood on the shore. Starting from the neck of land
to north and south a thick undergrowth of tamarisk, reeds,
and grass spreads along the bank. In many parts this
narrow band of luxuriant vegetation, quite impenetrable
for man, is scarcely more than ten or twenty paces broad.
The great desert comes right up to this tangle of plants,
with its hills, vales, flat stretches, and gentle rises, in part
covered with the finest sand, and elsewhere with coarse
many-coloured stones.
Baron Saurma remained behind with the dachshunds
where the bushes began by the neck of land. The other
guns were, according to his plan, to be placed at certain
distances from each other. I took the furthest post, at
a spot where the bushes left a narrow passage open, and

94 TRAVELS IN THE EAST..
I had a free line of fire to the shore. This point made the
natural boundary of the first beat.
On our way through the sand we had occasion to
examine many different tracks and footprints. It appears
that the beasts of prey from the desert come nightly to the
shore to drink, and probably to surprise the sleeping water
fowl. There was track upon track ; those of the hyaena, beside
that of the wolf; jackals, the fox of the desert; the lines
also which the great lizards draw, and the broad trail of
the dismal spectacle-snake, were not lacking in the fine
sand. I had hardly reached my post when the dogs, in
the distance it is true, began to hunt. The drive was
rapid, and the loud yelping approached my quarter.
Suddenly there appeared, close to the sandy shore,
a long, grey, shaggy beast, with a pointed head and a long
shapeless, slender tail, going at a quick trot. A successful
shot laid it low. An ichneumon, a thoroughly African and
very ugly animal which bears no resemblance, either in
appearance or habits, to any of our European beasts of
prey, lay before me. The dogs soon followed on the
track. The piece of bush had been beaten, and we
resolved to take a similar and adjacent piece. Our second
attempt met unfortunately with no success.
Camel tracks in the sand showed us that a tribe of
Bedouins were in the neighbourhood, and, in fact, we
soon observed that several camels were browsing in the
underwood, heard the yelping of their dogs, and saw from
afar some dark figures approach an encampment. I have
been told that the wild tribes in these parts are very poor,

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BEDOUINS IN THE DESERT. 95
and also that, being in immediate contact with the desert,
and absolutely free and inaccessible, they are not always
quite pleasant to deal with.
The hunting party now divided into two. Baron
Saurma, the Grand Duke, and I proposed to get into one of
the boats which was at hand, and to endeavour to approach
some pelicans, which were swimming about not far from
land, while the other gentlemen were to busy themselves
with the multitude of black coot which frequent the reeds
on the shore.
All our endeavours after the crafty pelicans were fruit
less, nor would the great silver herons standing on the
shore allow of our approach. The further we went the
broader and thicker were the reeds ; they cover the water
to the distance of a hundred paces from the bank. The
beautiful white-eyed duck appeared to be migrating, for
flocks of this one description only rose from among the
rushes in front of our boat. The river, blue, silver, and
other kinds of herons also rose from the forest of reeds.
We shot a considerable number of ducks as provision
for our larder. Our boatmen sat stripped in the boat, and
at each shot one jumped into the water to pick up the spoil.
We were swinging about a few yards from the shore, when
suddenly the reeds parted, and a big Bedouin of fine
martial air appeared, his long gun in hand. He came to
offer us for sale some birds, which he had shot in the
morning. He vanished as swiftly and as noiselessly as he had
come, content with a few pieces of silver. Midday drew
on, and we rowed back to our rocky cape. The sun burnt

96 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
fiercely, and in the midday heat our vessel smelt even
worse than by night. An old man, blind of one eye, some
what deformed, with a curling white beard, and adorned
with a turban, and altogether very offensive as to his outer
man, sat close beside us. He did not row, and had only
come with us out of curiosity.
We were annoyed at this unwelcome guest, whose
vicinity was in fact not free from danger, as he pursued
uninterruptedly a not unsuccessful vermin hunt in his
capacious garments.
We reached the rock safely in half an hour, where the
other gentlemen were waiting for us. They had shot a
fair number of black coot. The whole spoil of the first half
of the day was put into one of the boats, and despatched in
charge of my huntsman to the opposite coast, where mean
time our new camp had been pitched.
The hunting party now agreed to rest for an hour. By
the shore, on the slope of our rocky cape, we made a
frugal breakfast, consisting of cold meat, bread, sundry
more or less uneatable preserves, and stale lemonade. Our
people amused themselves with catching the queer little
grey lizards with a high comb on the back — the so-called
Gekos. Scorpions lay about in numbers under the
stones. The rest was no refreshment, for the sun burnt horribly
against the oblique slope of rock ; the ground glowed, and
the air was tremulous in the scorching heat. It was the
hottest day that we had yet had to endure on our journey,
far hotter than the warmest summer day in Europe.
We soon set off again, and walked along the under-

THE ICHNEUMON AND THE DOGS.

STRUGGLE WITH AN ICHNEUMON. 97
wood by the shore in a northerly direction. Marching
through the burning sand of the desert, which reflected the
most intense heat, was anything but agreeable. Once more
we surrounded the shrubs at fixed intervals, and soon a
merry hunt began. This time, however, the baited game
did not show itself so readily, and the chase went back
wards and forwards several times. After standing at bay
for a short time, an ichneumon appeared in front of the
Grand Duke, who rolled the absurd creature over, it is
true, but it dragged itself back into the bush, where a
violent battle at once began with the dogs, who were on
its track. One large long-legged dachshund and the
ichneumon had got such tight hold of each other, that one
might have lifted them together. It was with the greatest
difficulty that the combatants were separated, and in doing
so one gentleman was bitten in the hand by the dog, and
another by the ichneumon.
Numerous cormorants and herons had passed by me
along the shore while they were beating, but I had not fired
on account of the larger prey. As it was afternoon, we re
solved to set out on our long row back to the opposite side,
and to take the most direct line. We rowed across in
several boats. The air had become cooler, and we could
enjoy the distant view over the lake and desert more
than we had done earlier in the day.
Our boat people were in high spirits, and amidst in
cessant yells and inarticulate wild howls they pulled all
their clothes off, and, stark naked, raced the boats one
against the other. This game had a practical advantage
for us, for we got on all the quicker. 7

98 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
After a two hours' voyage we arrived, having passed
a narrow strip of willow bushes, at a great sand-bank, on
which our camp stood, all ready and comfortably arranged.
The spot had been well chosen, for this perfectly dry bank
separates the lake from a considerable marsh. As dinner
was not yet ready, some of us went straight to the marsh,
which lay between our camp and the first fields of the
cultivated land.
On this ground, covered with reeds, willows, waterwort,
and brown bad-smelling peat, were swarms of woodcocks
and pool snipe ; some ducks also, and two species of plover
rose in front of us. Toads hopped about in numbers, and
every spot was full of poisonous insects.
Several marsh birds were shot in haste, and we with
drew before twilight fell from the fever-laden atmosphere of
the marsh. A beautiful sunset and a right good dinner
brought an exciting day to a close, and repose fell on
the camp.
On the 27th we started early, with the intention of
hunting all the way back to the station at Abuskar.
First of all, we went through the marsh, and some snipe
and various other kinds of marsh birds repaid us. Crossing
a field on which herons and spurred peewits were success
fully shot, we came to a region of sand-hills, covered with
short scanty grass and withered shrubs, which divides the
marsh from the tilled fields. The dachshunds rummaged
up some hares. One of the gentlemen and I had the luck
to kill each of us one of these droll creatures.
It was the true hare of the desert, a small, thin, deer-
coloured, long-legged animal, with ridiculously big and

A RACE ON THE BIRKET-EL-KARUN.

REST BY THE WAY.

99

almost transparent ears. Some palm doves and kestrel
were also shot while in pursuit of the hares.
Where the zone of scrub and sand-hills terminated, and
the cultivated land began, we rested for half an hour. Our
breakfast, again consisting of cold food, had been carried
after us by Arabs.

¦A':&".

Wfdf^Af'ApA

THE BEARER OF THE BOOTY.

After our unluxurious meal was over, we pursued our
way across fields and irrigation channels, engaging all the
labouring fellaheen whom we could see as beaters.
Women, children, camels, buffaloes and ploughs were all

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

forsaken, and for a promised backsheesh the mixed multi
tude followed us. From afar we espied a not very large
field of sugar-cane, which was still standing though the
harvest had already begun. We made for it with all speed,
stimulated by hope.
Discussing the hunt we were about to begin, we marched
along the dyke of a broad but dry canal.
When we had reached the spot, the guns were first
placed. The Grand Duke remained at the corner beside
the canal ; Hoyos and I stood at the side where the field
came down to the foot of the canal dyke ; the other
gentlemen surrounded all the sides of the cane plantation.
Unluckily, the guns were too few, and the spaces between
the individual sportsmen too considerable. Close to our
posts, buffaloes and camels were grazing, and unquestionably
the ensemble had not the look of a wolf-hunt according to
European ideas.
The black drivers had hardly entered the canes, with
infernal yells, when my neighbour fired right into the field ;
thereupon an enormous wolf leaped out between him and
me, and away with long springs over the canal. Though
the distance was a considerable one, I ran up on the dyke
and discharged my two barrels after the flying beast, where
upon it took its way crosswise through the fields with its
right hind quarter wounded.
The beaters soon appeared. Among the yellow cane
the brown fellaheen looked most extraordinary, and even
more so did the Moors, of whom there were a considerable
number; each one came along gnawing the stalk of a
sugar-cane. We had the field beaten a second time.

BEATING A SUGAR-CANE PLANTATION. 101
This time, my neighbour on the left shot first, and killed
with one shot a fair-sized wolf. Immediately we heard the
crack of a rifle from one of the gentlemen on the left flank.
He rolled a wolf over, which, however, picked itself up,
and then, bleeding freely after a second shot, left the canes,
and, fired at a third time, took to the open.
A few minutes later, my neighbour to the right killed a
middle-sized wolf with one shot. The moment after, a wolf
leaped out between him and me and across the canal and
away. We each of us fired after him as he went off, and
saw him dragging himself, badly shot, among the browsing
buffaloes towards the fields of standing grain.
When the beaters appeared, we let them go through the
field a third time. I soon perceived that something was
coming my way, and saw a pretty large wolf moving quickly
through the cane. A lucky shot laid him low. A few
minutes later, my neighbour on the left shot another wolf,
wounding him so severely that he crawled with difficulty
into the adjacent bean-fields. Two wolves escaped
unharmed at points where the guns were too far apart.
In the last drive, one of the gentlemen shot an ichneu
mon, wounding it severely, but it dragged itself into the
thick canes. We made a short search for the wounded
wolves, but with fields reaching as far as the eye could see,
it was naturally fruitless.
We now went to the opposite end of the cane planta
tion, where our accomplished dragoman had ordered some
riding-horses and donkeys to meet us. The wolves were
carefully packed on the back of a donkey, and the caravan was
soon in motion again. The beaters dispersed in different

io2 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
directions, and only our guides and donkey-drivers went
with us.
One of the latter seems in his leisure hours to follow the
craft, so favoured by the Egyptians, of serpent-charming,
for on the march he drew out of a leather pouch which he
carried hidden under his wide robe, two very large and
imposing-looking spectacle serpents which he had captured
the day before near the lake. He of course performed the
familiar trick of breathing on the serpents, whereupon they
lie stiff and as though dead. In a few minutes, the much-
tormented creatures, who have been rendered harmless by
the extraction of their fangs, recover and creep back again
into the brown pouch. As we were riding at foot's pace,
the dachshunds ran beside the horses, but when the
caravan approached a small and wretched village, adorned
only by some extremely fine palms and sycamores, the
eager dachshunds disappeared into an insignificant square
bean-field, and forthwith began a lively hunt. We jumped
from our horses and surrounded the field, which could be
shot across from one side to the other. In this narrow
space the hunt went up and down for a quarter of an hour.
Twice the ichneumon put its head out close beside a gun,
but no one could fire because of his neighbour. The
cunning beast knew his danger, let himself be driven up
and down by the dogs, but never left his secure cover.
As time pressed, we had to whip the dogs in and
continue our journey, without having done what we wished.
The road led us past a railway, a short branch line,
which leads for purposes of transport from the factory at
Abuskar to the principal sugar-cane plantations.

THE RETURN FROM HUNTING.

OUR SHOW OF GAME. 103
We stopped a passing engine and got into the empty
luggage van attached to it. In this way we reached
Abuskar very quickly. Our Arabs rode full swing after us
between the rails, and followed with incredible celerity.
As we had some spare time, we resolved that we would
again, by way of experiment, beat the sugar-cane field which
we had hunted on the first day. We got together as many
drivers as we could collect, and surrounded the field.
The beating had scarcely begun, when a wolf broke out
beside one of the guns who was standing at the corner.
He could not fire while the wolf was near him, on account
of the country people, and when he discharged both barrels,
the wolf was already too far off.
A few seconds later, another gentleman shot an exceed
ingly fine wolf, the biggest of all which we had hitherto
killed, at the moment when he was going to double at the
road that crossed the field. Before the beaters came out,
two other guns got each of them a wolf, and a woodcock
was missed.
We now left the field, which, at the end of three days,
gave us a better yield than at our first hunt. At the
station, the show of six wolves shot in one day was made,
and, had we captured all that were wounded, our results
would have been quite extraordinary.
On the whole, we had every reason to be satisfied with
the success of our four and a half days' hunting excursion
in the oasis of Fayum.
Two lynx, seven wolves, two ichneumon, two desert
hares, four pelicans, two river eagles, one carrion vulture,
one African eagle buzzard and one hundred and seventy-

104 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
two head of small game, among them many interesting
specimens, made the sum of our gains.
In the so-called waiting-room we dined. Evening had
already fallen, and our train stood ready. Our chattels
were put into the carriages, and we soon left Abuskar to
proceed on a further expedition. For two hours the two
brothers Saurma and Prince Taxis kept us company.
When we reached the Valley of the Nile and its station,
these three gentlemen left us.
After very hearty leave-takings, we steamed southwards
towards Siut, the next point in our pleasant Nile journey.
We settled ourselves as comfortably as we could in the
carriages, and soon found the sleep our hard work had so
well earned.

WOLVES.

CHAPTER IV.
Arrival at Siut — The Nile Steamer — Voyage up the Nile to
Assuan — The Island of Philje.
We reached Siut very early in the morning while it
was still quite dark. Unpleasantly roused from sweet
slumbers, we left the carriages, and went on foot, preceded
by torch-bearers, down a road very well lighted and
tastefully decorated, to the landing-stage of the Nile
steamers. Our consular agent, a rich Coptic merchant, had
made all these preparations and received us most cordially.
The steamer Feruz, kindly lent to us by the Khedive,
lay close to the shore, and an old Egyptian admiral who
commanded her awaited the travelling party on the bridge.
We all grew extremely fond of our active and able
commander, a pure dark-brown African. Unfortunately, he
only spoke a few words of English, in addition to Eastern
languages, and so our conversations were often very comic,
between the aid of the interpreters and our own well-devised
signs. Brugsch Pasha, the renowned Egyptologist, accompanied
us likewise on our voyage up the Nile, and stood, together
with Herr Rath (the consular assistant and Eastern scholar
to whom we were so much indebted in all our wanderings

to6 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
in the East), on the deck of the large and most comfortably
equipped yacht of the Viceroy.
The several cabins were very snug. The last, a large
room, was assigned to me ; above, on the deck, was a
spacious dining-room, in which we also passed our forenoons
and hours of study.
Above the deck was a platform covered with canvas,
from which one obtained an extensive view. Up there we
placed the numerous skins of the beasts and birds we had
captured, and there, too, we rigged up a workshop for the
skin-dresser and his affairs.
On this charming vessel we were to pass a succession of
glorious never-to-be-forgotten days. On the yellow waters
of the old historic stream, we traversed the land on which
rests the magic charm of a thousand years of ancient civili
zation — where, amidst scenes of the utmost beauty, lofty
mountains, majestic deserts, and luxuriant gardens, the
most ancient monuments of the world's history lift their
grey indestructible summits.
A voyage on the Nile is indisputably one of the most
beautiful which can be undertaken, and the richest in pic
turesque, historic, and ethnographic interest and acquisition.
If the Pyramids of Ghizeh and the Egyptian antiquities
in the neighbourhood of Cairo enchant the traveller and
stimulate inquiry, they are but a foretaste of the rich
treasures which Upper Egypt offers.
In the vast halls of the temples, the mysterious crypts,
and labyrinthine tombs stretching into the rocks, we look
upon the records of the social and political existence of
a people who flourished thousands of years ago, attaining

ASPECTS OF THE NILE. 107

power and true culture. Yonder walls are adorned with
the hieroglyphical inscriptions which unfold the tale of the
days of the Pharaohs.
At sunrise, when our attendants and the luggage had
come on board, we began our voyage. The Nile itself
maintains pretty much the same character throughout its
course. The broad, yellow mass of waters moves slowly
through the land. Level shores with far-stretching sand
banks, and high broken banks with dark rich soil, and
provided with pumps and water-wheels, follow each other
in pretty regular alternation.
The grey mountains of Arabia, and the orange ones of
Libya, each of them lofty and fine in form, betoken the
completely barren character of the desert. They approach
in many places close to the stream, and again retreating,
form wide basins of arable land. A like regular alternation
of narrow gorges and broad plains, bounded only by distant
hills, is found through the whole of Upper Egypt.
The breadth of the tilled land, which runs along the
banks of the river like a green ribbon, varies with the
distance of the mountains and of the desert. Palm forests
of almost tropical richness are interspersed with the yellow
sugar-cane, green bean and waving corn fields.
Everywhere the land is intersected with water channels
and gutters, into which, in time of low water, the water is
raised by innumerable contrivances of the most primitive
kind. The creaking noises of the water-wheels, turned by
buffaloes, which go on night and day, are, together with
the naked brown fellaheen, who stand along the banks to

108 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
distribute the life-giving water, which they draw with a big
spoon-shaped implement from the channels, distinguishing
features of the Nile.
We glide along past towns and villages. Light-green
palms, soaring minarets, and broad towered dove-cotes are
the features of the clay-built, earth-coloured villages, whose
ruinous disorder has an unmistakably picturesque character.
Innumerable kites hover about the human habitations ; the
yelp of dogs, the bellowing of buffaloes, donkeys, and
camels, the screams of Arabs and the wailing sound of the
water-wheels, dust, dirt, and disorder, are the customary
accessories. Great vultures stand on the long sand-banks, and white
carrion vultures beside carcases which have floated to
the surface. Flights of cranes, storks, spoonbills, grey
herons, pelicans, and Nile geese, together with numerous
kinds of ducks, give movement to the scene. On the
broken ground of the banks the spurred-peewit, water-
wagtails, grey-fishers, swallows, and an army of small sand-
birds disport themselves. The Europeans fire from every
steamer and every dahabiya on all the water-fowl which
are here in their winter quarters. No very productive
sport can therefore be expected by shooting from the deck,
for at the sight of a vessel in the far distance the frightened
birds take flight.
We came past the township of Abu Tig, where the
mountains recede and leave space for a well-cultivated
plain; but immediately after the lofty Gebel-Shech-Haude,
pierced with ancient quarries and pits, advances to the very
edge of the stream.

A MOSLEM SAINT. 109

The steamer stopped, and a boat approached. I asked
what it meant, and learnt to my no small surprise that
among these bare desert mountains, in a keep high above
the Nile, dwells a Moslem saint, a so-called Sheik, who
claims a toll. The vessel which should pass by regardless
of this due, is sure, according to popular belief, to be ship
wrecked on its way. The honest skipper who pays is
attended on his voyage by the pious prayers of the saintly
beggar. We now passed in quick succession the towns of
Tachta, Faubas, and Shidawin, and the beautifully situated
large town of Sohag, with its picturesque houses and
minarets. One lovely picture follows another ; magnificent moun
tains with steep cliffs pass, to give place to palm forests and
motley towns. Smoking comfortably, talking, or reading,
one sits upon deck enjoying the pure air cooled by the river,
the balmy odours of African vegetation, and the beneficent
sunbeams. From time to time a shot is fired at water-
birds in the distance, but almost always without effect. It
is an indolent life, but interesting and instructive.
In the afternoon we passed the considerable town of
El-Achmlm, standing amongst palm-trees, and in the
evening the beautiful and wealthy town of Girgeh opened
on our view, well placed as it is on a high bank above the
Nile, at a sharp turn of the river.
A fine sunset gilded the landscape. Everything, moun
tain, stream, wood, town, and fields, was bathed in a wealth
of colour, the effect and power of which it is impossible to
describe.

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

The famous evening lights at Cairo are dim compared
to those which the sun sheds in Upper Egypt. The near
ness of the tropic of Cancer, the boundary of the tropics,
makes itself felt in everything and by everybody. We
came to at the landing-stage of Girgeh, below the high
and dusty bank, to remain for the night.
After dinner, in pursuance of an invitation from our
consular agent, a wealthy Copt, we landed, climbing the
steep bank by a ladder. A motley crowd of inquisitive
Orientals surrounded us.
Passing through a narrow street, consisting of the usual
Egyptian brown clay houses, adorned with Arab decora
tions, and a very poor bazaar, we soon reached the agent's
residence. Up a steep narrow staircase we found the half-European
and half- Eastern rooms. The perfume of attar of roses,
Turkish divans, no chairs, coffee, scented cigarettes, bare
walls, and the most extraordinary medley of rich Eastern
stuffs — Oriental articles, combined with the most tasteless
efforts to seem European — are characteristic of the fittings
of the apartments of wealthy Easterns.
We had scarcely seated ourselves and begun to smoke,
when a band of musicians appeared. The performers were
four old worn-out looking Arabs, with big turbans and
ample blue robes. The instruments were very primitive
— a wooden fife, a tin tamtam, a drum-like looking article,
and a fiddle resembling our south-Sclavonic " gusla."
In every land where Islam has ever ruled you find
these ridiculous musical instruments, the monotonous
rhythm, the peculiar nasal twang, the general, and at times

ARAB MUSIC — THE BEE-DANCE.

wild, confusion of sounds, passing back after a few joyful
chords into gloomy tones again.
In the south of Spain, where Moors abound, I heard,
especially amongst the gipsies, the same concerts ; and the
music with which the southern Sclaves accompany their
gloomy songs of heroes, as they squat in winter evenings
round the fire, and dream of the long-past days of
Kraljewic Marko, is in its essential form the same as the
wild strains which in Girgeh summoned to the merry dance.
The first notes resounded, and the dancers appeared
in their long, tight-fitting, bright garments, with slender
figures, their coin necklaces round their necks, and their
faces, as a matter of course, unveiled. A pretty Mooress
and a pale Circassian contrasted with the others, who
represented the pure fellaheen type. The features — the
wide nostrils, the low forehead, the sharply defined nose,
and the small mouth — are the same that we see in the
characteristic likenesses of the ancient Egyptians.
These dancers are a hereditary caste, despised by the
devout Moslems. They were banished from Lower Egypt
because of their dangerously seductive and irregular lives.
Now they frequent all the towns of Upper Egypt, to which
part of the country they originally belonged.
They generally live all together in remote quarters of
the town, and exhibit themselves for money among the
poorer classes of the population, and before curious
strangers. They are also a good deal employed in the
houses of the wealthy, where, after feasts and banquets,
while the pleasant chibouk and nargili are smoked, the
bee-dance is considered a great attraction.

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

The dance begins with circling, bending, and many not
ungraceful movements, but propriety forbids my describing
its further course. It is an orgy which, according to my
impression, has been handed down from times abounding in
degenerate and sickly forms of the imagination.
After a short stay, we returned through the town to our
ship to seek our well-earned rest.
The vessel got under way at daybreak, and in the early
forenoon we lay to beside the beautiful palm forest of the
unimportant clay-built village of Belianeh.
We landed without delay, and, beset with gazers,
mounted our small badly equipped donkeys and rode
through the palm groves and gardens, past the village,
out into the plain.
A tolerably broad margin of tilled land extends at this
place on both sides of the Nile. The view parallel to
the stream is closed, here as everywhere in Upper Egypt,
by the lofty chains of the two mountain ranges. The road
led among sugar-canes, bean and corn fields, copses of
small palms and sycamores, towards the Libyan mountains.
On the green meadows there was much stir. The
industrious population were busy labouring, ploughing, or
tending large flocks. With every day of advance on a
Nile journey one notices that the skin of the people grows
darker and their dress more primitive.
We saw for the first time the handsome bushy palm, a
tree belonging to the interior of Africa.
At the sharply defined end of the tilled land and the
beginning of the desolate barren desert lies the dingy,
dirty village of Arabat-el-Madfune, within a small palm

THE DANCING GIRL.

RUINS OF ABYDUS. 113

wood. Great dove-cotes are the sole possession of the
poor inhabitants, and thousands of half-wild wood-pigeons
hover round in the vicinity of their dwellings.
In Egypt, wherever the land rises above the level of
the Valley of the Nile, so that the waters of the stream
do not overflow it, there begins at once the full, complete
barrenness of the desert.
This observation could be verified here at the last
houses of Arabat-el-Madfune. From the richest green
of African verdure you step abruptly, without any tran
sition, on to the dazzling white sand of the desert.
The very interesting field of the ruins of Abydus,
whose well-preserved remains and walls rich in paintings
amaze and delight the traveller, lies among stones and
rubbish a few hundred yards from the village.
With a touch, as it were, you find yourself in the
midst of a long bygone age, whose fairest memorials
have been preserved uninjured for us by the beautiful,
sunny, and ever-dry climate of Upper Egypt.
From the time of the sixth dynasty (about 3300
B.C.) a spot close on the edge of the desert, whose
ancient name was Abidu, came to be regarded as the
consecrated burying-place of Osiris of Upper Egypt.
Hence the natural desire of the old Egyptians to find
on this spot, in the sand of the desert, their last abode.
Numerous chapels of private persons and magnificent
temples to individual kings of the country rose around on
the desert soil, and attracted visitors to pay pious honours
to the good Osiris, king of the dead, and to the memory
of the departed. The temples of King Seti I. (1360

8

1,4 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
B.C.) and of his son and successor Ramses II. (1300 B.C.)
are the most conspicuous of the buildings which the ravages
of time have, at least in part, spared. The temple of
the first-named king is especially marvellous from the
beauty of the paintings, and hieroglyphic inscriptions which
cover its walls and pillars, and which belong to the most
perfect period of Egyptian art. The same temple has
obtained special celebrity for its list of kings, which gives
the names of seventy-seven of the Pharaohs in succession
from Mena, the first king (Menes of the Greeks), to
Ramses II., and is now the invaluable basis of all
researches in the domain of old Egyptian history.
The second funeral temple, built by Ramses 1 1., lies
to the north of the first. It is less well preserved than
the other, but its remains, consisting of fine-grained
limestone and blocks of alabaster and granite, retain on
their smooth surfaces numerous painted representations
and inscriptions, which are of the highest value for the
history, geography, and mythology of ancient Egypt. A
number of gravestones from the Necropolis of Abydus
have found their way to Vienna.
While we were examining the halls and chambers of
the temples I saw some vultures from the adjacent
desert mountains pass over our heads and circle high in
the air. We instantly resolved to entice these great birds
of prey, and now the question was where to find a
favourable place on which to lay the carrion out.
Behind the temples are some high piles of rubbish
and heaps of stones, from which one obtains an unimpeded
view over the broad desert plain stretching from the

TEMPLE AT ABYDUS.

ROMAN REMAINS. 115

edge of the tilled land to the foot of the mountains with
their beautiful outlines and lofty summits. I proceeded
to roam over this plain in quest of a suitable spot,
and in doing so lighted on remains of old walls and
half-ruined graves — a field of the dead within a few
hundred paces of the temple.
In the days of the Roman emperors a legion had
perished here of disease and privation. The bodies of
the Roman warriors still lie unburied in wild confusion.
One may speak literally of bodies, for the African sun,
the burning sand, and the air devoid of all deposit,
have preserved the corpses and converted them into
natural mummies. I came upon bodies, arms, legs, and
hands on which brown dessicated flesh still hung. A
grinning skull with its scalp and the dark folds of flesh
on the cheeks especially excited my attention. Another,
which was less appalling, I took with me as a memorial.
One actually waded through skeletons and dust. It
was a picture of the desert — the dazzling white plain, the
sand which burnt the feet, the bleaching bones around,
the trail of jackal and hyaena, the bald-headed vultures
soaring above, and in the background the high and
absolutely barren cliffs of the desert mountains. No
blade of grass gladdened the eye, nothing tempered the
fierce reflection of the burning sun on the white and yellow
masses of stone, and the waste of sand rising in sharp
outlines against the deep-blue sky. There is an undeniable
poetry in these monotonous but majestic scenes. At
last I found a low hill which appeared to offer the
desired cover for our unobserved approach, and so I

116 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
quickly led a sheep to the spot, stabbed it, disembowelled
it as a first dainty morsel for the vultures, and hastened
back to my companions at the temple.
After we had thoroughly examined all the monuments,
we eat the breakfast we had brought with us in one of
the ancient halls. Our meal was scarcely finished before
Hoyos and I were again under way to pay a visit to
the dead sheep. We had not quite come within firing
distance when a very cautious vulture perceived our
approach, and with a rushing flap of his wings, rose
from the ground. At least twenty of his unwieldly
comrades followed him. Hoyos was so fortunate as to
bring down a large white-headed vulture from among
the mass. I was less skilful, and only hit a very large
specimen, which, badly wounded, flew low across the plain.
The ravenous creatures had severely handled the poor
sheep ; only his fleece and some mutilated morsels
remained. After this hunting intermezzo was over, we returned
to the other gentlemen, and went with them towards
the village, where we paid a visit to a blind peasant.
This worthy man is one of the wealthiest householders
of the place, and carries on besides a traffic in Egyptian
antiquities, which he, in defiance of law, has dug up
in and around the temples. Under Brugsch Pasha's
directions we bought some of the better things, and had
at the same time the opportunity of noticing the very
primitive, not to say dirty, arrangements of the abode
of a denizen of the Valley of the Nile.
From Arabat-el-Madfune we rode back across country

THE NILE AT EVENTIDE. 117
to Belianeh, hunting as we went. Sundry small creatures
were shot. We were especially interested by the Glide
eagle — an African bird of prey with blue and white plumage,
which frequents in considerable numbers the palm-groves
and draw-wells.
In the afternoon we returned to the steamer, and were
able to pursue our course up the stream for two hours
before darkness set in. There was little variety in the
view, but the fine evening and a beautiful sunset furnished
us not only with glowing effects of colour, but also
with the opportunity of making some interesting ethno
graphical observations. At sun-down the fellaheen
drive their camels, buffaloes, asses, goats, and flocks to
drink for the last time. The population crowds to the
river bank : men and women perform, in the manner
handed down from past ages, the rites of washing
enjoined in the Koran; the graceful female water-
bearers draw in clay pitchers, which have remained un
changed in form and material since the days of the
Pharaohs, fresh Nile water for evening use ; the thin blue
skirts which have dipped in the stream cling to their
figures and reveal their elegant outlines. Their large
black eyes gaze sadly into the curling wave, and their
partly opened mouths breathe melancholy songs. These
are the very same people whom we saw pictured
on the walls of the temples, and to us it seems as
though the graves must have opened to allow the
subjects of the Pharaohs to return to the banks of the
holy river.
We lay to at a small village, and after a pleasant

n8 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

evening on the steamer, passed the night there. At-
day break on the 2nd of March we continued our vOyage,-
and spent the forenoon on deck, watching the beautiful
but not very varied landscape. Green fields, groves of
dom and date palms, some small towns, and the mountains;
which hem in the valley glided past us in unbroken uni
formity. On the long sand-banks there was, however, this
morning unusual animation. Great flights of pelicanSj'
herons, and geese were seen ; and my huntsman mainr
tained confidently that he had seen a crocodile.
At noon we reached Keneh, a tolerably sized town, of
houses built of clay, and adorned with a high minaret;
We landed on the broken ground of the opposite western
bank of the Libyan coast. Here we mounted on donkeys,
and riding past a graceful palm grove beside a very poor
looking village, in whose gardens the disgusting carrion
vultures were sitting on the dung-heaps, as though they
were domestic fowls, soon reached the well-tilled plain. "
The Nile here makes a bend and approaches very near
the Libyan mountains. The border of cultivation is con
sequently very narrow, and after half an hour's ride we
reached the great and famous temple of Dendera. Like
the ruins of Abydus, it lies close to the margin of the tilled
land, but is itself on desert sand.
I cannot do better on this occasion than avail myself
of the words of my friend Brugsch.
" Dendera is the modern name of a much-visited temple
on the western bank of the Nile, opposite to the town of
Keneh, i.e. Caenepolis = new town, of the Greek geo
graphers, which finds its full equivalent in the ancient name

DENDERA.. 119

Tantare. This well-preserved sanctuary, which was dedi
cated to the goddess Hathor, the Venus of the Egyptians,
dates from the latest age of the Ptolemies and the first of the
rule of the Roman emperors over Egypt. Its importance
lies in the knowledge it affords of the plan and of the
separate parts of an ancient Egyptian temple of great
extent. " If we take the similar and even more completely carried-
out design of the Temple of Edfu to our aid, we find that
the separate parts come in the following order : —
" 1. Two tower-like wings in front of the temple, with the
chief entrance or portal between them. Two obelisks and
the colossal statue of the royal founder to the right and left
of the gate made an imposing foreground in front of the
vast flat mass of the two wings.
" 2. The open court, with a pillared corridor — the so-
called peristyle.
" 3. The vestibule, with its half-open facade in front,
whose characters the temples of Dendera very distinctly
exhibit. Astronomical pictures and suitable inscriptions
adorn the ceilings of this chamber.
" 4. The banquet hall, with chambers to the right and left.
" 5. The hall of sacrifice, with side rooms.
" 6. The central room, also with small rooms.
" 7. The adytum, or holiest of holies, stood in the
middle of the innermost part of the temple, like a temple
within a temple. Within it was a stone chapel containing
the image of the deity of the shrine, and also the con
secrated boats, in which the images of the gods were
borne on the shoulders of the priests at the great festi-

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

vals. The adytum was separated by a special passage
or corridor from the smaller rooms, of which the most
important was the chamber lying immediately behind
it. It formed the primal part of every temple, the axis
of the whole structure passing exactly through its
centre. " From the vestibule you ascended terrace-wise to
each of the succeeding rooms. The plan of the Temple
of Solomon, with its colonnades, courts, vestibules, holy
place (hall of sacrifice), and holiest of holies (with the
ark of the covenant), corresponds accurately in construction
to the Egyptian temple architecture."
By torchlight we examined all the rooms of the
great building, the narrow crypts, stairs, and passages. I
remained for a long time in the vast dark, pillar-supported
hall. The colossal, grey, unpainted masses of stone,
adorned with the richest hieroglyphics, recall the days
that are past. One can imagine no more vivid memorial
of ancient times than this temple of Dendera, in its
mysterious beauty. In spirit one saw the priests of this
mighty cultus move along in their long white robes, with
their curled black beards and high caps, bearing sacrifices
to the all-powerful goddess of the ancient realm of
the Nile.
In the desolate corridor the bats now dwell in incredible
numbers, and in the great hall sat an owl, while on the
cornice a pair of ravens had built their nest. I shot the
large jet-black female just as she was flying out through
the door.
From the flat roof of the temple we had a beautiful

ii'iiii

iiji I iiii

13

fe ill
i"iiip iW1

THE CHAMPSIN.

distant view of the Nile and the green cultivated land
on the one side, and on the other of the vast desert and
the towering mountains beyond. It was a solemn picture —
the grey ruins, the desolate desert, the lonely mountains ;
nothing green, not even a ray of sunlight to gladden
the eye.
The brightness of the sky and the glory of colouring
were absent on that afternoon. Everything lay in grey
shadows, and the sky was darkened, not with clouds —
for these are unknown in Upper Egypt — but with heavy
exhalations and masses of dust, which, combined with the
oppressive languor of the air, are the first indications
of the approaching champsin, the dreaded storm of the
desert. We returned in the evening to our ship, hunting as we
went along, and passed the night on board at the same
station. Early in the morning the steamer proceeded.
A heavy champsin storm was raging in the valley,
the sand-clouds of the Sahara shrouding the mountains
like mist.
The sun appeared as a red disc— its beams were
unable to pierce the floods of dust. Everything was
covered with sand, which penetrated even into the closed
cabins of our steamer, and was a horrible nuisance.
A depressing heavy air pervaded the otherwise so beautiful
scene, and we contemplated with astonishment this, for us,
novel aspect of nature.
Pelicans, sundry water-fowl, and some cumbrous water-
eagles were fired at vainly from a great distance. We
passed some towns, among them those of Kuft and Kus.

122 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
The character of the country remained the same; only
the receding mountains made way for the much-praised
plain of Thebes, famous even in the history of antiquity
for its riches and cultivation.
At twelve we came to the landing-place of the rather
important town of Luxor. A mail steamer and several
dahabiyas belonging to European travellers were at the
pier. The modern Luxor, a genuine Arab clay-built
town, stands in the middle of, and is partly built
against, the ruins of the old Egyptian monuments.
On both sides of the Nile the land is covered to. a
considerable distance with the remains of the hundred-
gated Thebes, and on the Libyan bank they extend
into the mountains.
We landed at once on arriving, climbed up the steep
sandy bank, and on the primitive Place in front of the
dirty little Hotel Luxor, hired some donkeys, on which
we rode through the narrow streets of the town,-
passing a simple and very unsavoury bazaar, rich however
in interest, owing to the various types of people frequenting
it, and came to the quarter of the town inhabited
by none but dancers. Luxor is known for its store of
" Ghawazi " — the chief settlement of those despised out
casts. Beyond the last houses, in sand and dirt, a gipsy
camp had been pitched.
We soon reached the open country, and trotted on
merrily among palm woods and well- cultivated fields along
a dyke. From afar we could see the lofty gates, pillars, and walls
of the famous ruins of Karnak. They stand on the

LUXOR AND KARNAK. 123
cultivated land, beside a luxuriant palm wood. This tree
of the south, the emblem of Africa, in combination with
the dazzling white monuments which only the imagination
of the most highly cultivated Eastern race could have
created, makes an impressive picture.
A small village and a young plantation of trees stand
at the entrance of the ruins. A flock of lively blue-faced
bee-birds, with their butterfly motion, were whirring round,
and we shot several of these beautiful African birds for
the sake of their plumage.
Let us quote the words of Brugsch Pasha, who guided
us with learning and taste through those most wondrous
remains of long-forgotten times — the glorious ruins of
Karnak. " The temple of Karnak, formerly joined to Luxor by a
Sphinx avenue of extraordinary length, is a grand whole,
consisting of buildings of various epochs of Egyptian
history. Every king almost, within a period of seventeen
hundred years, felt it incumbent upon him to immortalize
himself by a building of his own. In this wise the history
of the empire for all these centuries is embodied in this
imperial temple. The most eminent founders of these
buildings were the following Pharaohs: — (1) Thotmosis III.
and his sister Hatchop {circa 1600 B.C.), to whom the
existing obelisks of Karnak owe their existence. The
victorious campaigns of the first-named in Asia and Africa
are commemorated in rich drawings and inscriptions,
and to these science owes important information re
specting the history and the geographical knowledge of
that epoch. (2) Seti I. (1360 B.C.), the founder of the

124 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
great hall of the temple, supported by 134 pillars, whose
sculpture and decoration recall the finished style of the
temple of Abydus. On the northern external wall the
scenes depicted from the wars of the king with the Arabian
and Syrian people, as well as the representation of his
return to Egypt, are of the highest historical value. (3)
Ramses II. (Sesostris), completed the corridor of pillars
just mentioned after the death of his father and prede
cessor, Seti I. On the southern external wall are recorded
the illustrated descriptions of the battles of this Pharaoh
with the King of Heth and his Asiatic allies.
"Of the smaller buildings the most noticeable are
the edifices and inscriptions of the so-called hall of
Bubastis (966 to 800 b.c), as on its external wall the
king, Shashank I. (the King Shishak of the Bible),
has immortalized his campaign against the realm of Judah
from an Egyptian point of view. To the south of the
great temple of Karnak, in the direction of the river,
lies the fairly preserved temple of the lunar god Chousu (a
son of Amon, and of his divine consort, Mut), a work of
King Ramses III. (1200 B.C.), with an imposing Pylon
(gate) in front of it from the days of the Ptolemies. The
Chousu temple also marks the fall of the last of the
Pharaohs of the house of Ramses. The high priests of
Amon, Hirhor at their head, obtained political supremacy
in Thebes, and put themselves in the place of the legitimate
kings. With this the glory of Thebes came to an end, and
a period of contest and civil war commenced.
" A special sanctuary, in a southern direction from
Karnak, was also dedicated to Mut, the wife of Amon, the

TEMPLE AT KARNAK.

THEBES. 125

Egyptian Zeus, in the neighbourhood of a lake which still
exists. "The statues of the Egyptian Juno, all of black granite,
furnished with the lion's head, and representing the goddess
in the sitting posture of a queen, were placed around the
consecrated fountain, and even now lie scattered about,
some of them in their old places. The best preserved of
them have been transferred, many years since, to the
various museums of Europe."
After we had rambled through the vast halls and the
forest of ruins and pillars, we returned by the same road to
Luxor. In the middle of the town, literally wedged in
between the monuments of antiquity, stands the house of
the English consular agent — an elderly, well-to-do Arab.
The wily old fellow, in half-European costume, re
ceived us in the most friendly manner, and offered for sale
Egyptian antiquities at exorbitant prices.
We purchased some pretty pieces, drank the inevitable
ceremonial cup of coffee, and then continued our inspection
of the ruins in the interior of the town. I will once more
let Brugsch speak in my stead.
" Thebes was from the middle of the twenty-fifth
century B.C., for full seventeen hundred years, the brilliant
capital of the Egyptian Empire, its fame being deemed
worthy even of the song of Homer. The town was
divided by the Nile into two quarters, as stated in
numerous inscriptions, and in accordance with the still
extant remains of old buildings. The two quarters to
gether were covered by the name of Uas or Pi Amon —
the city of Amon, the Diospolis of the Greeks. The part

T26 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
of the town on the eastern bank of the river bore the
special name of Api, or with the article T-api, whence the
Greek name Thebai = Thebae, has originated.
"The ruins remaining on this side, .which have been
christened by the modern Egyptian inhabitants, El-Lugsor
{i.e. the castles, usually written Luxor), and Karnak elicit
even now the liveliest admiration. In Luxor the build
ings of King Amenophis III. (1566 B.C.), and northwards
those of Ramses II. (Sesostris), are pre-eminently to
be noted. The front side of the wing of the Pylon of
the temple of Ramses is decorated with a representation
of the battle of Radosh, on the Orontes, in which
Ramses obtained a notable victory over the King of
the Hethites and his allies. Only one of the two obelisks
(the eastern) has maintained its old position. The enor
mous dimensions of the colossal sitting statues of this king
can now only be gathered from the heads which project
from the ground."
While we were looking at the various monuments the
greedy Arabs flocked round us from the streets with small
(but, according to Brugsch Pasha, mostly forged) relics,
professedly taken from the excavations, and pressed them
on us in the most annoying way. We had to defend
ourselves with the utmost vigour against the pushing,
screaming, violently gesticulating crowd.
In a side street we found a group of Ababdehs. This
is a very interesting race, not in the least Arab, and of a
character wholly foreign to the Semitic no less than to the
negro type.
They are held to be descendants of some remote Asiatic

Af

THE ABABDEHS. 127

race, who in the earliest days of migration — those of the
Kushites — took the southern line in these wanderings of
nations, and, following the coast of the Indian Ocean and
the southern frontier of Arabia, arrived in Africa. These
remarkable clans settled in Abyssinia and beyond it, in the
territory of the Somals, and up to Assuan, and even Thebes.
The Ababdehs in particular form even now a rigidly
separated class, which inhabits the mountains east of the
Nile, between the river and the Red Sea, beginning at
Thebes and extending southwards beyond Assuan.
They -are a poor mountain people, who live in the wild
ravines of the desert mountains, and have maintained their
type unchanged, remaining at the very lowest stage of
development. They are savages, untamed, in the full sense of the
word. The copper-coloured skin, the slender figure, and
the delicate features tell of their Indian origin. Their hair
is black, but disfigured by greasy unguents and plaiting
into various horned points supported on pieces of wood, to
such a degree that it is impossible to detect its original
character. Their clothing consists of some dirty, scanty
rags wound closely round the body.
They all wore roughly made ear and arm rings, indeed
one little boy had a nose ring. Their arms, old swords —
among them a European blade, a knightly weapon from
the times of the Crusaders — wooden clubs, primitive
javelins, leather shields, arrows, bows and quivers, claimed
special attention ; but they would not readily sell any of
them, and it needed the intervention of Abd-el-Kader
Pasha to procure the whole lot for me.

128 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
It was a lucky chance that led to our meeting the
Ababdehs in Thebes, for they seldom come to the fairs
in this town. In Assuan we were to learn to know them
better. After this interesting episode the travelling party
divided. The Grand Duke and I rode out again to
Karnak to hunt wild beasts in the evening, while the other
gentlemen remained in Luxor. An Arab hunter, Chalil
by name, guided us to the vicinity of the ruins of
Karnak. Just by the first houses of the little village we
turned into the fields, and soon reached a sand-hill, on
which stood the grave of an old Mohammedan sheik.
We were posted by the Arab at two different points, in
the shade of a small palm-grove, with instructions to have
our guns ready and wait in absolute stillness for coming
events. The champsin had fallen in the afternoon, and a
beautiful evening followed the bad day. The sun went
down gloriously, steeping the wide Theban plain, the
mountains of the desert — specially lofty here — and the
magnificent ruins of Karnak, in the most glowing colours.
A gentle breeze moved the tops of the palms, the luxuriant
plants gave forth balsamic odours, the doves cooed
plaintively among the shrubs, the stillness of all around
was a sedative to me, and I went fast asleep. Suddenly
Chalil, who was lurking hard by, shook me roughly, and
told me in sharp tones that I had missed a jackal which
had marched by. It had meanwhile grown dark, and the
Grand Duke and I set out on our return.
On the way back across the fields I perceived the form
of a beast passing rapidly. I fired on chance, and found, to

WATCHING FOR GAME. 129
my great joy, that a jackal was my prey. With this
valuable booty we soon reached the place where the asses
were waiting, and trotted back to our steamer very
contentedly. Following the advice of Chalil, some of us started
next morning, long before sunrise, and rode across country
past the ruins of Karnak, to a pond where the great beasts
of prey are wont to drink daily at twilight.
The way was long and the stillness of death reigned in
the vast plain — only now and then the howl of jackals or
the bark of the half-savage dogs broke the stillness of the
night. At last we reached the pond, or, to describe it more
truly, the water left behind in a ditch by the overflow of
the Nile. Chalil placed the guns quickly, and we watched
with the keenest attention until the sun rose golden red
over the Arabian Nile. Nothing had been seen but one
jackal, which Herr Rath had let slip.
The brief transition from night, through twilight, to
sunrise was rich in variety of effect and glow of colour,
with a magic which only the interior of Africa can display.
Many birds of all kinds came to water, and so we
resolved to pass the forenoon in sport. We killed plenty
of small game, amongst them several kinds of quail, a great
abundance of which find winter quarters here. Rambling
over the fields we reached the ruins of Karnak. Several
of the gentlemen now returned to Luxor, while I remained
behind, choosing an ambush among the ruins to watch
near carrion for the great vulture. Unfortunately, only kite
and carrion vultures appeared, at which I would not fire.
9

130 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
The day was ill-suited to this kind of sport, for thick
clouds of sand filled the air, hiding even the nearer
mountains from view. The champsin had returned in
the morning with renewed violence. I soon quitted my
old Egyptian ambush, and went to a small reservoir of
water, bordered with slabs of stone, which lies within the
ruins and is of ancient date. Several snipe and sand-pipers,
probably overcome by fatigue on the journey, sat pitifully
on the bare stones. A brief crusade put an end to their
troubled existence.
I now rode by the nearest path back to Luxor and the
steamer. We had planned for the afternoon a first visit
to the monuments on the western shore, but were obliged
to change our plans because of the steadily growing storm
which raged, and we resolved to pursue our further journey
next day, and to reserve the west side of Thebes until
our return from the cataracts.
The afternoon was spent partly on board and partly in
Luxor itself. I went with Brugsch Pasha to visit the
German consular agent, a Copt, and a dealer in Egyptian
antiquities. We found he had better things than his
English colleague of the preceding day. We bought several
valuable articles and put them on board the steamer, where
an Egyptian museum was growing apace.
On the 5th we proceeded on our voyage at sunrise.
By the advice of some Europeans in Luxor we resolved to
stop at the neighbouring village of Erment, known for its
sugar factory and its extensive sugar-cane plantations, and
to devote some hours to hunting there.
After a two hours' voyage we had reached our point.

BEATING THE SUGAR-CANE. 131

Some Frenchmen, officials of the factory, which is arranged
entirely on European plans, received us most kindly, placed
as many labourers at our service as were required to beat
the sugar-cane thickets, and had a train got ready at once
for our railway journey.
Passing through an avenue of fine sycamores and by
the factory, in a few minutes we reached the little station of
the short line of rails which connects the factory with the
largest plantations.
The next thing was to collect the beaters. A troop of
fellaheen coming from the factory were soon got together,
and straightway packed into the waggons used for trans
porting sugar-cane. We placed ourselves in the last of these,
and started for the plain, leaving behind us the pretty
gardens of the officials, and then an exceedingly miserable
fellaheen village, with a small palm wood.
After a short journey the train stopped. A narrow
strip of tilled land is all that separates the Nile from the
desert region, which here comes close up to it.
The nearest field of sugar-cane was to be beaten, but
unluckily the plantations were too thick and too big. The
beat was unsuccessful, and only one wolf appeared, which
escaped from his hiding-place unharmed. We soon recog
nized the fruitlessness of our endeavours and returned to our
train. On our way through the little village already men
tioned I shot from the waggon a carrion vulture, which was
sitting with others of its kind beside a clay cottage.
In the garden of one of the French officials we were
shown several jackal and, as the good people supposed,
wolf dens. An attempt to get the dachshunds in was

132 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
fruitless, and we returned, after but a short absence, to
our steamer.
Erment has played its part in antiquity. In Greek its
name is Hermonthis ; in old Egyptian, Anmonth. Lying
on the west bank of the Nile, and southward from Thebes,
this town, with its temples dedicated to the god Month (the
last of which fell a prey but a few years back to Egyptian
barbarism), had the character of one of the most holy
places. After the political decline of the old imperial city of
Thebes, Erment became the metropolis of the Thebais, and
was the actual seat of government of the Greco- Roman
authorities for this part of Upper Egypt. The fragments
of a column of black granite found on the bank at Erment
are now in the Imperial collection at Vienna.
The translation by Brugsch Pasha of the black granite
tablet of Erment of the time of King Amenophis II.
(circa 1560 b.c. — a repetition of the same inscription is in
thetemple of Amada, in Nubia) runs as follows : —
" In the year 3, on the 15th day of the month Epiphi,
under the government of Horus the mighty and powerful
bull, of the possessor of the diadem whose power reaches
far, who was crowned in Thebes, of the victorious Horus,
who has taken possession by force of all the country, of
the divine benefactor, of the Lord who makes rich, of
the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-a-cheperu, of
the very own son of the Sun-god Ra, who loves him,
of the Lord of all people, Amenholp, of the god-like
ruler of Hermonthis, of the friend of the great god Chnum
of Elephantine.

AN ANCIENT INSCRIPTION. 133
" The divine benefactor created by Ra (the sun) is
a great king from his birth up. Powerful as Horus on
the throne of his fathers, the strong-armed has none who
is his equal.
" That is a king of a strong hand, whose bow no
man can span, neither among his warriors, nor among the
princes of the people, nor among the kings of Assyria,
for his strength is greater than that of all the kings.
" In his wrath he is like the leopard. If he tread the
battlefield there is none that will meet him. Victorious
in battle he is a bulwark for Egypt. Strong in courage
he waits in the defile the hour of plunder.
" His adversaries flee before him, for his power is out
stretched over all people, with their mighty men and horses,
and if his foes came in millions he need not fear the God
of whose path is Amon. If he is on an expedition forth
with man's strength takes possession of his body, and he
is like to the God Chim (Pan) in time of terror, and
no man can save himself from his arm. He had the
Semites to his adversaries, and the nine peoples of the same,
but all the peoples and the countries became his servants.
" They that hated the king have become subject to his
magic powers, yea to the very last of them. His hands
give wounds, and no arm can stay him — only in his breath
is life. The King of kings, the Prince of princes has
brought hither the inhabitants of the utmost ends of the
earth. " He is the only one, and a champion for those who
extol him and acknowledge him as a sun in the heavens.
" His glance is terrible in the day of battle. No

134 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
bounds are set to him to the number of the people. The
strangers unite, they fall to the ground at the heat, for
his mouth is like a consuming fire. None of them escape;
they who fall do not arise. They are like the adversaries
of Bast (Diana) on the way of . . .
" But Amon gives health and blessing to him who
confesses that he is his son, sprung from one body with
him, to rule whatever the sun encompasses, the people and
countries of the earth. As soon as he beholds them,
they are his possession through conquest and mighty
strength. " That is the king who finds pleasure in his heart for
the works of the gods, the building of their temples, the
setting up of their images, in the increase of fresh sacrifices,
bread and beer in abundance, doves and winged fowl for
to-day and daily for ever. Of oxen and goats in their
season (the festivals) there is no lack.
" He gives the Temple to his Lord {i.e. the Temple of
Elephantine to the god Chnum), provided with all things,
oxen, and calves, and fowl in abundance.
" This Temple also is provided for in its greatness with
offerings, with bread and beer and wine. That which the
Fathers and the Gods long after, he has instituted anew
to the admiration of men and the acknowledgment of all
people." This fine and interesting record Brugsch Pasha found
while we were hunting, and it was resolved that we should
take away the black granite on our return to Erment from
Assuan. We continued our voyage without further delay, and

A CONTESTED MEAL.

OUR SAND-BANK STATION. 135

soon reached a point where the Nile makes a sharp
bend, and the mountains on either side draw closer, till at
Gebeleh they fall abruptly to the river in steep cliffs. The
picturesquely shaped ravines, rocks, and stony steeps of
the barren and lofty Gebel Nisseh mountain of the Arab
bank, are particularly fine.
We were on deck, enjoying the beautiful landscape,
when I espied a dead buffalo on a sand-bank, surrounded
with, vultures. With the aid of a telescope I discovered
that beside the white-headed vulture, the great blue-headed
ear-vulture, a purely African bird, was also there.
Unluckily the timid birds would not let the steamer
come within fair shooting distance of them. We stopped
at once, and the Grand Duke and I went ashore. Some
bushes on the bank gave sufficient cover, and, waiting
quietly, we hoped for the return of the magnificent ear-
vulture to his interrupted meal.
Nothing came, alas ! but a ravenous pair of carrion
vultures, of which I shot one with my fowling-piece.
At the sound of the gun several inquisitive fellaheen
came up (here they are quite dark and almost naked).
To them we gave a commission to put some carrion daily
in this spot, and in no way to disturb the birds, in the
hope that on my return I might try my luck again with
the ear- vulture.. The worthy people promised, in con
sideration of a good backsheesh, to comply exactly with
our wishes.
We now rowed back to the steamer and continued our
voyage without further delay. After we had passed below
a bare hill crowned with the monument of an old sheik,

1 36 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the mountains began to recede, and gradually gave place
to the broad and well-tilled plain of Esneh.
By sunset the vessel reached the large town of Esneh,
surrounded with palm groves, rich gardens, and shady
promenades. We put in at the landing-place and enjoyed
from the deck the gay picture of the stir and bustle of
Eastern life attracted to the banks by the arrival of the
steamer. The evening was cool and refreshing after the genuine
African heat which had followed the champsin. After
dinner we landed and were received most kindly by the
governor. We rode on donkeys round the outside of
the town to the famous temple in its vicinity.
Esneh, the old Egyptian Sini — called Latopolis by the
Greeks because of the worship there of the Latus fish —
possessed a number of sanctuaries dedicated to the ram-
headed god Chnum (the builder), of which the vestibule
of one of the largest is now the last relic. It lies half
buried in the soil of the modern city.
An ancient Egyptian kalendar on the basis of the
Alexandrian year, and the astronomical pictures in the roof,
give a special value to this building dating from the
Roman empire. By the light of many torches, this
temple hall, though belonging, as compared with the other
monuments, to recent times, looked exceedingly well, and
we remained for a long time in the dark dim chamber,
enjoying the interesting scene. On our way back we
accepted the invitation of the friendly Mudir (governor),
and were soon all sitting in a ground-floor room of the
far from handsome Government building. We lay on

EDFU. 137
divans, smoked pleasantly, and drank coffee, and the first
civilities were scarcely over when the doors opened and
light-footed maidens came in to dance to appropriate music.
The girls here were not beautiful ; only one, an
Abyssinian, had well-marked features and a dazzling
brownish-black complexion. After a short stay we took
leave of the Mudir and returned to the steamer.
We began our journey very early on the 6th of March,
and soon reached the defile of El-Kab, a beautiful district
where the mountains on each side advance to the river in
wild and romantic outline.
After this narrow passage the Libyan desert retreats,
giving place to the broad and well-cultivated plain of
Edfu, while the Arabian mountains still continue to skirt
the Nile. The character of the mountains also changes :
instead of lofty shapely hills come wild shattered sand
stone mountains whose low summits and peaks assume
most peculiar shapes.
In the forenoon the vessel reached Edfu. We rode
across some fields to the very poor village hard by, and
through its dirty narrow streets to where, on its further
side, amidst heaps of ruin and rubbish, stands the
best-preserved temple of Upper Egypt and one of the
finest pieces of architecture of all time.
We at once began our inspection of the building under
Brugsch Pasha's guidance. Edfu is the old Egyptian
Debu or Edbu, in Greek " Apollonopolis " the Great.
The temple of Edfu, justly accounted one of the greatest
and most extensive sanctuaries, has existed from antiquity
to the present day in wonderful preservation.

WE PURSUE OUR VOYAGE. 139
north, follow each other in the prescribed order up to the
holy of holies, in which still stands to-day the stone
chapel of the divinity, which dates from the times of the
last national Pharaoh.
In conclusion, we must note that, according to the
inscriptions, the whole building was erected after old
designs in the time of the Ptolemaic kings, from the
year 237 to 142 B.C., and therefore took ninety-five years
to complete. After we had seen all the parts of the temple we
mounted to the flat roof, and enjoyed thence a fine view
towards the Nile and the green plain, and across a broad
desert, beginning near the temple, to the pyramidal-shaped
sandstone mountains beyond it.
As vultures were circling above us, I placed a carcase
behind a heap of ruins, and waited on the battlements
of the temple the coming of the great birds of prey.
Unluckily only carrion vultures came, and I had to
content myself with this poor stuff, as time pressed for
our voyage. We rode back through the odious village
by the same way that we came, to the landing-place.
A few minutes later our ship was steaming up stream.
The country continued uniform. The eastern Arab
mountains were here of a greyish white, low, and much
broken in outline. They came so close to the river as
to leave but a very narrow strip of land for cultivation
—sometimes none at all.
The western Libyan mountains were also low, and
yellowish in colour, and grotesque; and wild in shape.
South of Edfu they draw constantly nearer to the Nile.

140 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
The green land on this side now narrows apace, and offers
to sight a luxuriant but sorely neglected soil. Towns
are altogether wanting, and villages but very rare.
Great flights of storks passed northwards over the
Nile valley. Birds of prey soar aloft or settle on the
rocks, and the water-fowl of the river people the occa
sional sand-banks. In the afternoon the fine rocky defile
of Gebel-Selseleh, with the sandstone mountains converging
from either side, delights the traveller who gazes from the
deck of his ship on this picturesque though stern and
gloomy land.
In the evening, at sunset, we reached the northern
point of a large richly cultivated island. Taking the
eastern arm of the river, we soon saw the small but
charmingly placed temple of Kum Ombu. This monu
ment of antiquity is enthroned on the high, steep banks
of the river, their declivity clothed with vegetation.
The desolate temple is visible from afar, without town
or human habitation in the neighbourhood, wedged in
between the river and the desert. The desert here
advances in the form of a high plateau to the edge of
the bushes on the bank. Mountains worthy of the name
there are none.
As night was drawing on we lay to below the temple ;
beside us was a dahabiya occupied by Europeans. The
dragoman of this party, the experienced Dalmatian
sportsman Paulowich, came on board, and advised us
after dinner to take a bleating kid into the temple, and
there, hiding ourselves well, to watch for wolves.
No sooner said than done. At nine o'clock Hoyos

A NIGHT AT KUM OMBU. 141
and I crept up the steep bank, and, groping through the
deserted temple, found on its east side a pillar which
afforded cover. The wailing kid was tied up a few steps
in front, and we watched for two hours with the closest
attention. Nothing stirred. It was a weird though
beautiful scene. The old temple with its gloomy corri
dors, the eternal desert unbroken save by a few ruins
and stones, and illuminated by the splendid moon of
Africa — not the pallid night-lamp moonshine of Europe,
but a daylight brilliance by which you could see the
smallest pebble, and which gave clear vision not only
to the watchful sportsman but also to the artist at his
work. Unfortunately the Europeans from the dahabiya were
out hunting near our ambush, and came back past the
temple with the cackling hens they had taken with them
as decoy ; so our best hopes vanished, and we too hastened
back to our steamer.
The memory of that moonlight night in Kum Ombu
{i.e. the hill of Ombu, hieroglyphic Nubi, i.e. "the town
of gold," Greek Ombos) can never be forgotten, with the
extraordinarily picturesque remains of its half-buried
temple — the metropolis of the district called later Ombites.
Town and temple were hated by other Egyptians, for
here Set, the old Egyptian Typhon, was worshipped in
one of his chief embodiments. For this reason numerous
representations of the crocodile, the animal dedicated to
this deity, are found here, and it is also repeatedly men
tioned in the inscriptions.
At sunrise we left the beautiful Kum Ombu, and

142 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
pursued our voyage towards Assuan. The beautiful
scenery kept us on deck. Low but well-shaped hills
approached close to the shore on either side, in many
places leaving little or no room for tillage. Here and
there luxuriant palm groves and thick underwood
rejoiced our eyes, and behind rose mountain masses
of rocks, heaps of stone, and stratification of the most
peculiar kind.
The nearer you approach Assuan, the more the country
differs from the previous Nile landscape and the rarer
do towns and villages become. Some negro settlements
of a tribe that has pushed northward were observed.
Some miserable straw huts of tent- like construction stood
under lofty date and Dom Theban palms. The blacks
had settled themselves in the midst of plenty ; it was a
picture of African life drawn from the interior as we
watched them through our telescopes, coal black and
going about in a state of complete nudity among the green
trees. It was towards eleven when the landscape assumed
a wilder character. The Nile in front of us appeared to
be hemmed in by mountain masses. Blocks of stone,
slabs of rock, and dSris bordered the river, which
grew ever narrower. The mountains on the right
bank gave place to a lonely, desolate plain, scattered
over with blocks of stone, out of which here and there
jagged cones projected. On the left bank a tolerably high
hill dips its foot in the waves of the Nile. Its summit is
crowned by an old building, doubtless of Moslem origin.
Soon palms appear, then green gardens, and from their

APPROACH TO ASSUAN. 143
midst the battlements of the small town of Assuan,
compressed between the river and the desert.
Here the river divides into two branches, and the island
of Elephantine, known for its tropical vegetation, smiles on
our approach. A treacherous circle of black granite reefs
surrounds the charming island, and sharp angles of rock
rise out of the waters, the first sign of the coming cataracts.
Wildly cleft rocks, desert and desolation, grand in
feature and splendid in colour ; between are the rushing
river, the magnificent rock formation, and the purely
Moslem town ; Islam and the mixed races of inner Africa
side by side ; old Egyptian monuments, and the beautiful
island with its tropical forms — all are before us at this
moment. We gaze with admiration on the dazzling scene ;
the southernmost point of our voyage, the vicinity of the
tropic of Cancer, the verge of the tropics.
The ship made way but slowly amidst the difficulties of
the channel, and in a few minutes lay to under a steep,
dusty bank. A mail steamer and several dahabiye were
already there. As soon as we arrived we left our vessel
to visit the town thoroughly. It is certainly one of
the most interesting spots of the whole Nile journey.
It is Arab, often indeed almost Semitic in its buildings
and inhabitants, one of the furthest stations of the
trading and gain-loving Arab. It is Mohammedan as to
the religion of .the state and the town, though as to that
of the country I feel a doubt.
The houses, built of clay, have completely the character
of the old Nile towns. The streets are narrow and
foul. Only those which lie nearest the river show some

144 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
higher houses, and a bazaar which is worth seeing. The
other quarters of the town consist of miserable earth huts
and irregular nooks of all kinds. The eastern side is
surrounded by a wall, which has fallen down at several
points ; to that adjoins a large tract of Mussulman burying-
grounds. Our first visit was to the bazaar. A long
street is closely filled on both sides with stalls and
covered overhead with boards because of the sun.
The dealers in the shops are Arabs, in their long
Oriental dresses, with turbans on their heads. The
people who move to and fro and bring their goods
to market, cheated and deceived by the cunning Semite,
are no Orientals, nor even the fellaheen, who are allied to
them. The Bedouin, too, is wholly absent. The people
are of purely African race ; many negroes, dark-brown
Nubians, the successors of the old Ethiopians, Ababdehs,
and Beshas, and all the various small tribes of Kushite
origin wander up and down.
We have reached the extreme limit of the East ; here
it only exists and thrives in the form of a commercial
town, for the transmission of African produce down
the Nile.
Genuine Eastern products, such as we saw in the Muski
at Cairo, are not to be found here. The raw produce of
the tropics lies piled up in the narrow shops.
White and grey ostrich feathers ; antlers and skins of
many kinds of antelopes and gazelles; covers made of
skins of panthers and other beasts of prey; eggs, the
fruits of tropical plants, gums, spices, African arms, sticks
for camel-drivers, primitive ornaments such as the negroes

THE ABABDEHS. 145

themselves wear, articles of dress for Nubian ladies — i.e. a
string from which small cords hang, dipped, because of
the flies, in fearful smelling unguents — straw hats for the
wild tribes, and trifles of all kinds.
Over the doors of many houses I saw stuffed young
crocodiles nailed up ; and tame apes sat at the doors. I
bought myself one which afforded us much amusement, but
unfortunately it died at Cairo.
The life and stir of the bazaar was very interesting.
The Ababdehs especially interested me by their warlike
appearance, armed to the teeth, scantily clad in a few rags,
and with a peculiar arrangement of the hair.
The various savages looked at us with curiosity, and
the sly Arabs with crafty cunning sold us African wares at
high prices, adroitly profiting by our evident interest in
them. On an open space between the houses and the landing-
place the Ababdehs performed their war-dance for us. It is
nothing more than the wild jumping to and fro of savages
in the very lowest stage of development. The accompany
ing music, consisting of horrible droning pewter tamtams,
reminded me of the jingle which resounds at the dances of
negro slaves in Morocco, but the dance itself resembled the
unbridled amusements of the reef pirates of the north
coast of North- West Africa.
The worthy Ababdehs jumped about to the utmost of
their bodily powers, and executed leaps of incredible length,
howling and screaming at the same time. They swung
and hurled swords and spears aloft, rapped with them on
their leathern shields, and feigned attacks upon one another.
10

146 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
The brown, scantily clad creatures, with their hair
twisted up on wooden sticks, arranged in the form of rays,
and their nose, ear, and arm rings, looked most fantastic.
It was a dance of savages — as wild a medley as can be
imagined. After this exhibition they rode upon their dromedaries
in quick time, performing various feats. Only the young
ones took part in this display ; the elders stood showing
their dazzling white teeth between their dark, lips and
grinning with satisfaction. After a time we returned to
the steamer with a rich cargo of new impressions and of
purchases. During breakfast the kites, which are here in enormous
numbers, hovered over the ship, greedily catching scraps of
bread thrown into the water. Even shots would not scare
the ravenous birds. As soon as our meal was finished we
started again to make an excursion to the stone quarries,
famous in the days of antiquity.
We rode quickly through the town, and at its last
wretched hut the desert proper awaited us, with its white
sands and its burning reflection. From its commencement
at Assuan, for about half a league's distance from the river,
the valley, which is broad but very uneven, and bounded
by low hills adorned with the monuments of sheiks, is
covered with a literal city of tombs.
Here also, at the graves of Caliphs, some windmills
stand on the low sand-hills ; but the other buildings bear
no comparison with those of Cairo. Poor gravestones and
half-ruined sheiks' graves with plain domes take the
place of the splendid sepulchral mosque. On the other

||Ii|ijjiPjii*i»l|ll|

ASSUAN. 147

hand, the burying-place at Assuan has far greater natural
charms to show than that below the citadel of Cairo. The
bare hills which close the valley, the white stone desert
with its wild rocks, the splendid colouring, enriched by the
beams of the sun of mid- Africa, have a distinguishing stamp
of their own.
We rode in burning heat along the northern side of the
broad valley, through the disordered maze of the city of
the dead. After a time the graves became more and more
sparse, and gradually the last trace of human hands disap
peared. No blade of grass is here to gladden the eye ; nothing
but bare stone, sand, and dust. At the same time the desert
is not level, and one hill follows another.
Some singularly shaped blocks of granite indicated the
nearness of the quarry. Soon we saw a cliff, and below it,
partly covered with rubbish, the obelisk is lying. Respect
ing it, as well as about Assuan in general, I will here quote
some words of my friend Brugsch.
"Assuan (old Egyptian Suan, Greek Syene) is the
southernmost frontier town of Egypt. It is now inhabited
by Arabs and Egyptians, and much visited by the neigh
bouring tribes of the desert from as far as the Red Sea.
The rocks of the granite region, which begins here, are
covered with rich inscriptions of all epochs, which distinctly
announce the presence of Egyptian officials passing through.
By command of the Pharaohs, the rich stone quarries to
the south-east of the town, at the so-called ' red mountain,'
were worked by thousands of labourers, who here quarried
from the hard rock the stone employed for obelisks, statues,

148 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
chapels, sarcophagi, and slabs of all kinds. An unfinished
obelisk lies here still on the spot, vainly awaiting its former
destination." Since the days of the Pharaohs these quarries have
been idle, and the rent cliffs and the blocks which have
been hewn from them bear silent testimony to the long-
vanished civilization which existed in these regions thou
sands of years ago.
At the city of graves the company divided; one party
rode home, while Hoyos and I climbed the moderately
high, rocky, and perfectly bare hill which bounds the valley
near Assuan.
On the top stands an old sheik's grave, with a circular
arched building. Outside this we had had a carcase
placed previously, as some great vultures were soaring
aloft. We forthwith took possession of the excellent hiding-
place, and a few minutes after our arrival kites and carrion
vultures began to peck at the dead sheep. The day was
too far advanced for the great birds of prey, and our time
was short, so I shot a carrion vulture.
Coming out of the gloomy tombs, we now enjoyed
quietly the splendid view. To the north, immediately
below us, lay the narrow Valley of the Nile, hemmed in by
mountains, the stream forcing its way through the wild
clefts of the cataracts. Behind us, the tropical island of
Elephantine, the picturesquely lying Assuan, the dreadful
city of the dead, and round about all the endless medley of
mountains, valleys, plains, and plateaus, desolate and bare,
stone and sand, true desert ; yet all tremulous in the glaring

mAii'''''
A'ff*

ELEPHANTINE. 149
reflections, touched by the glowing sunbeams, dazzling
white, only broken here and there by orange rocks or by
black granite. Above, the eternal blue heavens, cloudless
and clear as crystal. We soon got back to Assuan.
I shall once more do well to let Brugsch Pasha speak
in my stead about the island of Elephantine.
" Elephantine, with its Nile gauge of Roman times and
its remains of buildings of the earlier periods of Egyptian
history, is now only visited by travellers because of its
picturesque position at the entrance of the gate of the
cataracts. Its former glory has departed since the capital
of the Nubian country which once stood upon it, and the
temples and statues which belonged to it, have been swept
from the face of the earth.
" At this spot there was, down to Roman times, a strong
garrison, which had the duty of protecting the country
against incursions from a southern direction. The old wall
on the road from Assuan to the island of Philae had the
like purpose, that of a bulwark against predatory attacks
from the south. Its remains, half covered with sand, can
still be distinctly traced."
As the sun went down, and the richest colouring flooded
the beautiful landscape, Hoyos and I once more left
the ship.
A Nubian in his white robe, and with a long gun, and
known in Assuan as a sportsman, led us through the town
to the furthest houses. He advised us to pause there for
a few minutes, as the wild beasts seeking their prey visit the
outer parts of Assuan nightly at the beginning of twilight.
Dogs barked, children cried, a party of Ababdehs,

1 50 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
howling, passed to their home in the desert ; but, in spite
of all that, a jackal appeared on a little windmill hill, to
vanish immediately behind the stones.
As twilight was coming on perceptibly, we hastened
into the city of graves. A jackal ran by, and a happy shot
stretched him on the ground. Near the foot of the hill, on
whose top we had shot the carrion vulture in the afternoon,
and not far from the last graves, there is an old tank in a
little valley formed by sand-hills.
A carcase had been placed there previously, and we
took our stand hard by in an ambush hollowed in the ground.
The moon rose, and shed, thanks to the clearness of the air,
a splendid light over the solemn, awe-inspiring landscape.
The desert and the old sheiks' graves, with their domes
and gloomy gravestones, brightened in the white light.
The stillness of death reigned around, only broken by the
howling of the village dogs and of the jackals.
We had lain barely half an hour in our very incon
venient ambush, when I perceived the rustling sound of an
animal coming towards me. Soon after I saw it glide past
like a shadow several times. It approached once more,
and its outline becoming visible I took aim as well as I
could, and fired to try my luck.
A piteous moaning was the response to my shot, and
hastening to the spot I saw a large wolf making painful
efforts to drag himself farther. A second load of large shot
laid the tough beast low.
I now took the wolf on my back, and went one hundred
paces further towards my comrade, who was hidden in
another place. The seemingly dead beast was heavy, and

WOLF SHOOTING AT ASSUAN.

FIRST SIGHT OF PHILJE. 151
the heat of the night considerable, so I laid my booty down
and waited till the Nubian huntsman should come up.
The wolf had not lain many seconds on the ground
before it began to move again, and struggled till it got on
its feet, but another shot put an instantaneous end to its
existence. We went now with our grand spoil, consisting of wolf
and jackal, back to the ship, where we supped. The
Grand Duke and Eschenbacher had been in ambush in
a dome-shaped building on the other side of the burying-
ground, but unfortunately met with no success.
On the 8th of March we started at seven in the
morning, most of us mounted on donkeys, for only Hoyos
and Pausinger wished to try the ride on camels. Riding
round Assuan, we got by a short cut through the
graveyard to the desert. Valleys, hills, sand, rocks, and
ravines followed each other in pleasant alternation.
A deep ravine led us into the narrow Valley of the Nile,
shut in by jagged varied hills with blocks of black granite on
their sides. At a stroke, as it were, we beheld a splendid
view : dark, frowning masses of rock, the river rushing rapidly
through the narrows, the green island of Philae, with the
lofty ruins of its temples, and southward, the valley growing
broad with its tract of rich vegetation along the banks
of the Nile. All this unrolled itself in a moment before
our eyes. We were in Nubia. Near the island lies a
miserable Nubian village of clay huts, called Shellal.
Natives more or less clad crept out of their wretched
dwellings. We passed along by dark rocks and sad sycamores and

152 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
palms, till we reached a little plain, on whose bank lay some
boats. Some Nubian soldiers, in pure white uniforms, but
of European cut, stood on guard. For the first time we
enjoyed close at hand the memorable and enchanting sight.
The lovely island of Philae presents itself surrounded with
masses of dark-coloured rock which rise directly from the
water. A large, high boat, rowed by several Nubians
singing to keep time, took us across to the island.
The boat might, so far as its antiquarian shape went,
quite well have dated from the time of Cleopatra. A
pavilion with soft couches, and red curtains to protect from
the sun, increased the droll appearance of this frigate of the
Nile. In a few minutes we had reached the steep bank of the
island, and hastened across the slope, with its thick bushes,
towards the beautiful temple.
The temple buildings of this holy island, known to the
old Egyptians as Pilak, are of comparatively recent date, for
they were built under the Ptolemies and the Romans, after
old models. The stone quays of the island are built with
a practical knowledge which bespeaks a thorough ac
quaintance with river architecture, which, especially in the
neighbourhood of waterfalls, and with strong currents, is not
without difficulties.
Though the sanctuaries of the island are on a somewhat
smaller scale, their whole effect, with their colonnades and
hypaethral buildings, amid the ruins of houses which
have fallen in, and palms and soft green bushes, is one of
indescribable beauty. The light surfaces of the temple
rise in wonderful contrast to the dark masses of rock

TEMPLE OF ISIS. 153

which here abound on the opposite side of the stream.
Above us the blue vault of the southern sky lifts its
dome, whose resplendence illumines the whole scene.
All is light in this lonely half-vanished world of the days
that are gone.
The patroness of Nubia, the goddess Isis, had the
reputation of special sanctity in this place. Egyptians
and Nubians sacrificed at her altars and venerated her
with equal devotion. The brightly painted walls and
pillars of her temple give even now the idea of cheerful
worship which found an outward expression in light and
colour. When the temples of Isis were deserted and forgotten
the nascent faith of Christendom built here one of its
oldest churches, to which the Nubian Barabras made pil
grimages with pious ardour. Now they have abandoned
the Christian faith of their fathers, and the memory of
their former creed only lives in their language in the
word Kiraye (Greek, Kuriake) for " Sunday."
The Barabras have become Moslems in the full sense
of the term, but their old home, with its central point
Philae, has remained the same.
After we had visited all parts of the temple we went
across the remains of many old walls, and through rubbish
and ruin, to the extreme southern point of the island.
A grey rock slopes in steps towards the river from
beneath an old Egyptian platform. Thick luxuriant
shrubs and tall grass grow over the dark stone.
With sorrowful heart I clambered to the utmost verge
of the steep brink, and looked out over the holy Nile, the

154 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
broadening valley, and the fields of Nubia. A large
section of our journey was completed ; we had now reached
our southernmost point.
The tropic of Cancer, the frontier of Nubia, the tropical
air, and by night in the firmament the topmost stars of the
famous Southern Cross, had lured us ; they had drawn us
onwards, but we could follow them no longer. Northwards
we must go, and in melancholy mood we scrambled back
to the temple of Isis.

CHAPTER V.
From Phil,*: to Siut— Memphis Sakkara— To Cairo.
In the little kiosk, one of the ancient pavilions of the
temple which is still perfectly preserved, we ate the break
fast we had brought with us. This pavilion, standing on a
high embankment with a terrace in front of it, rises proudly
above the foaming river.
From the gate of one of the pillared halls we enjoyed a
view of exceptional beauty and interest over the distant
country. There is an indescribable poetry in this desert,
and in the luxuriant green island which rises in its midst
from the waters of the sacred stream and bears the glorious
memorials of ages which have long passed away. Philae
is a picture which can never be forgotten, but stamps itself
for ever as a point of light on the memory.
We descended from the temple to the bank, and went
down the river towards the cataracts in the archaic boat
already described. For a long time we could still see
the rocky island, the black granite, the blooming plants,
and the lofty temple. The brown oarsmen chanted
melancholy songs which harmonized with the grandeur
and pathos of the scene.
Before the actual commencement of the cataracts, where

1 56 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the river divides into branches, we put in, and walked along
the rocky bank to a point which afforded a view over the
wild rocks and tossing waters. The cataracts are not
waterfalls, but rapids. Thousands of rocky islets, cliffs, and
reefs fill the bed of the river for more than a kilometer.
Through these the river, foaming and roaring, makes its
way. It is, without question, a grand scene, and its peculiar
charm is enhanced by the striking black colour, and the
shape of the reefs and shoals of rocks which rise through
the white froth of the flood. It is interesting, too, to see
the ordinarily sluggish, turbid Nile converted for a brief
space into a raging mountain stream.
The moment we had reached the best point of view, a
number of naked Nubians appeared, jumped into the
waves, and, avoiding the rocks, allowed themselves to
be swept along through the most furious and rapid
of the arms of the river. In a few seconds they were
carried, swift as arrows sped from a bow, a long way down,
and then scrambled out of the water to come to us
dripping and clamorous for backsheesh. Returning to the
boat, we were rowed a short way up stream, and then,
mounting the asses which awaited us, rode back to Assuan
by the same way by which we had come in the morning.
The excursion had taken the whole day, and it was late
in the afternoon when we reached our steamer. We dined
at once, and after dinner Hoyos and I went again, as
twilight came on, to the hiding-places which we had
occupied the day before. My huntsman urged us to do
this, because, while we were in Philae, he had found fresh
tracks of hyaenas by the remains of the carrion.

H U<a!< <•Jast_ ozis

FRUITLESS WATCHING, 157
The night was fine, and I proposed to fire at nothing
less than a hyaena, to wait till they came, and therefore to
remain out far into the night. Several jackals appeared,
but were left unmolested. As midnight drew near, and I
was already having a sore struggle with sleep, I saw,
thanks to the clear moonlight, some human beings creep
by not far from my ambush, and heard immediately after
several shots, and the familiar cackle of the unlucky decoy
fowl. Now that the absolute stillness required while watching
for the hyaena was at an end, instead of waiting uselessly I
went home, meeting by the way the dragoman Paulowich,
who had unfortunately been with Baron Seckendorf to the
same spot as I. Hoyos at his post, which lay close to the
town, had killed one jackal and wounded another. The
Grand Duke, as well as Eschenbacher, had been at one time
literally surrounded by howling jackals, but owing to the
awkward lie of the ground had been unable to fire. As I
returned at midnight I had a lovely view of the picturesque
town of Assuan, the river, and the fairy land of the
Elephantine Island, all in a magic flood of purest moonlight.
At eight a.m. on the ninth of March the steamer
left Assuan, that delightful and thoroughly central African
town, ethnographically so full of interest. We glided down
the stream with the greatest rapidity, through scenes now
well known. The hours on deck went quickly by, and the
return voyage afforded the desired opportunity of arranging
at our writing-tables the notes we had collected, and commit
ting to paper our recollections of travel. At noon we were
sitting in the cabin, when the steamer stopped suddenly and

1 58 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
violently, and we could distinctly feel how the heavy vessel
was digging itself into the mud of the bed of the river.
We had frequently run aground on the voyage up stream,
as every Nile steamer does in consequence of the shifting
of the sand-banks, but never had we run aground so hard
as we did on this occasion, owing to the force of our
downward course.
The old admiral declared it would take at least two
hours to get his ship afloat again. We therefore went on
shore at a point called Kom-el-Emir, where high, steep,
rocky mountains come close to the stream, and a beau
tiful and brief defile immediately gives place to a cultivated
plain. The travelling party separated for sport in various
directions. I tried at first, by clambering on the bare
rocks, to creep up to some large birds of prey, but did not
succeed, and so I preferred to look for small game in the
bushes of the plain and on the bank of the river. Besides
several water-fowl, I got during this short expedition a
miniature dove, that wonderfully coloured dove of Central
Africa, the size of a lark and adorned with a long tail — a
charming and wholly tropical creature.
While looking on the sand-banks for shore-birds, we
noticed at the end of a couple of hours that our steamer
was ready to pursue her voyage ; so we rowed back at
once, and resumed the journey which had been interrupted
by this pleasant expedition.
In the evening, after sunset, we lay to at El-Kab on the
eastern bank. A slender strip of tilled land separates the
river at this point from the somewhat narrow desert, beyond

JACKAL HUNTING.

A PERPLEXED BEDOUIN. 159
which splendid mountains rise. Soon after our arrival we
resolved to employ the favouring moonlight in hunting
beasts of prey, and went off in various directions to choose
suitable points for our evening stations.
Pausinger and I, accompanied by a fellaheen, walked
across the tilled land, past a wretched village, out into the
desert. We saw in dim and misty outline the ruins of
the ancient Egyptian town Nechebt (called Eileithyia by
the Greeks). The strongly built outer wall of unburnt
brick overtops everything else, and shows that this place
was a considerable fortress in antiquity. There are also
here, on a ledge of the mountain, some rock tombs, a rock
temple founded by Ptolemy Euergetes, and further on a
small sanctuary of Amenhotep III., dedicated to the
goddess Nechebt.
The desert is much impregnated with soda in this part,
and at every step the broken crust crackles. We went
nearly to the foot of the mountains, hid ourselves there
between two big rocks, binding a bleating kid a few paces
in front to a stake which we had brought with us. A
quarter of an hour had hardly elapsed when a Bedouin
appeared, wrapped in a white cloak, riding on a camel
and singing plaintive songs. The strange rider on his tall
steed was a striking object in the monotonous desert. The
wailing kid appeared to excite the Bedouin's attention.
He stopped, considered the surroundings, began a con
versation with himself half aloud, and then rode on his
way without discovering us.
When all was again quiet, I heard the rustling of an
animal creeping up. The kid moaned and jumped about

160 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
in terror. Immediately after, seeing a black body bigger
than a wolf approach the lure, I took exact aim and fired.
A furious howl of pain followed the shot. I hastened to the
spot, but found only the track, which led to the mountains.
Vexed and disappointed at this, and convinced that I had
hit a hyaena, we returned to the steamer. I desired my
huntsman to go out at daybreak next morning and follow
the track of the wounded beast.
When we reached the steamer the other gentlemen
had already returned. The Grand Duke had seen jackals,
but unfortunately shot none, while Hoyos had been so
lucky as to kill one.
On the ioth the sun stood high in the heavens ere I
awoke, and we had already been going down stream for
more than an hour. Asking for my huntsman, I learned
that he had found the wounded animal a few hundred steps
from where it had been shot ; but it was, alas ! no hyaena,
but one of those half-savage and most vicious village dogs
which in Egypt wander the whole night through in the
neighbourhood of towns, looking for prey. My huntsman
saw also a very large lynx within a few steps of him, which
disappeared into a hole in the old wall of El-Kab.
May I be allowed here to say a few words about the
race of dogs in Egypt ? I have made the curious observa
tion that in this country the village dog, the African wolf
{Cants lupaster), " Abu-el- H ossein " or " Dib " of the Arabs,
and the jackal {Canis aureus), " Talib " of the Egyptians and
" Waui " of the Syrians, mix races through cross breeding.
We shot no two wolves nor any two jackals which
were entirely like one another, either in size or colour.

RETURN TO OUR SAND-BANK STATION. 161
In Palestine this diversity is even more distinctly notice
able. On the whole, the Asiatic jackal is larger than the
North African, and amongst several which were tolerably
like each other, I shot one which could not be compared
with any previous specimen, either in size or colour, and
yet one could not describe this abnormal creature as a
wolf. The dogs of the East, however, often bear traces of
savage origin, which is in no way surprising when one
remembers their uncontrolled, ownerless life on the one
hand, and on the other the nightly prowlings, frequently
from dusk to dawn, of wolves and jackals in the immediate
vicinity of the towns and villages.
I go so far as to assert that in those parts of Africa and
Asia where dogs, wolves, and jackals inhabit a limited
area, the jackal of pure race, as a true species, does not
exist. The dog and the wolf are better preserved ; but the
Cants aureus of scientific books I have sought in vain as a
distinctly marked breed.
Let us now revert to our travelling adventures. The
steamer proceeded till ten in the forenoon, when we stopped
at Dabbabieh, by the sand-bank on which, in our upward
course, I had seen the large eared vulture sitting. On
landing we found the fellaheen, who had punctually
obeyed our orders.
A small reed hut had been erected; and the bones
of sheep and dogs showed that the vultures had had their
daily bait. We had great difficulty in ridding ourselves of
the inquisitive fellaheen, who, proud of their perform
ances, now wished to be present at the sport. n

,62 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

Some carrion vultures soon appeared, three hooded
vultures followed them — the middle-sized black African
vulture, with dark, bald head. I had never seen this very
loathsome-looking bird before, and hastened, therefore,
to shoot a specimen. At the shot the fellaheen hurried
up from all sides, looking at my spoil with curiosity, and
clamouring for backsheesh.
The large vulture was soaring in circles overhead, and
the right hour was at hand for its pursuit, and we might
have obtained great success ; but, in spite of this, we were
obliged to retire, as we could no longer protect ourselves
from the people. New arrivals came from all sides ; so
we called the steamer to the bank and continued our
voyage. In Erment, where we arrived in the afternoon, we had
to remain for a short time, in order to get the famous piece
of granite on board. During this pause I succeeded in
shooting forty-six field-pigeons, which were passing from
one side of the river to the other, taking their way above
our ship.
We soon resumed our journey, and by sunset we were
again at Luxor. Our steamer had scarcely touched the
landing-place below the hotel when Chalil appeared with
some donkeys, and some of our party rode as quickly as
we could on the well-known road to Karnak, in order to
look out for jackals at various points.
I had taken a live hen with me, and seated myself
beside one of the ancient ponds, enjoying the beauty of the
evening. I pinched the hen perpetually, in order that its
cry might attract the wild beasts. Unfortunately, instead

A RIDE ACROSS THE STREAM.

VISIT TO THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS. 163
of jackals some Englishmen came, who looked at me
with astonishment, but soon went on their way.
When it had grown quite dark a big bird swooped
down on the pond like a phantom. I fired at it on the
chance of hitting, and found a grey heron lying dead on
the bank. After that I left my place and rode back to
Luxor. The other gentlemen had returned without any
game. Next morning early we rowed to the opposite Libyan
shore, in order to make the distant and very interesting
excursion to the kings' tombs. We rode on asses, at first
across a fertile plain. Fellaheen were toiling industriously
in the fields ; carrion vultures sat in numbers beside the
scattered mud cottages ; camels, long-eared goats, buffaloes,
asses, and sheep browsed on the yellowish pastures. The
road led past some pools, with water still remaining in
them from the time of the inundation. We crossed a
shallow and very sandy arm of the Nile to a poor little
village, where the last palms and shrubs gave place to the
desolate sand of the desert. The foot of the lofty
mountains was soon reached, and a narrow valley shut in
by steep slopes and cliffs opened before us. The bridle
path at the bottom leads to the kings' tombs, and the
gentlemen took this way.
The Grand Duke and I resolved to proceed to the same
spot by a short cut across the mountain. Guided by an
Arab, known in the neighbourhood as an excellent sports
man, we climbed over some hills of sand and rubble, and
began the actual ascent beyond them.
A narrow path wound upward along the cliffs, among

1 64 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
slabs of rock and rolling stones. To the right and left we
saw innumerable graves and funeral caves. The lower
declivities of the whole line of mountains to the west of
ancient Thebes are hollowed through and through with the
burying-places of centuries.
A wolf sprang out of one of these hollows and fled up
the slopes. The distance was, unfortunately, too consider
able to allow of firing at him with small shot. We now
endeavoured to climb over the ridge of the mountain by
different paths, in the hope of getting a shot.
The ridge was soon surmounted, and a beautiful view
opened before us into the green Valley of the Nile, upon
the great river, the town of Luxor, the ruins of Karnak,
and the Arabian mountains opposite — a wild assemblage of
peaks, points, ravines, valleys, cliffs, heaps of sand and
rubble, slabs of stone and blocks of limestone, all in
dazzling white or shades of yellow, without a vestige of
vegetation, glittering with the most brilliant reflections, and
scorched through by the rays of the African sun. One can
scarcely imagine a more grand and sombre picture of the
true desert mountain. In the sand I found the tracks of
hyaenas, wolves, and jackals, and innumerable burrows of
different wild animals. Vultures sat in the clefts of over
shadowing rocks, and swifts floated above the desolate
mountain tops.
A wolf ran across the path in front of me, but so far off
that my shot took no effect. The Grand Duke had no
better luck with a jackal. Following a narrow path, we
made a difficult descent into the principal valley, where, as
previously agreed, we were to meet the asses. We rode

BIBAN-EL-MOLUK. 165

through the desolate ravine, closely bounded by the glaring
white mountains, to the kings' tombs at Biban-el-Moluk,
where, in a cul de sac of steeply falling slopes and cliffs,
valley and path alike terminate, and the dark chasm
opens which leads down into the sepulchres of the earliest
dynasties. Armed with torches we entered those shrines
of a buried past.
I am indebted to Brugsch Pasha for many valuable
notes respecting this spot ; so I will now allow him to
speak. " The kings' tombs of Biban-el-Moluk are in a
side valley of the mountain, on which Nature herself seems
to have impressed the stillness of death. Here lay, buried
in deep caverns, the successive generations of the most
famous kings of the Theban dynasties, from the eighteenth
downward. The grave of Seti I., a true temple of the dead,
chiselled out of the rock, is reckoned the finest amongst
these remarkable structures. Steps, which descend with
perceptible tracks for the carriage of the sarcophagus, lead
into the dark depths, from passage to passage, from chamber
to chamber, which, in spite of all the inroads of decay, still
display pictures and inscriptions in the most perfect colours.
By the dim light we follow the long series of scenes, which
take us into the realms of the dead in the world beyond,
and bring the different regions of the lower world before
our eyes, depict the joys of the blessed in paradise, the
torments of the damned, the starry heavens, and the sub
terranean voyage of the vessel of the sun in its course from
west to east, from death to life, through night and dark
ness ; in a word, unroll for us in picture or by word,
with the utmost detail, the mysterious pages of life beyond

1 66 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the grave. The guiding thread through the labyrinth of
the doctrines of old Egyptian sacred lore is the conception
of the resurrection of the soul after the death of the body,
and its return to the source of light whence it sprang.
Light and happiness to all eternity await the good ;
everlasting darkness and the pains of hell recompense the
evildoers." In a chamber, formerly carefully closed, in the tomb
of Seti I. (circa 1350 B.C.) we saw the likeness of the so-called
cow of heaven. Beside it is a long and highly important
hieroglyphical inscription, relating to the annihilation of the
race of man and the reconstruction of a new order of the
world, which supplies the key to a right understanding of
the ancient Egyptian theogony.
The translation of this mysterious record is as follows :
" There was a king of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Light-
god Ra, the god who is Being itself. Whilst he reigned
as king men and gods were united. And men began to
devise wiles against the Light-god Ra, in order to be rid
of him. For his royal majesty had grown old. His bones
were of silver, his flesh of gold, his hair of pure sapphire.
And his royal majesty saw how he was mocked of men.
And his royal majesty spoke to those who were his
servants : ' Call hither to me my eye and the Cloud-god
Shu, the Rain-goddess Tafnut, the Earth-god Keb, the
Sky-goddess Nut, and at the same time the father
and mother who were united with me at such time as I
found myself in the primordial waters, and likewise also
him who bore my godhead in himself, the god of the
primordial water, Nun. Let him bring his retinue with

THE COW OF HEAVEN. 167
him. Say unto him, " Bring them hither, and tarry not.
Look not at the men, and turn not their souls away.
Come to the Palace of Heliopolis, together with the gods,
who gave their consent that I should betake myself from
the water-source to the place which I now occupy." ' And
the gods were brought. And the gods cast themselves
on either side of him to the ground, to do their homage to
his majesty, that he might say his sayings before the
father of the oldest gods, who had made men and begotten
the nobles. And they spake thus to his majesty : ' Speak
to us that we may understand.'
" And the Light-god Ra spoke to the god of the
primordial water, Nun, ' Thou eldest god, out of whom I
became, and ye primordial godheads, hear ye now. The
men who were made out of my eye, they speak against
me. Say— what would ye do ? Verily, I will wait, and
will not destroy them until I have heard your saying
about it.'
"And the majesty of the primordial water, Nun, spake
and said, ' My son, thou Light-god Ra, thou god who art
higher than him that is thy father, and greater than him
who begat thee, where abide the men who speak such
words against thee ? For great will be the terror of those
who devise wiles against thee, being beside thee, because
thine eye is turned upon them.'
" And the majesty of the Light-god Ra said, ' Go to,
they have fled to the mountain, because their soul was
full of dread because of my nearness.'
" And the other godheads spake to his majesty : ' Send
out thine eye. Let it strike for thee those who have

1 68 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

devised wiles after the manner of evil-doers, and have
not gone out up the stream thither whither thou wouldest.'
"And the Light-god Ra sent forth his eye, and it
descended in the form of the goddess Hathor ; and this
goddess returned after she had destroyed the men upon
the mountains.
" And the majesty of this god spake : ' Be welcome,
for thou hast accomplished that which had to be accom
plished. The men are fallen to destruction.'
" And this goddess spake and said, ' I swear by thee
that I have executed judgment on the men, and that it was
good to my soul.'
" And the majesty of the Light-god Ra said, ' I will
execute judgment on men through thee in the future in
that I make them miserable.'
" This is the origin of the name of the Goddess of
Violence, Sokhet. The changing night rolled on, and
they trod on the blood-streams of the men of the town
of Herakleopolis, who had been destroyed. And the
majesty of this god spake and said, ' Call me hither
messengers quick and swift ; shadows with bodies.' And
when the messengers were forthwith brought unto him,
the majesty of this god said that they should go to the
town of Elephantine and bring him the fruit of the man
drake in great abundance.
" And the fruits of mandrakes were brought unto him,
and they were delivered to the miller who abides in the
town of On, that he might grind the fruits of the mandrake.
And behold, maidens also were there, who spread out the
corn for the preparing of beer, and there were the fruits of

A MASSACRE OF MEN. ,6g

the mandrake in the pitchers shaken in and mixed with the
blood of men, and seven thousand pitchers of beer were
prepared from it.
"And then came the king's majesty of Upper and
Lower Egypt, the Light-god Ra, in company of the other
divinities, to look at the beer. And behold the earth was
bright, and none of the men had been destroyed by the
goddess, who had gone up the stream at the appointed
time. And the majesty of the Light-god Ra said, ' These
are the good. I will therefore be the protector of these
men.' And the majesty of the Light-god Ra said, ' Bear
with the hand those pitchers to the place where the goddess
has made a massacre among the men.'
"And the majesty of the king of Upper and Lower
Egypt, the Light-god Ra, gave light during a whole night,
to let those beer pitchers be poured out. And the fields
in all the four quarters of heaven were flooded with the
moisture, according to the will of the majesty of this
god. " And the goddess went out in the early morning.
And when she found the fields overflowed her countenance
was glad. She drank, and her soul rejoiced ; but she did
not know that the drink was the blood of men.
"And the majesty of the Light-god Ra said to this
goddess, ' Welcome thou Palm ' (hence the origin of the
merry maidens in the Palm city, i.e. Marea at the lake
of the name near Alexandria).
"And the majesty of the Light-god Ra said to this
goddess, ' There should be consecrated to her, at the new
year, pitchers to the number of the maidens ' (who had

170 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
brewed the beer). This is the origin of the consecration
of the beer pitchers according to the number of the maids
at the feast of Hathor, which is celebrated by all men
on the first of the year.
" And the majesty of the Light-god Ra spake to
this goddess, ' Does not sickness arise through the hot
breath of a sick person ? ' This is the origin of the
saying, ' the sick man has renewed his youth ' {i.e. has
infected another).
" And the majesty of the Light-god Ra said, ' As I
live my soul is weary of being with men. I have destroyed
them, and there is none that remains. Not short, but
long has been my arm.'
" And the divinities who were in his train said, ' Go
not hence because of thy weariness, for thou hast the
power to do as pleaseth thee.'
" And the majesty of this god spake to the majesty of
the god of the primordial water, Nun, ' My body will increase
in weakness which has now begun, unless I go where none
other can reach to me.'
" And the majesty of the primordial water, Nun, said,
' The son of the Cloud-god Shu shall be a stay to his father
through his labours ; and the daughter, the Sky-goddess
Nut, shall go to the heights to bear her father.'
" And the Sky-goddess Nut said, ' How shall that be,
O thou my father, and thou god of the primordial water,
Nun?' " Thus the Sky-goddess Nut spake before her father
to the god of the primordial water, Nun. Then was
the Sky-goddess Nut changed into a great cow, on the

THE DEPARTURE OF THE GOD RA. 171
back of which the majesty of the Light-god Ra might
be carried. "After the men who had gone up the stream knew
what had happened, they stood and looked at him as he
sat on the back of the cow.
" And the men spake and said to him, ' Thou Light-god
Ra, forsake us not ; we will slay thine enemies which have
devised wiles against thee. They shall be slain.'
" His majesty went in into his palace, but those who
followed him remained with the men so long as the earth
lay in darkness. But when the earth grew light and
morning rose, the men came forth armed with bows and
lances, and shot at the adversaries of the god. And the
majesty of this god said, 'Your sins are forgiven, the
victims are slaughtered.' (This is the origin of the
slaughter-sacrifice.) And this god spake to the heavenly
goddess Nut, 'I have laid myself on my back, raise me
up.' She understood the meaning, and the heavenly god
dess Nut stretched herself out. This is the origin of the
phrase, ' lay thyself on thy back, stretch thyself.'
" And the majesty of this god said, ' Now have I
departed from men. I have gone up and held my
survey.' "And the majesty of this god held his survey from
within outwards. And he said, ' Seek for me strong
bearers in the form of a mass of men.' This is the origin
of the phrase ' mass of men.'
" And his royal majesty said, ' How peacefully does a
broad field spread out.' This is the origin of the name
' field of peace.' ' I will pluck herbs in it ; ' hence the origin

172 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
of the name ' Pluckfield.' ' I will provide the inhabitants
with all things.' This is the origin of the name of 'the
thing-star ' among the stars.
" And the heavenly goddess Nut trembled because she
was so high up. And the majesty of the Light-god Ra
said, ' I have devised bearers to support her ; ' hence
the origin of supporting bearers {i.e. Karyatides).
" And the majesty of the Light-god Ra said, ' My
son, thou Cloud-god Ra, place thyself beneath my
daughter, the Sky-goddess Nut. Be to me the guardian
of the supporting bearers who dwell in darkness. Take
thou the heavenly goddess on thy head and be her guar
dian.' This is the origin of the tendance of a daughter's
son, and the origin of the custom of a father putting his
son on his head."
The following statement has been communicated respecting
the cow, i.e. a description of the picture : the supporting
bearers, " the mass of men," stand before her shoulder-
blade, supporting bearers upon her back, which is painted
over in all directions with bright colours.
On the belly are nine stars. The figure of the god Set
is behind— another image of the same beside the legs. The
Cloud-god Shu stands under the belly, made of strong
stone. His two arms bear the stars. The inscription
containing his name between the arms is — " The Cloud-god
Shu himself."
A ship stands there. Oars and a small temple are
in it, and above it the disc of the sun. The Light-god
Ra stands in it in front of the Cloud -god Shu, and

PORTRAIT OF THE COW OF HEAVEN. 173
by his hand ; another reading is, " behind him beside his
hand." The udders of the cow are placed in the middle by
its left leg.
The surfaces of the cow are covered with inscriptions ;
those towards the middle of the hind leg are — " The outer
heavens," and " I am where I am," and " I do not let her
turn back." The inscription below the ship, which stands
in front, is, " Rest not, my son."
Those which are written in the opposite direction run,
" Thy bearing is life-like ; " another, " The eternal is
expressed therein," and " Thy son is yonder ; " another,
" Life, happiness, and health be granted to these thy
nostrils." The inscription behind the Cloud-god Shu, by his arms,
is, " Her guardian ; " that which is behind him, by his feet,
and written in the opposite direction, is, " The truth ; "
another, " They enter in ; " and another, " I am the daily
protector." The inscription which is under the arm of the figure
which stands beneath and behind the left leg runs, " The
closer up of all things."
That which stands over the head of the figure at the
hind quarters of the cow and near its legs is, " Guardian of
her going out."
That which is behind the two figures who stand at
the cow's leg, and is written above their heads, runs, " The
old man who sings praises at his going out," and " The old
man who adores at his coming in."
The inscriptions over the heads of the two figures

174 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
which stand between the fore legs of the cow are
" Listener," " Hearer," and " Sceptre of the heavenly
height." " And the majesty of this god said to the god Thot
(god of understanding), ' Call me hither the majesty of
the Earth-god Keb with the words, " Come and set forth
at once." " And the majesty of the Earth -god Keb came, and
the majesty of the Light-god Ra said, ' There has been
a battle because of thy worms {i.e. of men) which tarry for
thee. It will be for their weal that they fear me as long
as I exist. Thereby shalt thou know their virtue. Make
thee ready and go where my father the god of the primordial
water, Nun, abides. Say to him —
" ' " Preserve the worms on the earth and in the water."
Make forthwith writings for every zone in which thy
worms dwell, saying, " Your keeper is he who em
braces all things." If they shall know that I have gone
far away, it is for their weal that I should rise upon
them as the light of the sun. A healing is needful. It is
the father whom they need. Be thou the father on this
ever-during earth.
" ' Also they shall be shielded because of their wise
thoughts, and the judgment of their mouth shall be to
their salvation, for my own wisdom is contained therein
as salvation. Who has acknowledged them shall be safe,
for my protection will be given to none because of the
greatness which has been given him before me.
" ' I will unite them to thy son Osiris, and will preserve

HOW TO APPROACH THE GOD NUN. 175
their children (to the astonishment of their princes), whose
virtues are such that they have acted according to their
love to the whole world, and according to the wise thoughts
which dwelt within them.'
" And the majesty of this god said, ' Call me the god
Thot' (of understanding), and he was called. And the
majesty of this god said to Thot, ' Behold ! great is the
distance from heaven, where I have set up my throne, and
where I must dwell to dispense the light of the sun. Thou
glorious god, in the deep, and in the world of tombs,
where thou art scribe, and punishest those who dwell there,
and whose acts and deeds have been of sin, thereby that
thou keepest far from me those who followed evil — which
fills my heart with shame — be thou in my place, my
representative, or wherefore art thou called Thot, the
representative of the sun ? I will bid thee send the
princes (in thy name)." This is the origin of Ibis, i.e. the
messenger bird of Thot. ' I will let thee stretch thine hand
to the face of the ancient gods, who are greater than thou.
It will be well if thou stillest my thirst.' This is the origin
of the water-bird of Thot. ' I will let thee embrace heaven
and earth with thy glory, as a beam of light ; ' hence the
name of the ' enfolder ' for the moon. ' I will let thee drive
back all the barbarians ; ' hence the name of ' the expeller,'
for the dog-headed ape ; and this the origin of his office as
leader of armies. ' Be thou, therefore, my representative
for all visible things that through thee may be manifested,
and all men shall praise thee as God.'
" If any one says this decree to himself, let him rub
himself first with oils and ointments, and let him raise

176 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the perfuming pan in his hands, backwards, to both his
ears. " Let him wash his mouth with holy soap. Let him
put on clean garments.
" Let him cleanse himself with water of the flood. Let
his feet be clothed in shining white sandals. An image of
the goddess of Truth, painted green, shall lie upon his
tongue. "If it shall please him to say it (the decree) to the god
Thot, let him purify himself in a nine-fold purification,
three days long.
" In like manner shall the priests and others do. If
any man will repeat it, let him observe the following
instructions in the use of this piece of writing : —
" Let him take his stand in a circle which separates him
from that which is without.
" Let him set his eye upon it and turn all his limbs
towards it, and let his feet not go forward. If a man shall
so say it, he shall be as the Light-god Ra, on the day of
his birth. His goods shall not be minished. Nothing
shall go out his house, but shall endure in the right way a
million-fold." Thus ends the exact description of the heavenly cow
and all the mottoes which surround it.
The mystic strain which runs through the dogmas of
this religion of thousands of ages past is very interesting,
and the gorgeous wealth of description marks these doc
trines as belonging to a southern, and especially an Oriental
cultus. I wish to add in this place the theogony of the old
Egyptian divinities, as gathered from these monuments.

THE THEOGONY OF EGYPTIAN DIVINITIES. 177

Nun (Chaos),
God of the Primordial Water.
Ra (the Sun),
God of Light. The element of Fire.
 ! 
Shu (Hercules), Fasnut,
The god of clouds. Element of Air. The goddess of rain.

I

Keb (Kronos), Nut (Rh'ea),
The earth-god. Element of the Earth. The goddess of the sky.

I

,-J. I
Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis Nephthys.
Element of Water. (Apollo). (Typhon).
i
Harpocrates.
The world in the periodical renewal of its visible forms.
After we had thoroughly inspected all the chambers of
these most remarkable tombs of the kings, we made a
frugal breakfast outside the entrance. A laborious climb
by a narrow path across the mountains to Medinet-Habu
followed our short rest, and we came again to the wretched
stony desert, now exposed to the burning heat of the
midday sun. Some very steep rocks and cliffs had to be
clambered across ; and it was only after a long walk that we
reached the summit, and soon afterwards the region of the
rock graves. Through wreck and ruin and past houses
crumbling to decay, all of Moslem times, we reached the
cultivated land, where, under the shade of a wall, our horses
were waiting. A longer road than that we had taken in
the morning brought us past the very striking Colossus
of Memnon — which far exceeded our expectations— down
to the banks of the Nile. We reached our steamer by
boat in the afternoon, and dined at once. Some Arab
12

178 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
huntsmen had persuaded me to visit a station near Medinet-
Habu in the evening, in quest of beasts of prey. Followed
by my huntsman, therefore, I rode off after dinner, and once
more took the long way across the tilled land and past the
Colossus, to the wretched village of M6dinet-Habu, which
consists solely of mud-huts. A tolerably broad desert plain,
which separates the cultivated land from the foot of the
mountains, opens immediately behind this village.
Some much-trodden tracks, marked by the footprints
of hyaenas, wolves, and jackals, connect the mountain with
the level sporting ground below. On such a track I hid
behind some large stones. The sun was setting ; the sand
of the desert, the rocks of the mountains, the ruins, the
palms, and the villages of the plain were flooded with the
richest colours. A large yellow-brown Pharaoh-owl took
its noiseless flight from its dark hiding-place in search of
prey. Soon after a jackal appeared, keeping the beaten
track very closely.
I shot at the beast as it trotted carelessly forward, but
unluckily it was too far off. It tumbled over, but at once
got on its feet again, and hurried back towards the moun
tains. I found, indeed, a red streak, but a brief search
had no further result. Time, also, was running short, as
twilight had already set in, and I had to hasten to the
proper station for the hyaenas.
Led by the Arab, I rode through the desert, which
seemed to extend further and further into the plain, till
we came to a small sand-hill. The ambush had been well
chosen, and the dead ass was a conspicuous object on the
white sand.

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MEDINET-HABU. 179

The deepest stillness prevailed in the monotonous
country round. The mountains rose in dim outline, and
the yellow desert seemed interminable. I heard the
stealthy prowl of the jackal several times, and saw shadows
flit by, and once even distinguished the form of a wolf;
but the much-wished-for hyaena did not come.
The right hour for this timid beast is the first after
midnight ; but on this occasion also sleep so overcame me
that by eleven o'clock I was unable longer to resist it. I
left the ambush. The Arab let me go with a reproachful
look, and resolved to wait, armed with his gun, for the
hyaena. A long but lovely ride lay before me. The moonlit
nights of Egypt belong to the most bewitching memories
which I have brought with me from the glorious land of
the Pharaohs. The Colossi of Memnon stood ghost-like
and grand by night in the dark green of the landscape.
Near the Nile a wolf ran across a few steps in front of me ;
unluckily my gun was not loaded. It was very late when
I reached the steamer and my much-desired rest.
Early on the 12th, we all rode the same way to
Medinet-Habu. Long rows of storks stood on the sand
banks and in the water-pools ; and I shot snipe and sand
pipers while mounted on my donkey.
After an hour's ride we reached the village of Medinet-
Habu, where the Arab hunter was already waiting to tell
us that he had happily missed the hyaena about one o'clock
at night. I did not believe him, and resolved to look at
the spot myself, and also to bestow my attention on the
vultures, which, according to the report of the Arab, were
assembled there in numbers.

1 8o TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

Unfortunately, by the time I got to the spot, the large
birds of prey had already finished their meal, and sat inert,
but unapproachable, a few hundred paces off in the desert.
The ass was horribly pulled to pieces ; whole portions were
gone, and what remained was covered with feathers and
dirt by the vultures.
I had done the Arab wrong. I immediately found the
hyaena track, leading on the one side to the carrion, and on
the other to the desert. On the way back to Medinet-
Habu I noticed some quite recent tracks of the gazelle.
As soon as I had joined the rest of the party we began
our survey of the wonderful and beautiful Ramesseum, a
temple of the dead, in good preservation, which lies near
the village.
I shall do well to quote, in his own words, some notes
on the monuments of this part of Thebes, which I owe to
my friend Brugsch : " The west side of Thebes, no less
rich in monuments than the eastern quarter of the town,
was considered the abode of the dead— the necropolis
proper. In the rocky limestone of the plain, as well as in
the pierced and hollowed declivities of the precipitous
adjacent mountains, millions of worthy Thebans found their
last resting-places. In the plain, at the foot of the steep
cliffs, sepulchral temples rose in all directions — their doors
always opening to the east, which gave the necropolis the
character of a most sacred region. The temple of Gurna,
which still exists at the northern end of the long range of
sanctuaries, and which was erected by Ramses II. to the
memory of his but little known grandfather (of the same
name), and his own sepulchral temple, the so-called Ram-

THE RAMESSEUM AT THEBES. 181
esseum, are instructive examples of the plan and decoration
of such structures — structures whose most glorious example
is shown in the already-described sepulchral temple of
Setis I. (the father of Ramses II.) at Abydus.
" The Ramesseum at Thebes served both as a memo
rial of victory, and for the perpetuation and transmission
of the heroic deeds which the king had performed in his
wars with the Hothites, The gigantic fragments of a red
granite statue of the king are strewed on the floor of the
old temple, by the southern wing of the Pylon.
" Further south stand the solitary guardians of the city
of the dead — the two famous Colossi of Memnon, soaring
into the blue ether of the Theban skies, silent witnesses of
long-past glorious days in the history of the Egyptians.
They once adorned the space in front of the great gate of
a sepulchral temple of King Amenhotep III., which has
now disappeared, almost without leaving a trace, from the
face of the earth. They were the work of the renowned
officer of the royal household, Hi, the son of Hapu.
" Still further south, the funeral temples of the Pharaohs,
Thotmes III. and Ramses III., rise to a considerable
height from amidst hill-like piles of rubbish. Ramses III.
is the rich King Rampsinitus of Greek tradition ; his temple
is noticeable for the numberless delineations and inscriptions
designed to celebrate the victorious campaigns of this king
against the Libyan- Ionic confederation. If we further men
tion the terrace and the rocky chapel of the Thutmessides
in the north-western corner of this great Theban necropolis,
we shall have exhausted the list of these funereal temples
of the kings, whose purpose it was to preserve in the most

,33 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

vivid manner, for the future generations of the world, the
memory of the past."
When we had completed the survey of this famous city
of the dead, we rode across the plain back to our steamer.
We had now to take leave of beautiful Luxor, the glorious
remains of hundred-gated Thebes. The Theban plain lay
wrapped in the mists of the hot noontide, and framed by
its setting of lofty blue mountains. It was a wonderful
picture for our farewell greeting.
We spent the afternoon on our voyage, passing pleasant
hours on the deck ; a cooling breeze came over the river,
and one lovely landscape after another met our gaze. At
six p.m. we put in at Keneh, and this time landed not on
the western bank of Dendera, but on the eastern, by the
modern city.
We employed the evening in hunting in the neighbour
hood. Hoyos and I rode across the rich and, at this place,
broad plain, and then followed the course of a canal much
frequented by game, where we shot a variety of birds.
We rode through the water-channel at a shallow place,
and returned towards the town, in whose neighbourhood,
and beside smiling gardens, a palm-forest rears its proud
tops. Kites, hawks, black-winged falcons, the large raven,
crows, screech-owls, and all kinds of small birds, sought the
shelter of this forest to roost. Knowing this, we hid
ourselves behind the thick stems of the date-palms, and
had easy and plentiful sport.
When twilight followed a fine sunset, we rode back
along a dyke into the tolerably large town.

SHOOTING IN THE PALMS AT KENEH.

BAZAAR AT DENDERA. 183
The narrow streets of clay houses, whose architectural
ornamentation and high minarets bespoke the importance
of the place, were full of life. A lucky chance led us
through the crowded streets to the brilliant bazaar,
covered with matting and well lighted, and whose busy
traders pressed eagerly and noisily round us. Following
the long line of stalls we escaped from the dust, steam,
and stench which, especially in the evening, pervade
Eastern towns, and hastened back to our steamer. The
other gentlemen had also returned with some game, so that,
with our liberal contribution, the short hunting expedition
at Keneh made a very good show.
We continued our voyage on the 13th, in splendid
weather. From sunrise to midday we made no halt, and
arrived where the mountains of Gebel Tuk come close to
the eastern bank of the stream. The look of the country
pleased us, and we resolved to get some exercise by
landing on the broken banks. No village, no house was
near, only the wildly cleft mountain rocks, separated from
the river by a meadow of a hundred paces' width at the
utmost. Scrambling among the heaps of stones and bare rifts,
I found many tracks of jackals and some burrows, and
therefore turned my dachshunds in and let them search the
deep gullies, but unhappily with no result.
I also failed in my efforts to creep up to the birds
of prey sitting on the hill-tops and rocks. In those ill-
starred attempts at sport I found some old hollow tombs,
and in them, together with bones, the remains of a mummy
—perhaps merely the flesh and muscles, parched by the hot

i S4 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
dry atmosphere. Returning from the mountains we shot
some quail, which had paused in the narrow meadow,
weary with their long journey.
After a stoppage of scarcely two hours we went on
our further voyage. Towards two, the steamer arrived at
the large and well-situated town of Sohag. We landed at
once to explore the neighbourhood.
The Grand Duke and I went round the most distant
quarter of the town, by the barracks of the small garrison,
and sought by some large pools for various kinds of birds.
The many lookers-on, and the flocks of buffaloes and
camels coming to water, drove us thence ; and following
the dyke of the famous Canal of Joseph, we came past
scattered houses and flourishing fields and gardens to a
wood of high tamarisks, sycamores, and palms.
This excellent cover served as a sleeping-place to great
numbers of birds, and soon after sundown we shot many
of the astonished slumberers. A dwarf eagle, several kites,
falcons, crows, two owls, and a lot of palm-doves became
our prey in the course of a few minutes.
In the matter of landscape, too, this forest, consisting
solely of African trees, had many charms, and we left most
unwillingly the perfumed, rich, green shade, whose abound
ing vegetation recalled the glowing fancies of the " Arabian
Nights." Keeping along the dyke we soon reached the
town, and riding through several narrow but busy streets
got back to our steamer.
Mudir Ali Pasha had kindly lent me his large snow-
white donkey, named Abu-Gebel, a remarkably fine speci
men, of purest Arab breed ; and as I had been very much

A FELLOW-PASSENGER.

.85

pleased during my ride with the excellent paces of the
animal, he gave it to me. We had now to find quarters
for the ass on the deck of the ship ; a stall was put up

ODR FELLOW-PASSENGER.
for him, and he soon made his entry into our moving
home. We started very early next day on our further
voyage to Siut. The steamer made its last station at one

1 86 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
stretch. We arrived there at noon. An avenue leads
from the landing-place into Siut ; it is the most important
and considerable town above Cairo, is the seat of a Mudir,
and has a considerable trade and superior buildings. It
is true the houses are even here built of clay, but they
are higher, and decorated with better Arabian ornaments,
than the other more southerly towns of the Nile. The
minarets and the handsome gates of the town at once
strike the traveller ; shady sycamore avenues and fruitful
gardens surround the town in the direction of the river.
We rode through some narrow streets, and between the
stalls along the whole length of the very noticeable bazaar,
which the caravan route from Darfur, which terminates
here, keeps richly supplied with ostrich feathers and ivory.
The red and black pottery of Siut are also a specialty.
The stir and activity which prevailed in this bazaar
interested me much. The inhabitants of the Valley of the
Nile, from all the provinces of Egypt, in their gay and
varied costumes, were side by side with the genuine
commercial fellaheen.
We crossed the town, and from the opposite side, passing
along a dyke and over the well-known Canal of Joseph,
reached the foot of the steep mountains. At Siut the
mountains come nearer to the river, and the broad plain of
cultivated land above and below is narrowed for a short
space. We climbed straight up a steep and narrow path
to look at the caves and sepulchral chapels which stand
half-way up the mountain among the rocks and rubble.
This place had a certain importance in ancient times.
Ossiut, the largest and most important town of Upper Egypt,

SIUT. 187

takes its present designation from the old name of Siaut.
Anubis, the jackal-headed divinity, formerly had her temples
and altars here. All animals of canine race were sacred to
her — the wolf especially — hence the Greek name of the town
Lykopolis, " the city of the wolf." In the caves of the
mountains which lie behind Ossiut, and which are a spur
of the Libyan chain, the embalmed bodies of animals of
the above family are still found in good preservation, and
in close proximity to famous mausoleums which date from
the times of the thirteenth dynasty (b.c. 2200), and which
belonged to high officers of state of that period. We
entered one of these chambers hewn in the rock. It
was large, but beyond its peculiar shape we found nothing
worth looking at inside it.
Our party now divided ; some of the gentlemen strolled
with their guns towards the town, while I clambered
through a narrow gorge to the ridge, and obtained a
beautiful view over the town, the Valley of the Nile, the
Arabian mountains opposite, and the orange plateau of the
Libyan mountains behind me.
I descended by another path into the valley, down steep
rocks and among blocks and heaps of stone, passing many
funeral caves and some skeletons, and finally reached the
Mohammedan burying-ground. This very large Moslem
city of the dead, with its many fine monuments, deserves
to be visited. It extends westward from Siut, and reaches
at one end to the blooming gardens of the cultivated land,
and at the other to the desert waste.
I walked back into the town, and lingered in the streets
of the remoter suburbs, watching the ways of the people, and

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

also shot some carrion vultures between the houses ; they
had assembled in great numbers in the vicinity of the
flayers' yards. In the afternoon I returned through the
better quarters of the town, to dine on board the steamer.
At sunset we all rode once more to the foot of the
mountains, and posted ourselves at different points. Some
of the gentlemen went to the graves in the rocks, while I
concealed myself in one of the buildings of the Moham
medan graveyard. It was a beautiful evening ; perfect
stillness reigned around, and only a gentle breeze stirred
the leafy tops of the sycamores.
Unfortunately no four-footed game came to my am
bush ; on the other hand, I watched more than twenty large
vultures in the distance, who came one after the other to
roost in a high cliff. It was amusing to see how the birds
quarrelled over their perches for the night. Naturally
enough, none of them desired to sit below the others, and
it was a long time before they all succeeded in squatting
one beside the other in a long fissure in the rock.
I had to leave the graveyard at the end of an hour, as
the time for our journey drew on. At the Canal of Joseph
I joined my companions. They had seen jackals and a
large wolf, but all, unfortunately, in the rocks, and out of
fire. The Grand Duke had also seen a vampire (the bird
is as large as a raven) at the moment when the disgusting
creature was coming out of a tomb.
We rode quickly back to the landing-place, bade a hearty
farewell to our worthy dark-hued admiral and the brave
ship which had been our abode during days of enjoyment
which can never be forgotten, and went to the adjoining

EXCITEMENT AMONG THE VULTURES.

MEMPHIS. 189

railway-station. The train soon steamed away from Siut
to the north, and sweet sleep quickly settled on the
travellers. When I woke, early on the morning of the
15th, the sun was shining into the carriages, and we were
already in the neglected little station of Bedrashen. We
breakfasted in the dirty waiting-room, and then started on
the ride to Memphis. The road ran between marshy pools,
well-kept fields, and great palm-forests, to the little village
of Mitrahenne, which lies hidden in the plenteous verdure
of African vegetation.
I will now let Brugsch take my place. " The tales and
traditions of the glory and the greatness of the old town
of Memphis, or, as it is called in Egyptian inscriptions,
Mem-nofir, i.e. ' good pasture,' have for ever passed away.
The temples and the houses of the old kings of Memphis
who had taken up their residence there have vanished from
the face of the earth, and not one single stone of the
ruins which remain awakes the recollection of the first
and earliest founders of the town. The space enclosed
by tumbling earth-walls, which extends by the palm-girt
village of Mitrahenne (old Minet-ra-hannu) to the north and
south, marks the centre of the vast abode of the Memphites,
the former site of the national sanctuary. Here stood the
temples of the god Ptah, the great artist and maker of all
created things. The sanctuary of this god, protected by
strongly fortified lines, which bore the name of ' white wall,'
or ' white fortress,' formed the citadel of the town, in which
the palladium of the empire was vigorously defended
against all external and internal foes, throughout the whole
period of Egyptian history.

190

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

" The few remains of antiquity which are still extant on
the much and oft-traversed ground of this sacred spot
belong to edifices of later times ; temples by the erection of
which certain individual kings of Theban origin sought to
give proof of their pious sympathy for the ancient sanc
tuary of the kingdom. Ramses II., the adoptive father of
Moses, also called Sestura (i.e. the Sesostris of classical
tradition), born 1350 B.C., stands at the head of these royal
founders. The remains of the buildings initiated by him,
which are partly extensions of older ruined temples, and
partly special buildings in their neighbourhood, now lie
scattered over the ground. His own statue, of colossal
size, which once stood before the gate of the great Ptah
temple, one of the masterpieces of Egyptian sculpture,
worked in fine marble-like limestone, now lies overthrown
in a pit which the Nile water fills to the brim at its annual
overflow. " The features of this famous Pharaoh vividly recall those
of his portrait, — the fine statue in the museum at Turin.
The numerous fragments which lie around the statue of
Ramses, and which bear the names of his successors, and
in particular that of his son, the next king, Mineptah (the
Pharaoh of the exodus of the Jews), show that these kings
paid due homage by dedicating gifts of all kinds to the
supreme divinity of the earliest Egyptian history.
"A sacred bull, the Apis (old Egyptian Hapu), was
dedicated to the same god Ptah as his living embodiment,
and was kept beside the great temple, in one of its outer
courts, tended with the utmost care, and worshipped. On
each occasion of the death of the sacred bull its solemn

APIS TOMBS OF SAKKARA. 191
interment was arranged at great expense, and its carcase,
well embalmed and adorned with rich decorations, was
borne on a car to the place of the Apis graves."
We rode from Memphis, beyond the cultivated land, up
into the great Libyan desert, to the Pyramids of Sakkara,
and past Mariette's house to the Apis tombs.
The country here has exactly the same character as
that at the Pyramids of Ghizeh. These Pyramids can be
seen from those of Sakkara, as well as Cairo, its citadel,
and the terraced forms of the Mokattam mountains.
We penetrated, provided with torches, into the sub
terranean labyrinth of passages of the Apis tombs. They
seemed interminable, and the air was dry and oppressive.
"In the most brilliant period of Egyptian history, as also
later, under the foreign Ptolemean princes, the bulls were
placed in gigantic sarcophagi of the hardest stone, and
laid in separate compartments of the underground galleries.
They are placed in chronological order one after the other,
each grave having its own inscription. The Apis tombs
of Memphis, which are now made accessible to strangers
in the most convenient way, contain twenty-four of these
colossal sarcophagi. The series of bulls buried here began
with the middle of the sixteenth century B.C., and closed at
the time of the Emperor Augustus.
"The animals which lived before that period found
resting-places after death in the terraced Pyramid of Sak
kara. In its interior there is a large vaulted space with
separate passages and niches. The bones of bulls which
remain in them distinctly indicate the purpose of this
Pyramid."

192 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
We breakfasted in the small house near the Apis tombs
which had been built for purposes of study by the famous
Egyptologist, Mariette, lately deceased ; and then went to
the curious low-terraced Pyramid to hunt jackals. The
Arabs had scarcely begun to climb the stones when down
came a jackal in full flight and was shot by me. After this
little sporting interlude we visited the other Pyramids in
the neighbourhood, and the small recently opened one of
King Pepi I.
Permit me here to quote some notes about Pyramids in
general, those of Memphis and Ghizeh, and also about the
Sphinx, for which I am indebted to my friend Brugsch.
" The old national god of Memphis, Ptah, in his special
capacity of king of the dead and protector of the departed,
bore the name of Sokar. In this capacity he was abso
lutely identical with the god Osiris of the whole country.
A sanctuary dedicated to him on the site of the present
village of Sakkara bore the old Egyptian designation
' house of Sokar,' from which the Arabic name of the
village Sakkara is directly derived. The graves of the
Memphites, which are grouped round the Pyramids in
regular order, and the oldest of which belong to the
period of the Memphite kings, were under the protection
of this king of the dead. A whole city of the dead arose
on the soil of the desert. Long rows of funeral chapels
built in stone, the so-called 'houses of eternity,' formed
by their continuity the streets of the city. Underneath
them, in deep shafts, were the actual chambers in which the
departed rested in their wooden or stone coffins. The best-
preserved mausoleum of the times of the Memphite kings

*?%%Sk %E\lUM%

INTERIOR DECORATIONS OF THE PYRAMIDS. 193
is that of a certain distinguished Egyptian named Thi.
He lived in the middle of the fourth century B.C., and
prepared a chapel for himself in the vicinity of the Pyramids
of those kings under whose sway he had held his post of
officer of state.
" The richly coloured, delicate, and carefully executed
pictures on the walls of this mortuary have a high value
from the multitude of the scenes from life which they place
before our eyes in the most vivid way — the agriculture and
industries, as well as the sacrificial rites, of these remotest
periods of human history.
" These pictures owe their existence to the belief that
in the world beyond, the earthly goods of a wealthy and
distinguished landowner would still belong to the departed.
Navigation, cattle-breeding, agriculture, the overflow of
the Nile, the handicrafts from the cobbler to the joiner,
painting and sculpture, and, to crown all, administration
down to the humblest clerk ; nothing is forgotten to give to
the pictures the impress of the most life-like exactitude.
The wife and children take a prominent place in these
scenes. The first is especially favoured with the most
flattering qualities, which culminate in the expression, ' Her
beauty was proverbial, and sweet was her gentleness to her
husband.' "
In the cities of the dead of Memphis, which extend
in unbroken succession from Abu-roash to Fayum, the
old graves of the Memphite kings rose visible from afar
at the edge of the desert plateau. These kings ruled in
Egypt from B.C. 4000 to B.C. 2500. Although a large
number of these tombs have ere now been levelled to
13

194 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the ground, those that remain are amply sufficient to enable
us to form a correct judgment as to their style of building,
and the mode of its execution. The grave-chamber has
mostly a pointed roof formed by two limestone monoliths,
which lean against each other, sloping upwards. This
must be regarded as the essential point of every pyramid.
The covering of limestone blocks piled over it takes the
form of a pyramid. The angles of a pyramid were called
in old Egyptian Pir-am-us ; hence the Greek name Pyramis.
The pyramid was added to according to the length of
the reign of the Pharaoh who built it, so that with his
advancing age the pyramid grew likewise. The different
heights of the Pyramids represent, therefore, the length of
the reigns of their royal founders, while their local arrange
ment following each other from north to south presents to
the eye of the spectator their chronological order also.
The entrance to the Pyramids is always turned to the
north. The door is blocked by a drop-stone of granite ;
an oblique and then a level passage terminates in the grave-
chamber itself, in which the mummies of the Pharaohs lie
on the western side in a sarcophagus which is usually of
granite. The stair-like shelves of the Pyramids were filled
with stone blocks polished on the outside, and when fitted
together appeared as a smooth surface, which presented
itself in triangular form from the base to the point as a
complete whole.
The greater number of the Pyramids had been opened
in early time by treasure-seekers. The Persians under
Cambyses, the Romans, the Arabian Caliphs, have all
sought for buried treasure. In our days the attempt has

THE TEMPLE OF THE SPHINX. 195
been made anew to penetrate the interior of the Pyramids
of Sakkara." According to Brugsch Pasha we were the first
Europeans who had visited the Pyramid of King Pepi since
it had been opened.
Even in classical times the three great Pyramids of
Ghizeh were reckoned among the wonders of the world,
and they still excite the admiration of our own blasi con
temporaries. The enormous mass of stone employed in
their construction, and its even distribution as provided for
in the execution of these gigantic monuments, has not its
equal anywhere else. The largest of the three Pyramids
was once four hundred and fifty-one feet in height. Its
cubic contents are estimated at not less than seventy-five
millions of cubic feet. It has been calculated that the
stone employed in building it would suffice to put a wall six
feet high all round France. The inscriptions name King
Chufu, i.e. the Cheops of classical authors, who ruled in
Egypt 3700 B.C., as its builder. The Pyramid which his
son and successor-, Chafra (King Chephres of Greek tra
ditions), erected in a south-westerly direction from that of
his predecessor retains its old coating in the upper part.
At its foot there existed a special sanctuary, in form
like a temple, and built of blocks of limestone, granite, and
alabaster, and which was connected, by a long road leading
to the east, with the so-called Temple of the Sphinx. The
remains of this road are in almost entire preservation, and
have been lately cleared from the sand of the desert. The
grounds of the Temple of the Sphinx, in which, at the bottom
of a now filled-up well, several statues of King Chafra were

196

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

discovered, is a point of special attraction to European
travellers. But no inscription adorns the granite and
alabaster walls of this gigantic structure, and its purpose
remains an unsolved riddle
The following table places the list of the kings who
built the Pyramids and the buildings themselves in a
convenient form.

Pyramid of

Name.

Builder.

Greek Name.

Dynasty.

Abu Roash

Cha

Pharaoh Snefru

Soris

IV. 1

| Chut

„ Chufu

Cheops

» 2

Gizeh

] Uer

„ Chafra

Chephren

,. 3

[ Hir

„ Menkara

Mycerinus

,, 4

Zanit-el-Arian

Kebeh

„ Scheps-kaf

Sebercheres

., 7

Rigah

Ab-set

„ Userkaf

Usercheres

V. 1

1 Chaba

„ Sahurah

Sephres

„ 2

Abusir

„ Keka
„ Nofra

?
?

\ Menset
„ Ranuser
Rathures
„ 6
/ Nuter-set
Menkahor
Meruheres
„ 7
Nofer
Tatkara
Tatcheres
,, 8
Nofer-set
Unas
Onnos
,. 9
Sakkara
/
Tat-set
Teta
Othoes
VI. 1
( ?
Userkara
Usercheres
Men-nofer
Pepi I.
Phiops I.
» 4
Cha-nofer
Hunemsaf
Menthesuphis
» 5
\ Men-aneh
Noferkara (Pepi II.)
Phiops II.
The Sphinx lies with its lower part hidden deep in the
sand. The inscriptions give the figure the name of Hu,
and describe it as a symbolic embodiment of the Sun-god
under his name of Hormachu, i.e. Horus, in the realms of
light. The features of the figure, which are unfortunately
much damaged, represented those of its royal author.
A long inscription between the outstretched fore feet
of the lion's body, now covered in the sand, records a
wonderful dream of one of the later Pharaohs of Egyptian
history. The last, by name Thutmes IV. (buried circa
1530 B.C.), causes what follows to be related of himself.
if

PHARAOH'S DREAM. 197
" See, he was wont to hunt for his pleasure on the
territory of the province of Memphis, southward and north
ward, where he fired with brazen arrows at the mark, and
hunted the lions of the valley of Gazelles. He came here
in his chariot, whose horses were fleeter than the wind.
With him were two of his servants, and no man knew who
they were.
"And behold when the time of rest was come which
he granted to his servants, then he employed it to decorate
the figure of the Sphinx of the god Hormachu, beside the
temple of the god Sohar, at the city of the dead, and the
goddess Ranuti by sacrificial gifts of corn and flowers, and
to pray to Isis, to her who commands the wall of the north
and the wall of the south, and to the goddess Sochet of
Xois, and to the god Sutek. For a mighty spell rests
from ages past on this venerable spot, and even to the
regions which the divinities of Babylon (Old Cairo) inhabit,
and where lies the sacred way of the gods, to the west side
from Heliopolis. For behold the Sphinx form of the great
and lofty god Cheper rests upon this place, and the greatest
of the spirits and the most mighty god tarries here. To
him all the dwellers in Memphis, and those in all the cities
which are in its dominion, lift their hands to worship before
his face and to bring him sacrifices.
" One day it befel that Prince Thutmes came here on
his journey about the time of midday. And after he had
laid himself down in the shadow of this god, sleep laid hold
of him. Dreaming in his sleep at the moment that the sun
stood in the zenith, it seemed to him as though the majesty
of this mighty god spoke to him with his own mouth, as a

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

father speaks with his son while he spake thus : ' Behold
me, and consider me well, thou my son Thutmes. I am thy
father Hormachu, the god Cheper-Ra-Tum. The king
dom shall be given to thee ; thou shalt wear the crown of
Egypt on the throne of the god of the earth Keb ; the whole
earth shall belong to thee, in its breadth and length, lighted
by the beaming eye of the Lord of all. The riches from
the interior of the land, and many tributes from all people,
shall belong to thee, and thou shalt rejoice in length of life
for many years. The best shall be thy portion, for my face
is turned to thee, and my heart belongs to thee. The sand
of the desert on which I have my being has covered me
up. Answer me, that thou wilt do that which is my wish.
Then shall I know that thou art my son and defender.
Come nearer, let me be united to thee.'
" Upon this the prince awoke, and what he had just
heard was repeated. He understood the word of this
god, and kept it to himself in his heart while he thus spake :
' In very deed I see the dwellers in the temples of the town
of Memphis, how they bring sacrifices to this god without
doing anything to protect from the sands the work o>
King Chafra, the image which he has set up to the god
Tum-Hormachu. ..."
The text is injured here, and has become illegible.
The conclusion is nevertheless easy to guess. Thutmes has
the Sphinx cleared of sand, and is in consequence crowned
King of Egypt. The fact is of small historic value, but all
the more interesting is the deduction that even in the
sixteenth century b.c. the body of the Sphinx lay as now,
half buried in deep sand.

NOTES ON FAYUM. I99

I will here add to these historical quotations some notes
respecting Fayum, as it extended to the southern boundary
of the old territory of Memphis. The modern name owes
its origin to the old designation Pa-juma, i.e. the lake land,
with reference to the once most famous and now vanished
Lake Moeris.
Lake Moeris lay formerly in the south-eastern part of
the oasis of Fayum, an artificial reservoir united with the
Nile by a broad canal, and a system of sluices served for
the reception of the surplus water of the overflow.
The water conduits delivered the needful irrigation
to all the principal parts of the oasis, and converted this
once fruitless basin in the course of time into a garden
of God. In consequence of a lack of care on the part of
the Government the lake disappeared after its last waters
had found an outlet in the natural lake of Birket-el-
Karun. The whole country which surrounded Fayum was
reckoned by the old Egyptians as satanic, and for this
reason it never appears in the sacred lists of towns and
names of districts.
Here was the kingdom of Set, the Satan of the
Egyptians, and here the centre of worship of the crocodile,
so hated by the rest of the Egyptians, the servants of
Osiris. To the crocodile a special temple service was
devoted in the town of Crocodilopolis, in the neighbour
hood of the Medinet-el-Fayum of the present day.
Before I leave the most noteworthy and important
parts of Egypt which have drawn our attention for the last
two chapters to the hoar traditions of the departed days of
the rule of the Pharaohs, I will add the subjoined list.

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

THE POLITICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISION OF EGYPT
ACCORDING TO THE STATEMENT ON THE MONUMENT.
A. Pa-to-ris, or the Land of the South.

Province.

Arabic.

Greek.

Sacred Animal.

i. Tepah

Alfih

Aphroditopolis

Cow

2. Smenhur

Isment

Ptolemais

Ram

3. Chinsu

Ahuas

Heracleopolis Magna

Ram

4. Pimaza

Pemdige

Oxyrinchus

Beaked bandolus
(fish)
Dogs

5. Habennu

Hebe

Hipponus

6. Kasa

Kai's

Cynopolis

Dogs

7. Hibonu

Minieh

Hiu

Ram

8. Chimunu

Aschmun

Hermopolis Magna

Ibis

9. Kus

Kos

Cusae

Dogs

10. Siaut

Ossiut

Lykopolis

Dogs

1 1. Nientbaki

Hieracoupolis

Falcon

12. Shasholf

Sholp

Hypselis

Ram

13. Tebu

Atfi

Aphroditopolis

Cow

14. Apu

Abu

Panopolis

Ichneumon

15. Abidu

Harabat

Abydus

Beetle

16. Hau

Hon

Diospolis Parva

Cow

17. Tentaris

Dendera

Tentyra

Cow

18. Kobti

Kift

Koptus

Ram

19. Ni-amon

Lugsor-Karnak

Thebae

He-goat

20. Nechab

El-Kab

Eileithyiapolis

Vulture

21. Teb

Edfu

Apollinopolis M.

Falcon

22. Ab

Assuan

Elephantine

He-goat

B. Pa-to-enchit, or the Land of the North.

Province.

Arabic.

Greek.

Sacred Animal.

1. Kosem (Goshen

Fakus

Phakusa

Hawk

of Scripture)

2. Am
Far-ama
Pelusium
Serpent
3. Pibast (Pibe-
Tell-bast
Bubastis
Cats
seth of Scrip
ture)
4. To-mchit (No-
Damiat
Diospolis
He-goats
amon of
Scripture)
5. Bindad
Amdid
Mendes
He-goats
6. Chimum
Ashmun
Hermopolis
Ibis
7. Zaan (Zoan of
San
Tanir
Falcon Gull
Scripture)
8. On (On of
Matarieh
Heliopolis
Ox
Scripture)
9. Thabennuter
Samanud
Sebennytus
Falcon
10. Kahebes
?
Cynopolis
Crocodile
11. Hatarihab
Etrib
Athribis
Ox
12. Pusisi
Abusir
Busiris
Ram
GEOGRAPHICAL TABLES.

B. Pa-to-enchit, or the Land of the North

— Continued.

Province.

Arabic.

Greek.

Sacred Animal.

13. Pitom (also in

Tell-el-Kebir

Patumus

Eel

Scripture)

14. Sontinofer

Alexandria

Gynaecopolis

Crocodile

15. Chasun

Hasse

Sals

Ram

16. Sai

Sa

Prosopis

Cow

17. Zokpir

Shebshir

Apis

Crocodile

18. Ni-ent-hapi

?

Letopolis

Ox

19. Sochem

Ausim

Memphis

Hawk

20. Menofir (Noph

Munf

Ox
of Scripture)
After we had scrambled into the Pyramid of King
Pepi I. with some pains and difficulty, we left the desert
and its ancient monuments and rode back into the culti
vated land.
The road led past a plantation of areca, a very attrac
tive plant for hunting reasons, and we resolved to have it
beaten by our servants and some fellaheen, but unluckily
the owner suddenly appeared and desired us not to trespass
on his property.
This inflexible personage was an old negro, a eunuch
of giant size, but thin, with rather flaccid features, and robed
in long wide garments — one of the ugliest and most
offensive-looking men that I ever remember to have seen.
In his respectable career he had acquired a great deal of
money, and now spent his old age on his own extensive
estate. Avoiding a dispute with this individual, we rode
at one stretch to Bedrashen, whence the railway brought
the whole party in less than an hour to Cairo. After this
long expedition, full of the most delightful experiences, we
re-entered the beautiful City of the Caliphs.
CHAPTER VI.
A Day in Cairo — Damietta — Port Said — Through the Canal of
Suez to Ismailia — From Ismailia to Cairo — Four Days in Cairo
— Journey to Suez — The Red Sea — Journey to Ismailia — Stay
there — To Port Said.
We drove from the station through the beautiful avenue of
trees, across the great Nile bridge, into the ancient City
of the Caliphs, whose streets at this hour, late in the
afternoon, were full of life.
Carriages and horsemen, swift-footed runners, Western
bustle and activity by the side of caravans of camels,
veiled fellaheen women, braying asses, water-carriers, and
blind beggars — all this glides rapidly past, and glad were
we again to enjoy the life of Cairo. Through the European
quarter and over the canal bridge, we soon reached the
Shubra Avenue and our own Kasr-en-Nusha.
After a bath and dinner the magic of African moon
light tempted some of us out, and we drove in hired
carriages into the town.
We stopped at the Esbekiye Garden, and went through
the balmy plantations, by the pond, and round amongst the
artificial waterfalls, rocks, and kiosks. People were sitting
at most of the restaurants — chiefly Levantines belonging to
the commercial classes — young men passing the time in
drinking, listening to music, or playing at cards.

THE ESKEBIYE GARDEN. 203

This garden is an extraordinary boon to the Cairenes,
especially in the hot part of the year. It is beautifully
laid out and well kept, and luxuriant and blooming by
favour of the climate. Its moment of greatest perfection
is at the full moon ; and yet we were not satisfied. The
moonlight of Cairo seemed to us pale and dim compared
with that of glorious Assuan.
From the Esbekiye Garden we made a round through
the old Arab quarter. We had unwittingly chosen a very
favourable evening. The Moslems were celebrating the
feast of the great El-Hosseln, and thus we enjoyed, in
the streets near the mosque dedicated to him, the very
striking sight of an Oriental popular festival at night.
Great crowds moved up and down in the narrow streets.
The shops and Arab coffee-houses were open, and lighted
lamps and candelabra were fastened to the houses, and
bright carpets stretched across the streets. Glass lustres,
lighted, hung from coloured cords over the middle of the
streets, and all the houses were more or less brilliantly
decorated according to the wealth of their owners. Every
thing was gay with light, colour, and the most incredible
variety of trifles.
Moslems of every class and trade elbowed each other ;
country folk in their blue shirts, screaming water-carriers,
wailing cripples and beggars, Bedouins in white burnous,
portly merchants, fine gentlemen in gay and flowing apparel
with green turbans on their heads, in token of descent from
the Prophet, soldiers and dealers of all kinds — all moving
together towards the mosque, which was bright with all its
lights streaming from the widely opened door.

204 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
From thence the crowd moved towards the upper part
of the street, where serpent-charmers, conjurers, rope-
dancers, dancing women, and similar performers had
improvised in the open street an Eastern fair.
Brugsch Pasha, who accompanied us on this occasion,
dissuaded us from going in our European dress into the
mosque, which at that hour was thronged by religious
fanatics ; so we pushed our way to the shows and jugglers,
where we could watch the genuine national life of the
people. The street is a gentle ascent, so we could obtain
from the top a survey of the whole medley, the strange
colouring, and the lights. It seemed almost too wild and
frantic forthe Mohammedan East, and reminded me forcibly
of a Viennese ballet which represents a Chinese popular
festival. After a time we went back to the European quarter,
where the coffee and wine shops were still busy. Here,
as elsewhere in the south, night is turned to day, and
we saw rich and poor Levantines in European dress, but
with the fez on their heads, playing at billiards, engaged at
the card table, or listening to the band.
Next morning we paid a visit to the Viceroy, to thank
him for the great hospitality we had received on our
voyage up the Nile. This was no official visit, so we
drove quietly in the forenoon through the still empty streets
to the palace. We spent a quarter of an hour with the
Khedive, drinking the customary coffee, and smoking
excellent cigarettes. He inquired with much interest
about our experiences on our delightful Nile voyage.
We returned from the palace by the shortest road to

THE FESTIVAL.

GEZIREH AND GIZEH. 205
Kasr-en-Nusha, to put on our shooting suits, and after
a brief pause the whole party started on an excursion to
the vice-regal country seats of Gezireh and Gizeh outside
the city.
The gardens are of quite unique beauty, with lakes,
water-works, fountains, kiosks, hidden green alleys, and
shady paths, a richness of verdure and a wealth of flowers
of almost overpowering perfume such as only this climate
could produce. The refined taste and luxurious habits of
Orientals inured by the heat of the climate to inactive lives
could alone devise such a thing. The gorgeous visions
portrayed in the sensuous fairy-tales of the East were here
realized ; and here, as in the fairy-tales, enjoyment was
made the sole purpose of life. The menagerie, so famous
under the last Viceroy, unfortunately no longer exists, and
we found only empty cages.
The house itself did not please us so much. The
building was vast, of no particular style, but almost wholly
European, a bit of Arab decoration here and there alone
telling of the East. In the interior the great staircases
and halls, and, above all, the innumerable rooms, seemed
Western ; but they were at once over-coloured and bald-
looking. Some divans beautifully covered, cool marble
pavements, little window niches, vases with running water,
and charming baths, reminded us that we were in the
East. The many palaces in and around Cairo are almost
all uninhabited. Some old princesses wear their dreary
lives to an end in them, and as keeping the buildings up
would cost enormous sums, they are allowed to fall to

206 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
decay — a process likely, from the hasty and reckless mode
of building them, to go on pretty quickly.
We visited every corner of the gardens and houses,
and then drove to the Pyramids of Gizeh. The heat was
oppressive, and a strong wind blew the sand of the
desert into nose and eyes ; so we were glad when the long
road along the dyke was left behind, and we reached the
foot of these giant structures.
The purpose of this second visit was a jackal hunt,
and the ascent of the great Cheops Pyramid. Some Arabs
began at once to search the venerable piles. Only two
jackals were found : the Grand Duke killed the one, and I
fired at the other, but from too great a distance, and the
wounded beast dragged itself painfully off into the desert.
The third small Pyramid was quite empty, and so we
were soon at liberty to address ourselves to the ascent
of the huge mountain of stone. My companions accom
plished the toilsome but not perilous task in twenty
minutes. I wished to give the Arabs who crowd round
the tourists, and hoist them from step to step, a little
brisk exercise, and jumping from stone to stone I reached
the very summit in nine minutes. From the small plat
form there one obtains a fine view over the green Valley
of the Nile, the wide-stretching fertile plain of Lower
Egypt, the orange-coloured deserts on both sides, and
the beautiful town of Cairo, with its sea of houses and
its high minarets.
The sun was declining. In the yellow mist of the
heated atmosphere, thick with whirling sand, its disc
looked like a fiery ball slowly disappearing in the Libyan

A RACE ON THE PYRAMIDS. 207

desert; dark shadows lay on the eastern mountains, and
the old citadel, as well as the Mokattam mountains, shone
in rosy tints like our Alpine glow.
Some of the Pyramid guides especially expert in
running, went, in virtue of a handsome backsheesh, in
eight minutes down from the top of the Cheops Pyramid
and up to the summit of that of Chefren, the upper part
of which, having no steps, is very dangerous to climb.
After this display of activity we too climbed down
from our lofty station. On the way a young guide, with
a fine and genuinely Arab countenance, told me that he
was no Egyptian — not one of the miserable fellaheen — but
had the honour to spring from a noble stock in Algiers,
and as a man who had seen the world, knew not only
Tunis but also Morocco, where the true Arabs live, and
not the wretched mixed races of the Valley of the Nile.
The good man seemed to feel much irritation with his
present compatriots, and gave his feelings full vent as he
saw that the conversation interested me.
At the foot of the Pyramids we had to look on at
a performance by some Bedouins. They rode past
each other at full speed, discharging their guns. Neither
the men, their horses, their clothes, nor their arms were
handsome or genuine. Wheresoever the great army of
Baedecker-reading tourists turns, there one finds trickery,
exaction, and these so-called national displays. The
Pyramids are as much a station for tourists as the Rigi ;
and the hired Bedouins, with their foolish tricks, belong
to the same category as the wooden chamois which you
find stuck up in Switzerland.

208 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

The evening drew in, and we had to hasten home by
the road by which we had come, and through the streets
of the town, which at this hour were very animated.
The moment dinner was over we drove to the railway
to set out on our expedition to Menzaleh.
Some gentlemen had assembled in the station at
Cairo to bid us farewell — among them our friend Brugsch
Pasha. Baron Saurma was also present and ready to
accompany us to Lake Menzaleh. In a few minutes
Herr Zimmerman, our faithful attendant on all our railway
journeys, told us that it was time to start.
We talked a great deal for the first hour in the train,
and then one after the other betook himself to rest.
In order that our sleep should not be broken, they were
so good as to allow our carriage to stand in the station
at Damietta, which we reached during the night. When
we woke, therefore, before sunrise on the 17th of March,
we found ourselves alone on a siding.
As soon as all the party had assembled, we went
down to the bank of the canal, and were taken in a
small steamer to the opposite side.
The town pleased me very much. It is genuinely
Arab, and yet the parts which border the canal reminded
us at once of a Dutch or Belgian seaport, The many
little sailing vessels going up and down, with their jolly
masts and flags, make Damietta look like Antwerp
translated into Arabic.
We went on foot from the quay to the house of our
consular agent, a wasted and intensely droll old man,
who was extremely kind to us. The interior of the town

DAMIETTA. 209
is thoroughly Eastern; the streets, if possible, dirtier,
narrower, and more decorated with wooden nooks and
notches than most Arab towns. Where there is no water
running past the houses, the old Dutch character disappears.
Damietta has, however, undeniably more of a northern
air (if the word be allowed in Africa) than the Arab
quarter of Cairo, or the towns of Upper Egypt. One
realizes that it might sometimes be almost cold here,
and the presence of the sea makes itself felt in dew.
The houses are more solidly built, better roofed ; in a
word, arranged to be more and longer lived in. At our
worthy representative's everything was in splendid order- — ¦
European rooms with Turkish rugs, Arab servants, and
the perfume of the East, the horrible attar of roses,
pervading the whole house. In everything it could be
seen that the owner was a genuine Levantine.
After a hasty breakfast, during which our small stock
of luggage had been placed on pack-horses, we started
anew. Some of us were mounted on asses, two of the
gentlemen got into an old-fashioned coach, the pride of the
place, and in a few minutes the little caravan was in
motion to the regulation yells of the donkey-drivers. We
went through some streets, and then reached by a good
road between gardens, country houses, small palm woods,
and along a canal, the shore of the lake. Three miserable
little fishermen's huts stood on the sandy beach. Behind
us were lofty palms, thick hedges, and blooming verdure ;
before us lay the broad, boundless grey-brown lake, with
its flat dunes and marshy shores, the image of drear
monotony and sleepy dulness.

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

At Lake Menzaleh I could really not believe myself
to be still in the Egypt hitherto so rich in colour. The
weather was not favourable either ; the moisture of the sea
was perceptible, and a disagreeable cold wind made sport
with the grey rain-clouds, and the whole sky was veiled in
gloom. Here we seemed to be in the north once more,
and we thought with sorrow of the never-to-be-forgotten
sun of Assuan. This very unlovely lake might just as well
have been appended to one of the plains of Northern
Europe ; it was dull and tiresome enough to have filled
the position worthily.
A flotilla of small sailing dahabiye lay in front of
the fishing cottages. I think that the reef pirate of
antiquity can have used no worse boats ; our Istrian
trabakels are frigates compared with them. We had to
choose for ourselves among these wretched vessels. The
Grand Duke, Baron Saurma, the chaplain, and I took
possession of the biggest, and two gentlemen went in
each of the others. Another followed as cook's galley,
and in it went the provender and the cook.
It will suffice to describe the arrangement of one of
these boats. They were all of them bad. In front there
was a platform round the mast; on this were some cane
seats and a small table. Here the day had to be spent,
and here at night the two huntsmen and the crew had to
sleep. On lifting the hatch you opened a small receptacle
which served to store the luggage. In the centre of
the vessel, down two steps, there was a small cabin with
glass windows. This cabin was divided into two parts—
in the outer there were two narrow beds and nothing

LAKE MENZALEH.

else, and in truth there was room for nothing more ; in
the other there was a kind of press, into which, with the
exercise of some dexterity, one could climb, but it was so
low that one could only lie down. Two mattresses filled
the scanty space. Here two small men with limbs which
did not object to being doubled up would have to lie
beside each other. The rest of the crew had to sleep
on the top of this cabin. The helm hung behind.
The crew were all fishermen of the lake, in wide, gay
robes, with turbans on their heads, not too clean and
smelling of stale fish. Not one of them was of Arab type ;
they had dun-brown skins, broad faces, and flat noses,
and were of muscular build, but not so thin and sinewy
as most Arabs. At the first glance one saw that they were
a foreign stock ; and, in fact, the borders of Lake Menzaleh
are inhabited by the descendants of the ancient Hyksos,
one of those Kushite tribes who were the overthrowers
of the fourteenth dynasty, and who have kept their race
unmixed. We had to live on our small vessel in the
closest contact with these scientifically interesting, but
personally unattractive people.
Just before our start a blinded pelican was brought on
board as decoy bird, which however struck far and near
with its beak, and was so dirty that we sent it back to land
in a few minutes.
Each vessel had a small boat fastened to it and the
voyage began. These people handled their sails very
skilfully, and by the help of a strong west wind the little
fleet glided quickly over the water. The Lake of Men
zaleh is one of the largest brackish-water lakes in the

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

world, a colossal lagoon, separated by a narrow line of
dunes from the sea. Its western and southern boundaries
are long reaches of marsh, and to the east it finds its
outlet at the inner dyke of the Canal of Suez.
Leaving Damietta you have to the north the yellow
line of dunes ; to the south, in the far distance, the green
margin of the terra firma ; to the east the prospect is
extensive, and land and water melt into each other as at
sea. At first we saw but few islands, and those at a great
distance. The depth of the lake throughout its forty-five square
miles is nowhere greater than would reach the hips. The
bottom is stiff clay. In storms, which are sometimes very
violent, drowning is precluded by the fact that one can
stand and walk in all parts of it, so one gets at worst a
copious bath.
In the winter months this lagoon is literally covered
by migratory birds of all kinds, and especially ducks and
geese. In the second half of March one could only
reckon on the home birds and some late-travelling northern
species. The sea and imperial eagles, which frequent
the lake in great numbers in winter, were also absent,
and only some spotted eagles were seen among the
islands. We agreed to separate at first and take different lines,
but all to keep within sight, and to meet at noon at a given
signal for luncheon. We soon saw some pelicans swim
ming, but an attempt to get near them in a small boat
failed as usual, and we pursued our way in the dahabiye.
After a short sail we got into the region of the islands.

PELICANS. 213
The central part of the lake is entirely filled with absolutely
flat islands, great and small, most of them set in a circlet
of sand-banks. On these are flocks of pelicans in incredible
numbers — great red and white patches larger than the
islands themselves, and sparkling gloriously in the sun
beams ; living islands visible for miles off : thus are the
great swarms of birds to be seen in Africa.
Slowly and cautiously we approached one of these
many thousand-headed companies. We searched carefully
with the telescope ; only pelicans, not a single flamingo was
to be seen, and these we had especially hoped to meet
with. When we were at a distance of at least five hundred
paces, the birds began to grow uneasy, to stretch their
long necks, and move their wings. At the word of com
mand four rifles gave the astonished birds their morning
greeting. Much disquiet, lively flapping of wings, and a general
flutter up was the reply. The white island transformed
itself into a gigantic cloud which cast a perfect and
compact shadow on the water. Now began a smart single
fire, which, strange to say, took no effect. The distance
in this kind of shooting is always an enormous one, and
the mass of birds, which looks so close and serried, has
nevertheless many intervals and gaps in it in which balls
may easily go astray. One solitary pelican shot in the
first volley floated dead on the water ; one of our sailors
waded across to fetch it.
The further we got inside the islands the more lively
the scene became. Sea-mews and sea-swallows, with the

2i4 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

common wild duck, disported themselves on the water in
quantities. Spoonbills, divers, and smaller ducks which one
could not distinguish in the distance, swam around. Grey,
silver, and king herons stood on the islands, and flocks
of smaller indigenous birds of various kinds swarmed on
the sand-banks. No island offered sufficient attraction to
induce us to halt. It was not till midday, after the fleet
had assembled, and all the gentlemen on our dahabiya
had profited by the breakfast prepared in the galley ship
during the passage, that a larger island, adorned with a
white tower, presented itself to our eyes.
This was an old sheik's tomb of a saint much esteemed
on Lake Menzaleh. A miserable fishing hut stands beside
the ruined building with its round cupola and lantern-like
slender minaret. A narrow channel separates the island
from another islet.
We resolved to stop here and shoot on foot. The
herons of various kinds disappeared in a moment at our
first attempt at approach. On the other hand, we found
on the shore a quantity of smaller birds — the avoset or
scooper, that very remarkable black-and-white coloured
bird with long spindle legs and upturned beak, ruffs also,
and four or five different kinds of the family of strand-
runners. We separated, rambling in different directions.
The shots soon cracked merrily, and in less than half an
hour the little island had been completely shot over.
The islands themselves are so peculiar in their forma
tion that they deserve a few words of description. They
are almost all very narrow but long, covered with
shells, one might almost say formed out of them. The

A CLOUD OF FLAMINGOES. 215
whole surface is overgrown with thick dark-green tamarisk
bushes. The shores are flat and sandy, and in some places
clay comes to the surface. Feathers lie about everywhere
— the down of the great pelican and of the rosy flamingo,
together with that of the most various water-fowl.
Some islands, especially those which are surrounded
by large sand-banks, seem to be completely plastered over
with thick layers of guano, and in the clay one can see
the footprints of all kinds of marsh and water birds. At
one place I also found the track of an ichneumon. After
our brief but successful sport we continued our voyage
eastward. We wished this day to get as far as the region of the
flamingoes, and, in fact, we soon saw between the islands a
long rosy bank of this singular creature. It was a lovely
sight. A narrow tongue of land had to be crossed ; so we
stopped the dahabiye, and urged the other gentlemen, as
the afternoon was already far gone, to disperse among the
islands, and to meet at this point for night quarters.
Our small boat was drawn across the island, to approach
the flock of birds from the opposite bank. When we had
got within about four hundred paces of them, unrest and
movement began to show itself among the flamingoes, who
had hitherto stood motionless. Thereupon we gave them
the first volley. Forthwith a marvellous rosy cloud sailed
upwards into the far distance. One specimen was left
behind, half standing, half swimming in the water. We saw
with the glass that the bird was wounded, and, glad to get
it, had ourselves rowed towards it. As the boat drew near
the wounded bird began to beat its wings, and, fluttering

216 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
low over the water, disappeared from our sight behind the
islands. Much disappointed, we continued our voyage to a
long island with a large white sand-bank ; some smaller
game was shot on the way. Our purpose now was to seek
suitable points for our evening stations, for the water-fowl
had begun already gradually to assemble.
Unluckily this very suitable looking island was already
occupied. An old and very ragged bird-catcher sat in a
hut built out of small branches. His child crouched beside
him — an urchin covered over with flies, gnats, and every
description of vermin. He had connected himself by cords
with some large eel-nets near the bank.
A poor blind and most melancholy looking pelican was
tied to a stake, as decoy bird, and likewise some ten or
twelve blinded cormorants. It seemed indeed to be a
most suitable spot, for the ground was covered to such an
extent with putrefying fish, guano, and feathers, that a
European could not long have held out there. The poor
bird-catcher appeared to be no way pleased at our visit, and
muttered some grumbling words into his shaggy beard.
We did not incommode him long, but rowed quickly
off to a long narrow island which lay opposite. On arriving,
different points were assigned to each of us. The thick
bushes afforded capital cover, and there was soon complete
stillness on the island. The flight of birds began. Cor
morants, spoonbills, some heron, several moor-buzzards, and
small shore birds of various kinds came by, but mostly too
far off. A few were shot, but on the whole the shooting
was not a success. Flamingoes, alone or in parties of as

NIGHT ON LAKE MENZALEH.

OUR NIGHT QUARTERS. 2ly

many as ten, also passed to and fro, but out of shot ; the
great flocks were not seen till after sundown. The flamingo
on the wing is a most ridiculous object. Its long neck, and
its feet, which it carries horizontally, look like a long staff
to which two wings are hung.
The wind increased in the evening, and the waves beat
hard on the shore of the island. The clouds broke some
what, and we enjoyed the sight of a fine sunset. The
western heaven was a red purple, its hue was reflected by
the lake, and the sun sank slowly into the tremulous
waves. We set out for our vessel as soon as it was quite dark.
We had first to march knee-deep through the thick bushes
of the long island ere we reached our boat at its western
point. After a short passage we arrived at the narrow island
close to the shore of which our dahabiye lay strongly
moored. All the gentlemen were there. Each one had
*
brought some game, and no one much. No one had got
a flamingo, in spite of the numerous shots sent from
immense distances after this exceedingly shy bird.
The evening was chill, and we had to dine on our
dahabiye wrapped in our cloaks. Some lanterns illu
mined the strange picture ; the little flotilla beside the
narrow islet, in the dark night, on the desolate lake, far
from any human abode, made a most singular impression.
The perfect stillness was only broken by the monotonous
splash of the waves and the hoarse voices of the Arabs.
Conversation soon died out, and Arab and European
snoring, harmoniously blending, was the only sound. I

218 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
shall never forget the night in this narrow cell. We had
fallen on a perfect menagerie of vermin, and gigantic fleas
devoured our poor bodies.
On the 1 8th we left our dahabiya, while it was still quite
dark, resolved to scatter ourselves once more among the
islands, and to await the morning passage of the birds. I
had myself rowed to a narrow island, crept up in the grey
dawn to a small group of flamingoes — failed with a shot
from a huge distance, and thereupon hid myself in the
thick shrubs. A variety of birds passed, and I bagged
several, among them a glossy heron. Clusters of flamin
goes, forming positive clouds of thousands of these rosy
creatures, went by in the most various directions up and
down, but all out of range.
When the time was over we gathered again at the
sailing boats. It was a most unpleasant day ; the sky was
thickly covered with clouds, a keen strong wind blew
across the water, and scuds of rain drenched us periodically.
As a side wind carried us towards the southern part of
the lake, we saw from time to time gigantic troops of
pelicans and flamingoes standing on the sand-banks. We
made for one of these companies in the boat, and in so
doing passed an island entirely covered with sea-mews and
spoonbills. A salvo was again given to the flamingoes
without result. Colossal clouds of birds rose, to settle
together in the far distance.
We stopped at one of the small islands to breakfast on
the shore. As the storm was still increasing a council was
held. Our first plan was to go back to Damietta, but the
Arabs declared that with the wind as it was, they must row

PORT SAID. 2I9

and tow us, which would be a very tedious and laborious
proceeding. We had also already reached the centre of the lake.
From our present southern outlook we could see with the
naked eye, in the far distance, a minaret and the palm trees
of the little town of Menzaleh.
The sailors advised us to give up the old programme,
and to make for Port Said. This was a very serious
alteration of the plan of our journey, but it appeared to be
the only rational course, especially as the chief steersman
promised, with the then favourable west wind, to reach Port
Said at full sail the same evening.
Said and done ; we got on board our vessels, and the
light dahabiye sped swiftly between the islands without
stop or stay. The eastern parts of the lake are even
richer in wild birds than the western. We saw quantities
of shovel-birds ; also many species of ducks, and flocks of
sea-mews ; herons likewise, and cormorants. A group of
pelicans were fired at successfully, and a splendid specimen
found its way to the deck of our dahabiya.
In the afternoon the dazzling white lighthouse of Port
Said appeared on the horizon. We saw some flocks of
flamingoes standing in the distance, and others sailing
slowly away. The sky cleared, and we enjoyed the warm
sunbeams, and again had a fine and striking sunset.
Our crew handled their sails very skilfully. They were
excellent and extraordinarily laborious fellows, to whom we
grew quite attached in the two days.
By the time twilight came we could distinguish the
houses of the town and the dyke of the Suez Canal, and by

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

dark we had reached our goal. A few hundred yards
separated us from the shore, but the water was too shallow,
and so not only the whole of our baggage, but we our
selves, had to be carried across by our brave Arabs to the
bank of the canal.
We had sent the swiftest of the dahabiye forward with
a letter ; so a small steamer was already waiting for us at
the canal, and our consul and the port captain, a Dalmatian
by birth, were on the shore. We saw the Canal of Suez
for the first time, and Asia lying on its further side.
The first sight of this quarter of the world was not very
beautiful. Asia presented herself in the form of a dyke.
The steamer brought us quickly to a quay not far from
the hotel. There were none but Europeans in the streets,
and everything that we saw would have been just as
characteristic of an English seaport. The hotel was a
large and perfectly modern one, very well kept, and put
me in mind of Switzerland. Not the shadow of a reminder
of the East. With the exception of an English family, we
were the only guests this evening. Soon after our arrival
an excellent supper was served, and by ten o'clock we
were all safe in our beds.
We left the hotel next morning, and betook ourselves to
a Suez Canal steamer. The commander, a testy old man,
and the whole crew were French. As a general rule the
Canal of Suez and all that belongs to it is a portion of
France herself.
At first we could see over the banks of the canal,
obtaining to the west a view of Lake Menzaleh, and to the
east that of the Asiatic plain of Pelusium.

SET FAST IN THE CANAL OF SUEZ.

The idea of moving along between two quarters of the
globe is exciting ; but one ends by getting used even to
imposing ideas, and wearies of the tedious reality. Gigantic
flocks of pelicans and flamingoes stood by thousands and
thousands on the marshy southern parts of Lake Menzaleh.
We fired across at them, but with no other effect than that
of raising a living cloud larger than it is possible to conceive.
After the lake on our right had come to an end, the
surroundings were desolate indeed. The high banks shut
out all view, and earthworks right and left, however well
constructed, did not present a cheerful picture.
The only variety was meeting with a large English
Indiaman, which had awkwardly got athwart the canal
and blocked the way. Our captain thought we could pass,
and went boldly on. A severe wrench and some small
damage to our ship's sides, and there we were caught by
our English neighbour. We toiled for half an hour to get
free. The rough English captain kept his back turned
to us, as though the matter did not in the least concern
him. At last there was a slight move, a creaking and
groaning of the jammed vessels, another wrench, and we
were free. We had floated the English vessel too by the
shock, and so each ship went her opposite way.
Later we got every now and then, from the captain's
bridge, a view over the bank across the Arabian desert,
the character of which is totally different from that of the
Libyan one. It is all much lighter, almost white, stone
as well as sand; flatter too, at most waving in gentle
sandhills; the numerous small, round, dark-green shrubs
also give it a peculiar aspect.

TRAVELS IN THE 'EAST.

After a passage of many hours we reached the salt lake
of Ismailia and the town of that name — a wholly European
place. The yellowish-white deserts which surround the
lake, too, are mostly quite level. Far off to the south you
see the fine range of the Ataka mountains. The region
is undoubtedly stern and monotonous ; but the dark blue
of the salt water of the lake is in striking contrast to the
light-hued desert shore, and the whole makes a remarkable
combination of colour.
On the short drive to the station we had occasion to
admire the wealth, industry, and good taste of the French.
They have succeeded in evoking from the desert a charm
ing little sea-bathing place, with clean white houses, with
green jalousies, good roads, shady avenues, and well-cared-
for gardens. When our train started we passed some
small marshes, then traversed the desert, which is here
completely Arab. Further on lay a small lake with reeds
about it, and a few wretched cabins were in its neighbour
hood. When the desert hills near the line were low
enough to admit of a distant view, we saw to the south the
lofty Ataka, and further on the mountains of Ammon.
This chain is the same whose western spur is formed by
the familiar Gebel Mokattam.
After a time the desert seemed to retire, and at last
disappeared from sight, and we were once more in the rich
cultivated land of Lower Egypt. We passed the town of
Zagazig and several smaller places. Soon the lovely City
of the Caliphs came into view, golden in the beams of the
setting sun. We took the shortest road from the station to
Kasr-en-Nusha, where we devoted the evening to repose.

HELIOPOLIS ONCE MORE. 223
Early on the 29th we resolved to make another shoot
ing party to Heliopolis. The weather was perfect, the air
fresh and warm. After a long drive on the same bad
road by which we had travelled a month before, we reached
the "Tree of Mary." The dachshunds were set loose to
search for jackals and ichneumons in the small gardens and
thick cactus hedges near, but we soon perceived how fruit
less the search would be, for the season of quails had
come, and we heard shots in all directions. Eastern
Sunday pleasure-seekers, Levantines of all degrees, with
not much of the sportsman about them, ransacked bush
and field, so that it appeared advisable to vacate the
ground. There is a small restaurateur near the " Tree of Mary,"
among gardens and shady trees — a favourite retreat of the
Cairenes. Here we breakfasted, and then went on between
fields and gardens to the ostrich farm. This establishment
lies on the verge of the desert, and belongs to a company
which seems to do a very good business. Everything,
at least, is most comfortably arranged. The director, a
German Swiss, showed us the birds' quarters, the open
sandy spaces, the inner courts, the artificial hatching
apparatus, and all his ostriches, stately birds, both young
and old, of two different species, and in the full beauty of
their fine plumage.
After we had seen all we took the shortest way to the
well-known orange gardens at Heliopolis. We found some
wolf tracks, but the beasts were not at home on this
occasion, and so we vainly searched all the bushes and
grounds of this beautiful orange grove. On our way

224 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
we stopped several times, and made fruitless attempts in
different gardens and one sugar-cane field ; but Diana was
not friendly to us this day, and we returned to Cairo with
empty bags.
When we got home I indulged in an extraordinarily
refreshing genuine Turkish bath, called Hammam. One
must have gone through this performance in the East
itself, where, with all its phases and manipulations, it
lasts an hour, to understand the passion of the Oriental for
his bath and all that belongs to it, and on which he will
spare no expense. The Eastern bath-servants, a special
class, are indispensable to its perfection, and the baths,
appointed as you find them in the houses of wealthy
Orientals, give a quite indescribable sense of enjoyment.
On the 2 ist of March we drove in the morning through
the old town up to the famous citadel. Several gates on
the steep hill-side had to be passed. The sentries on
guard received us with the gay strains of the Egyptian
General March.
The citadel of El-Kala is a mass of buildings, strongly
fortified towards the town by the native rock. Since the
explosion of 1823, modern buildings, erected on the same
spot, have almost entirely supplanted the old fortress of
Saladin of the year 1166, which was built out of ancient
Egyptian ruins. After passing through the first gate, Bab-
el-Gedid, and the vestibule of the second, Bab-el-Wustani,
you catch sight of a second square surrounded by military
and government buildings, and the small palace of the
Viceroy. The most important and interesting object for the

THE CITADEL OF CAIRO.

TOMB OF MEHMET ALI. 225

traveller, the great alabaster mosque Gama Mehmet Ali,
rises in the centre of the citadel. It was built by the
famous founder of the present dynasty, the valorous
Mehmet Ali, on the site of an old ruined palace. Visible
from afar, the slender minarets soar upwards, an emblem of
Cairo. After we had put on the slippers which lay ready,
we entered the colossal building. The size of the square
chamber, the lofty cupola, and the various smaller ones
around, and the walls lined with the yellow alabaster of Beni-
Suef, impress one at first sight ; but on closer examination
one feels how inferior the architectural details are to those
of the old mosques. The fountains, too, are heavy and
without beauty. Some handsome rugs for kneeling wor
shippers, and the richly decorated praying-place turned to
Mecca, drew our attention to the south-eastern side of the
building, where, beside this holy spot of the Moslem, the
sarcophagus of Mehmet Ali stands. It is covered with
rich gold-embroidered curtains, and surrounded by a railing.
At the head, in accordance with the precepts of their creed,
a stone turban is fixed.
We were allowed to pass inside the railing to look at
the coffin which contains the remains of the great man.
The son of a scavenger of Kawala, a thorough soldier
and Oriental, wild and undisciplined, of iron energy, and
cruel withal, but endowed with great gifts of intellect,
was called to found an empire, a caliphate of the olden
time. He marched through Palestine at the head of his
valiant army, taking as his exemplar Alexander the Great.
Had not the Western powers intervened, the rebellious
Pasha would undoubtedly have marched to Stamboul to
15

226 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
seize the caliphate. But thus opposed, he had to content
himself with Egypt, and turned his whole care and energy
to this land.
The citadel which Mehmet Ali built is the lastino-
monument of his diabolical cruelty. He distrusted the
Mamelukes, who were serving in Egypt as a body of
mercenaries faithful to the Sultan. So one fine day, when
all were assembled in the courtyard of the citadel beside
the mosque, he ordered them to be massacred — all but one.
This one, a brave Turk, sprang in full armour on his bold
horse over the boundary wall of the platform, rushed down
the steep cliff, and lighted on the soft heaps of rubbish
below. The warrior and his faithful steed rose, saved as
by a miracle, and escaped the pursuit of the enraged Pasha.
We saw this blood-stained ground, and looked from the
platform on the splendid view over the ancient City of the
Caliphs, with its houses and minarets, and far across the
cultivated land, through which the Nile winds like a silver
thread ; beyond the green level the Pyramids rise, and
behind them the sparkling yellow sand of the boundless
desert. Behind, and immediately below us, the dark steeps
of the Mokattam mountains, and the wild confusion of the
tombs of the Caliphs and Mamelukes, and the ruins of
the old and decaying parts of the city, make an interesting
picture. The small vice-regal castle which adjoins the square is
simply arranged, and is only interesting as having been the
residence of Mehmet Ali. His room, even his bath, is
all kept in the same condition as when he inhabited the
building. Egyptians do well to cherish and reverence the

THE LIBRARY AT CAIRO. 227

memory of this remarkable man, for he effected much for
their country, and had his heirs carried on his work and
inherited his intellect and his energy, Egypt would now
play a greater part than her present one.
They showed us, in an out-of-the-way corner of the
citadel, the so-called Well of Joseph, made by Salaheddin
Jusuf, who is often erroneously confused with the Egyptian
Joseph. A water-wheel turned by buffaloes raises water
from this very simple and ancient reservoir.
We had now completed the survey of the citadel, and
taking leave of the civil and military authorities, and of the
dervishes of the mosque, we drove down the hill into the
town. The well-stored and famous library of the Khedive
occupies a large and suitably arranged building in one of
the old streets. The director of this institute is a German,
and his industry and scientific training have brought method
and order into the former chaos of its rich materials. The
Eastern part of the collection naturally most excites the
interest of the stranger. We found copies of the Koran
in all the Mohammedan languages of Asia, and some from
the earliest times of Islam, set up in a singularly beautiful
style. The Khedive and his predecessors caused the
mosques to be inspected, and the most valuable of the
old sacred books brought to this library to preserve them
from destruction. Some beautifully written and painted
Persian books were shown to us. The outward form and
the getting up, as well as the manner in which the costume,
harness, and armour of the Persian knights are depicted,
reminded me strongly of much of the work of the Western
Middle Ages. Besides Korans, we saw volumes which

228 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

represent by word and in pictures, campaigns, battles,
hunting, and even landscapes ; many of these Persian
scenes were not only of historical, but also of artistic
value. After we had looked through the library so far as
our limited time allowed, we continued our drive, and
passing through the stir of the crowded Arab town and
hastening along some European streets, we soon came to
the great square of the vice-regal palace.
Opposite to the palace and the barracks stands a newly
built college. The present Khedive bestows the utmost
care on this institution, which he himself founded, and had
requested us to visit. We went through the class-rooms
in which the scholars were at work under European
teachers. They are mostly the sons of rich Cairene
Moslems, but amongst them were two boys of the Vice
roy's — fine, lively, healthy-looking children. We were
shown the living, eating, and play rooms. The institution
is entirely arranged on a European plan, but a taste for
luxury in embroideries and furniture was displayed, which
is foreign to the purposes of a school.
We next paid visits to the two Consuls-general, Barons
Schaffer and Saurma, in their charming houses, and then
drove back to the Arab quarter. We stopped at a very
narrow street, not practicable for carriages, and went on
foot to the door of the Hotel du Nil. The situation
of this excellent hotel, in the middle of the old town, is
beautiful, and the court, converted into a garden with fine
plants and shady trees, lends a further charm to the scene.
The owner is an Austrian, and thus several countrymen, in

BREAKFAST AT HOTEL DU NIL. 229
addition to our own party and Abd-el-Kader, Brugsch
Pasha, and Baron Saurma, met in a pretty kiosk for an
excellent breakfast served in common.
We spent some pleasant hours there, and. an Arab
conjurer amused us by some very clever tricks. His
assistant, a little boy, called out before each trick in broken
German, " Come here, devil." This display was followed
by a serpent-charmer with very big spectacle-serpents,
sundry lizards (among them the grey Geko), and uncanny
scorpions, all of which he brought from under his broad
cloak. Then came a man with well-trained fat monkeys, a
goat, and several dogs. These are, as a whole, the same
familiar performances that are given in every fair in
Europe, but the brown figure of the conjurer in his ample
robe, the dignified deportment of the Oriental, and the
general effect of the gay scene, lend a special charm to
things in themselves tedious or childish.
On reaching home we put on our shooting suits, and
the Grand Duke and I drove, with Baron Saurma, through
the town and across the Nile bridge to the neighbourhood
of the vice-regal country houses. In a sugar field there
we stationed ourselves with a bleating kid well hidden
among the tall canes. Alas ! neither wolf nor wild beast
came. Saurma had often had good sport at the same
place and in the same way, but Diana was to-day again
unkind, and when it became dark we drove home. It was
a splendid evening, and on a wonderful sunset followed the
glory of an African spring night. Insects chirped and
whirred, bats skimmed round the trees whose tops were
gently murmuring.' An ocean of stars glittered in the

230 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
firmament, and only the ceaseless bark of dogs and the cry
of the water-fowl as they went to the Nile broke the
grandeur of its repose.
The town was lively enough, and we had to push our
way through restless crowds to reach Kasr-en-Nusha.
We drove early next morning to the great barracks of
Kasr-el-Nil, and went on board the steamer Feruz, which
lay below — our good old ship, associated with the glorious
memories of the happy plains of Upper Egypt. The
brown admiral again commanded his good boat, and in a
few minutes we were in motion down stream.
One learns first justly to estimate the richness of colour
and the imposing aspect of nature in Upper Egypt when
one has returned from it to revisit Cairo and Lower
Egypt. These, which on first arriving were so enchanting,
now look colourless and pale to eyes which have beheld
yet greater charms.
Our excursion on this day was to the famous " barrage
du Nil." We first passed old houses leading down to the
water ; next came the expanse of water itself, where several
vice-regal yachts lay side by side with the mail steamers
and a vast fleet of dahabiye. On the left bank stand
country houses with luxuriant gardens ; on the right, the
town, the Shubra Avenue, the castle of the same name, and
the tall trees of the great park. These interesting scenes
soon disappeared, and the monotonous cultivated province
of Lower Egypt could be seen across the low and broken
banks of the stream.
We saw some solitary wild geese and a great number
of ducks. The water-fowl were otherwise but sparingly

THE "BARRAGE DU NIL."

231

represented. We then steamed past several long sandy
islands, and the curious bridge-like building of the bar
came into view.
The arms of the Nile divide here — that of Damietta
from that of Rosetta. It is the southernmost point of the
Delta. The tongue of land which divides the two branches
is united to the mainland by the iron bridges and the
gigantic weirs built by Mehmet Ali. Their purpose is to
keep back the river at the time of low water, so that the
innumerable canals of the Delta may be supplied with
water then, as well as during the inundation.
The results of this enterprise, which at the same time
paralyzed the navigation of the Nile, are said to bear no
proportion to the great outlay incurred. A fort was built
at great cost on the tongue of land between the weirs.
This isolated fort lies very low, and is little better than a
toy. A few old-fashioned guns, and a barrack with a small
garrison within, maintain its warlike aspect. The most
remarkable feature of the whole are the very fine and tall
rows of trees which adorn this otherwise desolate spot.
We had to see it all, and were taken round the fort as
well as the weirs. After our survey the steamer set out for
home. We stopped at a long narrow island covered with
sand and bushy thickets, and searched it for game. Besides
some small water-bird, I shot a specimen of the beautiful
pale-chested harrier. A shallow clayey branch of the river
divides the island from the mainland, and across this ford
are driven great flocks of sheep and goats which feed on the
bushes. On the banks of the Nile we found several poor
fishing cabins.

232 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
We soon quitted this shooting ground and returned to
the steamer, where we breakfasted on our way home. The
black coffee was hardly swallowed and the cigarette smoked
ere we reached Kasr-el-Nil, and, taking our last farewell of
the beloved Feruz, went on shore.
Abd-el-Kader Pasha, always unwearied in his kind
attentions, knew how much it would gratify me to see the
turning and howling dervishes, and as no Friday (the day
on which they perform their special devotions in the great
mosques) was at our disposal for Cairo, he obtained from
the Khedive an order for our admission into the convent of
these fanatics.
We drove through the whole city to the remotest part
of the Arab quarter. The carriage stopped at a narrow
alley, and we climbed a steep ascent to a wall. On
entering the gate we found a simple little cloister with
a garden. By a wretched wooden staircase, and a
gallery, we passed to the reception-room. Its walls were
plain and bare ; three divans and some rugs were its only
decoration. Two young men whom we took for servants
had shown us up. In a few minutes the director of the
convent appeared— an old man broken down by fanatical
penance and mortification. His outer man was dismal
indeed : thin, pale, the colour of wax, like a corpse ; his
sharp features, pallid lips, lifeless eyes, and bony hands,
and his bent carriage, as well as his hollow voice, were
ghastly and spectral. His dress consisted of long coloured
robes trimmed with fur, a bright sash, and a cloak which
dragged on the ground behind, and which, despite the
fearful heat, he held tightly together with trembling

THE TURNING DERVISHES. 233
hands. He wore a high green felt cap with a green
ribbon twisted round, the colour of the Prophet. This
marvellous headdress is like that of the Persians.
With ceremonious politeness he pointed us to a seat,
and placed himself stiffly on a divan, as though he were
a wax figure. Servants brought coffee in dirty cups and
cigarettes. After a brief formal interview he invited us to visit
the sacred hall in the mosque of his subordinates. We
entered a very remarkable building by the gallery which
runs along the house ; it was a lofty circular dome with
old Eastern ornamentation. A narrow gallery on wooden
pillars ran round the walls. This is the place for the
faithful spectator and for the musician. Below us we
saw a circus like that of a riding school, with a fencing
about three feet in height and padded boards above.
The floor of this circle was strewn with fine sand as in
a riding school, and on one side lay an old Turkish
rug. We had not sat for more than a minute in the
gallery, anxiously awaiting coming events, when the old
high priest crawled with effort into the arena and seated
himself cross-legged on the rug. About twenty men
followed him, all in. the same high caps, but in tight-
fitting white vests, of Turkish cut, and open in front;
underneath the vest was a sash, and a wide skirt like
a lady's crinoline. They walked in singly with solemn
step and folded arms, bowing profoundly to the squatting
priest. They then ranged themselves round the wall
of the arena.
The aged high priest next said a prayer in his hoarse

234 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
voice, during which he bowed repeatedly in different
directions, his disciples following his example. When
this was at an end the music suddenly broke out wildly.
The instruments were the same which we had heard in the
bee-dance in Upper Egypt, only that the copper tamtam
and the fiddle, which is not unlike our Dalmatian "gusla,"
played a greater part. The melody was wild and
warlike. At the first notes the men stepped into the circle,
and bowing once more to the old priest began to turn.
None touched the other, and each remained in his own
place. At first they moved slowly, but then ever quicker,
till the long skirts stood out almost level. The music
grew rushing and wild, and their faces more excited.
They hummed like pegtops round on one spot, both
hands stretched apart, the one closed and the back turned
upward, the other open showing the palm. This signifies
the right hand bears the sword for the faith, the left
implores the gifts of God.
Looking on makes one dizzy, and European blood
runs cold at such sights. This height of fanaticism is
appalling. Without moving an iota, in the same attitude
these people turn with incredible rapidity. Their features
are convulsed, the eyes turn out ; the thin hands, and
pallid cheeks set in their short beards, cut in Turkish
fashion, betray all the painful signs of nerves disordered
by depraved religious feelings. An old man in a dress
like that of the squatting high priest crept in among the
turning dervishes, regulating their movements. These
first devotions lasted a long time. Then the music

THEIR RITES AND CEREMONIES. 235
stopped ; pale and convulsed, each dervish strove to gain
the wall for support, and, accompanied by profound
bowings, another prayer was said. Then the music struck
in again and the turning began anew.
How long this ceremony may last daily I cannot
say, for at the end of half an hour we left the convent.
I will not deny that I was glad to see again the sun
and the laughing sky, and the stir of the street, and to
escape from the cold, dungeon-like, dreary hall of the
mosque, and the sickly and degenerate fancies of its
inhabitants. These dervishes are celibate monks, and live in
common in one house. Several of these horrible sects
sprang up in the later days of Islam — not where its cradle
stood among the intellectually highly gifted Arabians, but
in the north, among natives of Asia Minor and Mongolian
tribes. The Osmanli in Asia and Europe were fitting
recipients for such degrading superstitions, and the Softas
have always played a considerable part among them in
times of religious excitement and of war.
Turning and howling dervishes have existed in Cairo
for a long time, but the first especially are shunned by
the Arabs, who rightly hold their rites as morbid and
unwholesome deviations from the sage maxims of the
great Prophet. All those whom we saw there were
Osmanli of Europe or Asia Minor, and displayed the full
Turkish type.
We next drove through the Arab quarter into the
European town, past the vice-regal palace of Kasr-el-Ayn,
now inhabited by the Viceroy's wife, and over to the oldest

236 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
part of the city, where there are literally more heaps of
rubbish, tombs, ruins of old mosques, and filth of all kinds,
than there are habitable houses. At the end of a narrow
street, closed up by ruins, we stopped and entered through a
gate a court adorned by shady colonnades lined with plants.
Another ancient circular mosque struck us by its
ruinous appearance. An old man, portly and with a
friendly smile, a round turban on his head, and robed in gay
and genuine Turkish apparel, received us. We followed
him through a narrow door to the interior of the mosque.'
The stones were covered with sheepskins ; old rusty
armour, lances, swords, sabres, jagged swords, and, in
their centre, an already much tattered green banner, hung
on the walls. These consecrated weapons must have drunk
the blood of the unbelievers to be hung in this holy place.
When a war for the true faith begins, the dervishes
of this sect (a far more warlike order than that of the
turning dervishes) take the armour down, unfold the green
standard of the Prophet, and run howling through the
streets, vowing war and death to unbelievers, and rousing
the Moslems to the holy war. In the old Turkish wars
these people played a great part, and Islam still guarantees
that they shall always find a field for their activity.
We had hardly got into the mosque when the pious
men came in. The old man who had received us placed
himself in the centre on a sheepskin ; his subordinates!
made a circle round. He prayed aloud, the same thing
over and over again, which every one repeated after him.i
Music, like that of the turning dervishes, struck in, and its
wild melodies were accompanied by constant movements in

THE HOWLING DERVISHES. 237
which the upper part of the body was thrown backwards
and forwards ; these dervishes called, moaned, groaned,
and howled the same words in quite inarticulate sounds.
The whole scene was painfully dismal. The men wore
long bright robes like dressing-gowns, with a simple cord
round the waist. In contrast to all other Moslems they
had no covering on the head, and long shaggy hair and
beards. When they threw their bodies backwards the hair
reached the ground, and when they pitched forward the
hair fell in wild disorder over their faces. Their eyes
turned, and their bodies twitched convulsively, and foam
and froth covered their lips ; one big man especially, with a
black beard, was a type of the wildest fanatical ecstasy.
We did not stay long in this oppressive atmosphere,
and the old high priest and all his underlings followed us
out. In the open air they all covered their heads, for the
most part with brown caps, and proceeded to serve some
very unsatisfactory coffee in their primitive arbour.
I inquired their descent. Like the turning dervishes,
they all spoke Turkish ; none of them were Arabs. The
old high priest was from Greece, a pure Osmanli. The
others were Turks from Stamboul, Roumelia, and the other
Balkan provinces ; Moslems, too, from the Crimea and Asia
Minor, and one Kurd from Bagdad, with a huge green
turban, were present.
We took leave after a short stay and drove back to
Kasr-en-Nusha. Time pressed, for we were to appear on
this day, without uniform, at a small private dinner at the
Khedive's. We came home soon after dinner, as the
Viceroy had to go in the evening to the Hussein Mosque

238 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
in honour of a religious festival, and we were glad, after our
interesting but exciting day, to betake ourselves to rest.
I drove on the morning of the 23rd to the tombs of the
Caliphs. Where the carriage-road ends, at the last house,
we mounted on donkeys, and riding through the tombs soon
reached the foot of the high cliffs of the Mokattam
mountain. We took the same path as some weeks before.
The cliff was climbed, and in a short time we were crouched
in a narrow and most inconvenient ambush.
At the end of three long and perfectly eventless hours
some kites and carrion vultures appeared. They had just
begun their meal when I heard the heavy flap of the wings
of a great bird. The lesser guests scattered forthwith in
alarm, and a large white-headed vulture lighted with half-
opened wings on the back of the ass, and began his break
fast without delay.
Without a moment's pause I laid him low with a shot,
and creeping out of the cave shouldered my heavy booty,
and climbed down the rocks, cliffs, and heaps of stones to
the place where the servants and the asses waited. By
noon we were at Kasr-en-Nusha once more.
After breakfast and a short rest the Grand Duke and I
resolved to pay a visit to the Shubra garden. Taking our
guns we got into one of the droskies of the country, and
drove through the magnificent Shubra Avenue to the high
garden wall. A great piece of ground is enclosed, and the
castle stands among lofty trees and thick shrubs of almost
tropical growth ; it is surrounded by ponds, kiosks, and
flower-beds. A considerable space is given to kitchen-
gardens, orange-groves, and even green corn. The

SHOOTING IN THE SHUBRA GARDEN. 239
moister spots were richly peopled by flocks of grey heron,
while on the high pines which adorn an artificially made
hill near the castle the plump aigrettes build in incredible
numbers. We gave these different herons an unpleasant time,
and then, alas ! had to leave this enchanting garden
hurriedly, just when its whispering boughs were steeped in
the golden light of the setting sun, in order to be in time for
dinner. We cast covetous glances at the shrubberies and
waving fields of corn, for I could easily guess how favour
able this spot, enclosed by walls and perfectly still, must be
for beasts of prey. A few days later, Saurma, taking my
advice, went to shoot in this Shubra garden, and killed a
lynx and an ichneumon.
On reaching Kasr-en-Nusha we dined with the two
brothers Saurma. The younger brother and Prince Taxis
had only returned the day before from a long and very
fatiguing expedition to the mountains of the Red Sea,
where they had vainly sought the Arabian ibex.
On the 24th of March the whole party drove out early
on the road to Heliopolis, to the extreme verge of the town,
where a large tent was placed on an open space decorated
with flags. There were a quantity of people present, and
the Austro-Hungarian colony was there in full force, for we
were celebrating in festive fashion the laying of the stone
of an Austrian hospital. Catouli-Bey, a wealthy Jewish
merchant who is under Austrian protection, had, in the
most munificent way, found the whole of the money for this
good work, and was himself present in the old Hebrew
dress. The ceremony was duly performed amidst cheers

240 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
and national music. It was a thoroughly patriotic festival,
held far from our dear home, in another quarter of the
globe. At the close of the ceremony we drove direct to the
Khedive, to take leave of him and tender our thanks. He
quickly returned the visit at Kasr-en-Nusha, and accom
panied us to the railway. We left our castle in the
Shubra Avenue with sorrow, and drove sadly through the
streets. A battalion of infantry stood on the open ground in
front of the station, presenting arms when our national air
was played. Many of our country people were on the
steps, with Egyptian officials, Brugsch Pasha, the brothers
Saurma, and Prince Taxis. We took leave of the Viceroy,
to whose unremitting courtesy we owed so much, and of all
our friends, and the train moved slowly out of the station.
It was painful to look our last on the beautiful City of the
Caliphs, the steep cliffs of Mokattam, the lofty citadel, and
the magic of the Pyramids. We were bound for new regions
and other lands.
We travelled by the same line as a few days before.
First we passed through cultivated land, with towns, many
of which have the charm of historical association ; for
example — Shibun-el-Kanatir, a modern Arab town, near
which, on the so-called Tell-el-Yehudiye, or Jewish Hill, a
fortified town stood in the fourteenth and thirteenth cen
turies before our era, and in which, under the government
of Ptolemy Philometor, a Jewish temple was erected by the
high priest Onias, for his country people who had been
driven out of Palestine. Further on is Bilbes (old Egyptian

BUB AS TIS. 241

Pilabes), a famous town, especially in the Middle Ages,
which was the residence of the Arabian governors of the
eastern division of the Delta. Then comes Zagazig, a
large place, known for its commercial activity, where
many Europeans and Levantines have settled ; near it is a
mighty hill of ruins called Tel-Basta, beneath which have
lain for centuries the last remains of the temples and houses
of the town of Bubastis, so celebrated in antiquity (old
Egyptian Pi-bast, i.e. house or abode of the goddess " Bast,"
in Hebrew Phi-beseth). Here the goddess above named
was worshipped in a vast and splendid temple. Her images
in stone and bronze are still dug in quantities out of the
ruins. She is represented as a slender and young woman,
who bears a sistrum in one hand and a basket in the other,
and instead of a woman's head she has that of a cat,
cats being consecrated to her. In the inscriptions she is
often described as the local form of the peace and health
bringing goddess Isis.
Eastward from the town of Bubastis (which was the
capital of the province called after it, Bubastites) lay in
ancient times the southern half of the adjoining province of
Arabia, of which we possess but few records in the classical
writers of antiquity. It is the land to which the name of
Goshen is given in Holy Scripture.
The railway crosses this territory in a straight line to
the east, and follows the Sweet-water Canal into Wadi
Tumilat. At the entrance to this last, at Tell-abu-Soliman,
are the ruins of the town of Pithom or Patumos, at which
the Israelites before the exodus were compelled to labour.
In the eastern part of the Wadi, towards the Crocodile 16

242 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

Lake, a monument of Ramses II. is found near Mas-Chuta,
together with sphinxes, inscribed stones, and the remains
of old brick buildings. Lesseps and the greater number of
scholars have identified this site with that of the town
Ramses of the Scriptures ; and the name of Ramses has for
this reason been given to the railway station.
Leaving the Wadi the line passes to the terminal station
of Ismailia. Its further course across the desert along the
western shore of the Bitter Lakes, both northern and
southern, affords some interest from the view across their
shining blue waters, and to the westward by the sight of
the picturesquely shaped Mount Geneffe, whose quarries,
especially in parts where the stone is almost of the quality
of marble, are extensively worked at the present day. At
last we catch sight of the dark and imposing Mount Ataka,
and soon after the azure blue mirror of the sea tells that we
approach the port of Suez.
One is surprised as one enters the station by the sight
of the harbour alive with the ships of all nations, among
which the Indiamen claim the first place, both in size and
equipment. The town, which we reached late in the
afternoon, is tasteless and unimportant ; its wretched hotels
and the private houses of the consuls, in no style at all, give
it a Western character ; nor do the numerous wharves and
harbour buildings enhance its beauty.
The great historic importance of the scene alone gives
it real interest, and lends a charm to the smooth surface of
the Red Sea, and the picturesque but sad and gloomy coast
which surrounds it. We were tired by the hot journey,
and went direct to our hotel to dine.

A MISSIONARY. 243

There were but few guests in the neglected English
hotel ; only some English men of business taking brief rest
on the great highway between Europe and India, and an
unfortunate but extremely amusing missionary, a Saxon
lieutenant in the Reserve and preacher all in one. He
desired to convert the natives in the interior of Africa, and
was well up in the theory, both of the importance of his
mission and of the country to which he was proceeding, but
in practice he seemed devoid of tact, experience, and above
all of money, and to be awaiting in the hotel at Suez what
favourable chances might bring. We rose early on the
morning of the 25th of March, and after a hasty breakfast
left the hotel and went through the town to the landing-
place of the steamers.
I am indebted to my friend Brugsch Pasha for such
an admirable description of this district, that I cannot do
better than quote the letter, so rich in scientific observation,
of this eminent scholar.
"On the north side of the town there is a small hill
piled with ruins, whose Arab name Tell-Kolzum (Hill of
Kolzum) recalls its more ancient name Clysma, which was
that of a well-built harbour-fortress, formerly existing on
this spot. With the decay of the old canal the town lost
its importance, but its memory is still kept alive by Arab
authors, who often employ the name Bahr-Kolzum to
designate the present Gulf of Suez. Instructive as may
be a visit to the modem harbour, with its works, dykes,
and the mouths and sluices of the sea and sweet water
canals, it can only tell us of the chief doings of our own day
in the domain of mechanical engineering applied to water.

244

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

" As the unknown is wont to charm more than the
known, and the past stimulates curiosity more than the
present, and as tradition yields more matter for enjoy
ment than well-ascertained historical facts, so the pilgrim
on the shores of the Red Sea lingers gladly in thought,
lost in reflection on the times of which history appears
to have kept no trace. Where was the spot of the sea at
which Pharaoh and his host were overwhelmed by its
waves ? Where is the road by which Moses led his people
through the desert to Mount Sinai ? These are questions
which force themselves on the Christian traveller in this
land. Inquirers into past and present have only been able
to answer them with more or less of probability.
" The one fixed point which has aided their inquiries
is the site of the Wells of Moses, which lie on the Asiatic
side of the Bay of Suez, not far from the coast. These
springs are in a fertile oasis. Warm, salt, and bitter waters
bubble forth from funnel-like openings built up of Cypris
shells. The largest of these springs is built round like a
cistern, and is held to be the true Well of Moses which the
Jewish law-giver called forth from the rock, and whose
bitter waters he made sweet by a branch thrown into
them. " When the sun falls low at evening and sheds a purple
glow over the mighty masses of Mount Ataka, and the sea
between the coasts of Asia and Africa sends its transparent
emerald waves with gentle beats on the shore, and when
the colour slowly fades and loses itself, first in violet, then
blue, and at last dissolves in grey mist, then is this
simple and yet grand picture of nature first realized in its

THE WELLS OF MOSES. 245
full effect. Indescribable repose fills the soul, and awakens,
even after a return to our northern homes, with their varied
scenes and natural beauty, that deep longing for the East
which stirs the heart with tremulous emotion as for its
true home.
" Here, at the Wells of Moses, is Asia ; there, on the
opposite shore of the narrow sea, Africa. What a flood of
historic associations does not this sight of the boundary
lines of two continents awaken, reaching back to dim
antiquity. We see in the earliest times of human history
the tribes of Ham starting from Asia, the cradle of our
race, and, possessed by the instinct of migration, wandering
westward across that bridge of nations, the Isthmus of
Suez, enter the Dark Continent to settle on the rich soil
of Egypt, journeying up the stream to found cities and
states, and to leave behind them mighty monuments as
records of their presence.
" Memphis appears to have been the earliest station
of the Asiatic immigrants. The Pyramids are fitly called
the boundary stones of the world. In the second rank,
according to the stages in the advance southward of the
forefathers of the Egyptian race, come the monuments of
Middle and Upper Egypt, bearing eloquent witness to that
oldest civilization in its progress up the Nile. Another
stock, also from the family of Ham, experienced in sea-craft,
chose the water-way, and, coming from the east along the
coasts of Persia and Arabia, passed into Africa. These are
the red-brown Cushites, the Ethiopians of classical tradition,
the navigators of the ancient world. On the coasts of
Araby the Blest, in Africa, in the land of the Somali of

246 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

the present day, in Abyssinia, and in the fruitful valleys
of Nubia, they made themselves new homes, living in
constant conflict with the Negro races, who held the Upper
Nile as far as Assuan and the adjoining territories in
occupation. " A swarm of Cushites, advancing from the coast of
Arabia northward, settled in the land of Canaan and on
the eastern shores of the basin of the Mediterranean.
Sidon, Tyre, Byblos, were the first places at which these
Cushite immigrants, the predecessors of the Phoenicians,
made their sea-stations. Another group, of like origin,
came by sea up the Persian Gulf, landed on the banks of
the Euphrates, and soon became the ruling power in the
great plain which extends from the Euphrates to the Tigris.
The earliest record of this migration is connected with the
name of the great hunter Nimrod, a son of Cush, who,
according to Biblical records, founded a powerful kingdom
on the above-named territory. Again, they were Cushite
tribes who, two thousand years before our era, invaded the
eastern Delta from Arabia, and founded there the Empire
of the Hyksos. For five hundred years they maintained
their ground in the Delta under kings of their own stock,
pressed southwards, following the course of the Nile as
far as Thebes, and were only conquered after severe
contests by the kings of Egyptian race. The museum of
Boulak possesses a rich store of statues which demonstrate
the presence of the Cushite rulers in Egypt in the most
impressive manner, and enable us to study the distinctive
type of the race in the portraits of these Cushite con
querors which have been preserved to us. After their

THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. 247

expulsion the peninsula of Suez saw the Egyptian armies
march eastward to avenge the tyranny of so many cen
turies. The victorious Pharaohs advanced to Babylon and
Nineveh, subdued the numerous territories and tribes
on their way, and ruled for more than four hundred years
over the greatest and most powerful empire of Western
Asia. "To ward off attack from the east the peninsula of
Suez was provided with walls and fortifications which
began near Pelusium, east of Port Said, and extended to
Heliopolis. The permission of the Pharaohs was necessary
before any of the Semitic race could pass the fortifications,
especially in time of famine, to seek food for themselves
and their cattle in the rich pasture lands by Lake Menzaleh.
Jacob's journey into Egypt gives an insight into the
requisite official steps preparatory to a settlement in this
part of the Delta. With the decay of the power of the
Pharaohs the Isthmus of Suez became the scene of constant
movement of the tribes in its northern part. Incursions,
attacks, and battle upon battle occurred in the vicinity of
Pelusium at the outer line of defence, and foreign armies
marched up by the Pelusian bank of the Nile as far as
Heliopolis and the ancient strongly fortified seat of govern
ment at Memphis.
With the blocking of the Pelusian mouth of the Nile
by the draught of the Mediterranean waters from the
Syrian coast, and the neglect of the canals and waterworks
on the eastern side of the Delta during the darkest times
of Egyptian history, cultivation retreated from this former
garden of God, and the fields and plains once so rich in

248 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

vegetation became sandy wilds and unfruitful deserts. The
waters of inundation which had chiefly filled the Pelusian
branch were now borne to the western side of the Delta,
and the Canopic branch became a powerful stream. The
city of Alexandria, built in the neighbourhood of its mouth,
attracted to itself the commerce of the world under the
Ptolemies and the Romans, and raised itself into the
centre of all intellectual progress in religion, philosophy,
and literature. Its ancient importance has increased in our
day, at least in the matter of commerce. The cutting of
the Isthmus of Suez has, it is true, tied up one of its main
arteries ; but the apprehension so often expressed, that
Port Said would one day take the place of Alexandria, is
nevertheless quite unfounded.
" The favourable position of Alexandria to the west,
which admits of quicker intercourse with European ports
than Port Said can offer, its immediate vicinity to the now
cultivated parts of Lower Egypt, its waterways and rail
ways, its markets and exchanges, and generally its provision
for the comfort of life, convince us that, in spite of all
difficulties of access to the harbour, Alexandria must be
regarded as the one important commercial town in the
future of Egypt.
" Port Said could only acquire a like position if the
adjacent continent of Asia were to enter into a commercial
competition with Europe — a prospect which must lie in a
very remote future. The Isthmus of Suez is historically
extinct. Its importance was in a past whose last trace the
desert has entombed in sand. The passage of the canal
offers no special interest. The number of kilometres

" THE BRIDGE OF TREASURE." 249
marked along it from Port Said to Suez suit the character
of the desert which is traversed by its blue waters. The
only spot which claims notice is that known by the ancient
name Kantara-el-Chazne, i.e. the Bridge of Treasures, in
the north of the Dattel Lake. It marks the passage of
Egyptian caravans into Asia.
"In the earliest times of Egyptian history a strong for
tress stood on this spot lying on both sides of the canal which
united the Dattel Lake with Lake Menzaleh. A bridge
led from one side to the other, as a picture of the time of
King Seti I. (father of Ramses II., Sesostris) on the outer
north wall of the great temple of Amon at Karnak distinctly
shows. At this point began that eastward region to
which the Egyptians gave the name of Hazian or Hazion.
The Greeks transformed the name into Casion, and the
Romans to Casium, by which they designated the moun
tainous part of the desert near the ancient Lake Serbonis
(now only a marsh), which advances as a promontory into
the Mediterranean. A sacred shrine stood here, dedicated
to the guardian of the district, Zeus Casius. The Arabs
on their part give to this old name of Hasion an inventive
involution, i.e. Chazne, ' treasure,' which has kept its place
in the above-mentioned names, Kantara-el-Chazne, or the
' bridge of treasure.' Lastly, we must observe that the old
' way of the Philistines,' as it is called in the Scriptures, by
which the armies of the Pharaohs and of foreign conquerors
advanced from Kantara to Palestine, lay between the Medi
terranean and Lake Serbonis, while in later and recent
times the preference was given to the south of the lake
for the desert or caravan highway."

250 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
We must now turn from the valuable remarks of the
most learned of Egyptian historians to the chronicle of our
own movements.
A French canal steamer took us over the beautiful blue-
green waters of the Red Sea to the Arabian coast. We
stopped at the nearest point to the Wells of Moses, and
soon the whole party were merrily trotting across the desert
on small donkeys. We had trodden Asiatic ground for the
first time, and we greeted with due solemnity the most
beautiful of all continents. The Arabian desert differs
wholly in character from the African. Dazzling white takes
the place of orange hues, only broken here and there by
small shrubs.
The Springs of Moses, which we reached in half an
hour's ride, form a real though very small oasis. A luxuriant
garden blooms around the springs, which gush forth from
funnel-shaped holes. Palms and bushes, tall grass and
broad-leaved plants, delight the eyes. A few huts serve as
dwellings for some poor Bedouins.
Besides some swallows, I only saw lizards and extra
ordinary numbers of the chameleon, thin as a leaf, and
changing colour at every moment. The tracks of hyaenas,
wolves, and jackals showed that beasts of prey came there
at night to drink.
The Bedouins whom we found at the springs were
in wretched rags. Their primitive flint guns had long
cords twisted round them, which had to be lighted and
let burn until they came in contact with the powder in the
pan. The poor sportsmen must therefore wait for several
minutes in expectation of the joyous event. We got them

THE SPRINGS OF MOSES.

THE ISHMAELITE. 251

to discharge in our presence these weapons, which really
baffle description by their absurdity.
These people differed much in appearance from the
true Bedouin type. To me they seemed dark-complexioned
Jews. Figure, countenance, and carriage were entirely
Israelitish, and involuntarily one thought of the posterity
of Hagar cast out into the desert of Arabia, and which
had become the predatory hunting Ishmaelite. Thus in the
most mythical forms of the traditions of early Oriental
history there lies a germ of fact of the highest importance.
From a bare hill near the springs we got a fine distant
view across the dazzling white Arabian desert, with its
stony ridges and valleys, southwards to the high mountains
of Sinai, and to the west across the Red Sea to the African
Mount Ataka. Heavy clouds were in the sky, and gave to
the gloomy scene a still sterner aspect.
After a short stay we returned to the coast, and looked
for some time for shells on the sandy shore. The Red Sea
is famed for its richness in shells, and in a few minutes we
found an incredible number of beautiful specimens. Time
pressed, and we had soon to return to our steamer, on
which we passed Suez and entered the canal. Here as
elsewhere we had on each side the dreary banks of the
canal, with occasionally a glimpse of the equally dreary
desert. To describe the Suez Canal would be an un
profitable task, so I prefer to let Brugsch Pasha once more
speak, as one who can enliven with historical reminiscences
the gloomy landscape.
" A visit to the ancient bridge of nations which severs
Africa from Asia no way repays the traveller" by scenes of

252 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
natural beauty passing before the eye, and inducing him to
halt. On the contrary, a sense of dread fills the soul at the
sight of the barren desert, full of sand-heaps, from the
midst of which red mountain masses rise, whose rent,
jagged, and cleft lines are sharply defined against the blue
ether. Only the brilliant light, and the transparent and
marvellously tender hues which the Eastern sun pours on
the landscape, lend even to the desert that poetic charm
which attunes the soul to repose, and steeps it in half-con
scious brooding thought. But the sea of light and colour
whose waves strike the desert soil entrances the eye and
the mind, and amply compensates for the want of the bright
children of spring, who resign to the world of light unlimited
sway over the ground, and have modestly retreated to the
black soil on the banks of the Nile.
" Egypt has been formerly rightly described by writers
of antiquity as a gift from its mighty river. The geological
investigations of modern science have only confirmed this
view. After the Nile in its northward course has pene
trated through granite and sandstone, and formed the
waterfalls of the cataracts in the most obstructed part, it
enters the region of pebble formation, and makes its
way to the sea by those long reaches which now form the
Nile Valley proper. North of Cairo the sea was a wide
bay, whose left or western side touched the Libyan, and the
right the Arabian desert. Geological investigations based
on the prehistoric remains of animal and vegetable life
found in the soil of the desert during the making of the
Canal of Suez, have furnished indefeasible proofs that the
Isthmus of Suez was once the meeting point of the two

" THE THRESHOLD." 253
seas. The waves of the Mediterranean flowing from the
north washed the mouth of a self-made natural canal, while
from the south the waters of the Red Sea broke through
the low-lying portions of the Arabian desert, and united
with the advancing current from the northern sea. The
united waters divided Asia from Africa for a space of
nearly seventy miles.
"In the course of time the surging of both seas neces
sarily brought about the deposit of the sand they bore
along with them, and a bar was gradually formed which
grew into a dune and then into a mighty dyke. This it is
which, lying in the middle of the isthmus, or somewhat
north of it, now rises to a height of sixteen metres, and is
known as El-Gisr, i.e. the dyke, 'the threshold.'
" This threshold, the highest point in the track we are
describing, was thus the only bridge by which the isthmus
could be crossed by land. We must assume that the
formation of the Delta went on at the same time. The
mud deposited at the periodically recurring floods of the
Nile resulted in the first instance in the formation of the
cultivated land of Upper Egypt. In like manner deposits
were formed in the broad basin between the Libyan and
Arabian deserts, and extended to the present northern
boundary, and thus in the strictest sense of the words the
Delta came into existence as a gift from the Nile, whose
beneficent waters pass through it in three principal and five
minor branches on their way to the Mediterranean. The
opposing current of the Mediterranean, deflected and
beaten back from the Syrian coast, has prevented the
formation of land on the eastern coast of the Delta. The

254 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
surging waters from the sea have mingled with the currents
from the mouths of the Nile, and made that large basin of
shallow water with its many islands which extends from
Damietta to Port Said, and now bears the general name of
the Lakes of Menzaleh. The waters of these lakes are, or
rather were, in communication at this southern corner with
the Dattel Sea (Birket-el-ballah) ; southward in the same
direction came ' The Threshold,' El-Gisr, of which we spoke
above. The waters of the Red Sea fed the basin of the
next following Crocodile Lake (Birket-el-Timsah) and the
Bitter Lakes, which were in direct connection with the
Gulf of Suez by means of the strip of canal of the ' Croco
dile's Tail.' It is therefore no wonder that the position
of these lakes between the two seas and near the Nile
awoke in the very early period of Egyptian history the
idea of connecting the lakes by a canal with the river, and
so indirectly restoring the communication between the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
"According to classical tradition Ramses II. (Sesostris,
the Sestura of inscriptions) was the first king who made a
navigable waterway by a canal from the Pelusian arm of
the Nile to the Crocodile Lake. This canal traversed
the natural depressed level of Wadi Tumilat. The ruins of
towns and monuments which have perished, but which bear
the name of this king, place the existence of this canal
beyond all doubt. In later times the canal appears to have
fallen in, and been dried up until 600 B.C., when King
Necho made a plan to restore the connection between the
Nile and the Red Sea. He however abandoned his enter
prise (in which 12,000 Egyptian labourers perished) when

LEIBNITZ AND THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 255
an oracle warned him that he was only working for the
barbarians, i.e. for foreigners. The Persian kings Cambyses
and Darius I., a hundred years after Necho, were less alarmed
at such monitions, and completed the communication between
the Nile and the Red Sea. The remains of this canal
were found in our own day in the cutting of the isthmus,
and the ruins found close at hand of buildings with Persian
'inscriptions mark three stations on the long line of water
which led from the Crocodile Lake to the Gulf of Suez.
A further extension of the system of canals was made
under the Ptolemies. A branch canal was carried from
Phakusa (now Fakus) on the Pelusian arm of the Nile
into Lake Menzaleh ; from thence the Dattel Lake could
be reached, which in its turn was connected with the
Crocodile and Bitter Lakes. In this way the Mediter
ranean and Red Seas were united at their nearest points,
and a waterway created, which for the then commercial
traffic of the world was of the greatest value. Under the
Romans these works fell into decay, until Amru, the well-
known general of the Caliph Omar, made it his business to
restore the old sea-way and to place Cairo in communication
with Suez by a canal. In the eighth century of our era this
canal was no longer navigable. In the year 167 1 Leibnitz,
in apian which he submitted to Louis XIV., set forth the
importance and necessity of canal communication between
the two seas. His proposal obtained no attention. When
General Buonaparte made his famous expedition to Egypt
the importance of a communication between the seas did
not escape him. The execution of such a project failed
through the faulty calculations of the engineer Lepere,

256 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
according to which the level of the Red Sea was 9*908
metres higher than that of the Mediterranean. The
possibility of direct communication appeared thereby to be
an insoluble question, until at length, in the fourth decade
of this century, accurate measurement showed the huge
blunder in Lepere's reckoning. After Lesseps had obtained
the concession from the Viceroy Said Pasha for the cutting of
the isthmus, the difficult work was begun in April, 1858,"
and on the 16th of November, 1869, the opening of the
maritime canal was celebrated with lavish splendour. The
cost of its execution amounted to nineteen millions sterling.
" A necessary preliminary to the works of the canal was
the creation of a sweet-water canal for the supply of the
labourers at the canal, and hereafter of the Port of Suez, with
potable water. In the vicinity of Kasr-en-Nil a canal was
carried in a straight line from the Nile to Heliopolis, and
thence in a north-easterly direction. Wadi Tumilat was
cut through, and finally the western side of the Crocodile and
Bitter Lakes was selected as the line of the canal to Suez."
We may here close the interesting notes which my
friend sent to me, and return to the canal and our French
steamer. We soon reached the Bitter Lakes, which have
a certain undeniable charm in the matter of scenery ; the
contrast between the dark-blue waters and the dazzling
white of the desert cannot fail to arrest the traveller's
attention. In the narrow reach of the canal between the
Bitter and Timsah Lakes we observed a jackal close to the
bank, looking for shell-fish. Some fruitless shots were sent
at him. By the deep-blue waters of Lake Timsah we
again enjoyed the splendours of an African sunset.

GAZELLE HUNTING WITH THE BEDOUINS. 257
The houses of Ismailia appeared on the sandy shores to
the north, and our steamer soon reached the quay of the
great French Suez Canal station. M. Lesseps, the famous
originator and founder of this gigantic work, which unites
two seas, awaited us with his son and several officials of the
French company. I was very glad to make the acquaint
ance of this still vigorous, laborious, and inflexible old man.
We drove to his charming country-house, situated in a small
garden. His beautiful daughter-in-law, a Cairene Greek of
the wealthy family Sinadino, received us there. Her brother,
an agreeable young man, and an English lady were also
present. We dined soon after our arrival, and the evening
passed in cheerful social intercourse.
We started very early next morning, M. Lesseps at our
head, and took the railway for a short distance in the
direction of Cairo to the station of Maksama. We halted
there, but had difficulty in getting our numerous horses out
of the train. The excited creatures neighed and plunged
about, and much time was lost in the preparations for our
hunt. A tribe of hunting Bedouins had pitched their tents
near the station, and at our arrival these magnificent men
came out of their resting-places. They came on horses
and camels, the sheik in front, riding an exquisite chestnut
mare. M. Lesseps had been so good as to invite this tribe,
which is renowned for skill in the chase, to the neighbour
hood of Ismailia, that we might see a Bedouin hunt for the
gazelle. The ride through the desert was in truth most
picturesque. The sheik was in front, in a pure white
burnous. His saddle trappings were handsome, a curved
17

25 8 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

sabre was girt on his loins, while on his gloved hand stood
a noble falcon with a bright hood on its head. On foot,
horse, or camel, the crowd of Bedouins followed, armed
with long guns, sabres, and daggers — all in white flowing
robes. Brown martial forms they were, with most expres
sive faces. Some remarkably fine long-haired Asiatic
greyhounds accompanied their masters, and several young
falcons, not yet worthy of the master's hand, were carried
behind us.
The tribe with which we were now moving through the
desert not far from the railway, has been wandering in
Africa for some time, but belongs properly to Arabia, as
one can easily tell from the noble stamp of the horses and
the richer armour and dress of the men. We rode in a
long loose line through the hills and vales of the desert.
Gazelles were to have been hunted, but we should have
been thankful to see even a desert hare.
All efforts were fruitless for two hours. The Bedouins
began to ride forward impatiently, to search a wider field.
One of these suddenly started a gazelle out of some thick
shrubs, and away in wild disorder went every one after it ;
the dogs were loosed, and as the scattered horsemen
gathered from all sides, some even riding up against the
fleeing animal, it no longer knew in what direction to make
for escape, and ran terrified round amongst the horses.
One Bedouin brought the chase to a speedy end ; riding at
full gallop he sent a ball after the gazelle, which was rushing
away with irregular bounds, and laid the animal low in a
moment. The attempt to get a desert hare had next to be made ;

THE HAWKING EXPEDITION.

SHOOTING A LOCUST. 259
but as the heat was very great and our chances few, we set
off on our return to the railway-station. In order to display
the skill of the falcon, the sheik let his noble comrade fly at
a pigeon, which in a few seconds fell to the ground, struck
with deadly force by the falcon's claw.
We soon reached the station, and after a frugal break
fast in the carriages some of the party went back to
Ismailia, while the other gentlemen accompanied me on
board a small steamer to make a trip to the Sweet-water
Canal. We halted at a ruinous old house, and crossed the
sand dunes to a strip of marsh which, closely bounded by
the desert, runs parallel to the canal up to the Crocodile
Lake near Ismailia.
One of the French gentlemen, a most pleasant man
and ardent sportsman, guided us into this hunting-field, in
which he had often pursued noble game. In the first moor
we found the beautiful African golden rail, which was quite
new to us, and shot a considerable number of them within
a few minutes.
On the wetter ground there were many snipe and
several kinds of marsh and water runners; ducks, too,
and spurred plover ; quails were put up in the long grass ;
the locusts were also very interesting, the biggest of their
kind that I have ever seen. These insects flew up with a
loud humming when one was still at some distance, so that
in order to examine one of them near I was obliged to
shoot it like a quail — a strange shot, verily !
In the narrow valley, bounded by the desert, the sun
burnt fearfully, drawing mephitic vapours from the marsh.
After several hours of fatiguing sport we returned, richly

26o TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

laden with game, to the Sweet-water Canal, and went
again on board our steamer, which quickly took us to
Ismailia. Soon after our return we dined, by desire of
M. Lesseps, on board one of the French steamers, instead
of in his house, and we retired early to rest.
The next morning we all went to the small but beautiful
church, where a Franciscan said Mass for the whole French
colony. M. Lesseps then took us through the streets and
gardens of the little French town. The old man showed
us with manifest pride all that he has evolved, almost by
magic, from the apparently unfruitful desert.
The hour for our departure had come. We took leave
at the quay of Count Lesseps and Herr Zimmerman, to
whose attention we had been so much indebted on all
our railway journeys in Egypt ; and accompanied by the
younger M. Lesseps, his wife, and some French gentlemen,
were soon in motion. The journey was rapid, and the
dreary scenery was neutralized by interesting and eager
conversation. I shot some curlews and a carrion vulture from the
deck of the vessel. In the shallow parts of Lake Men
zaleh, pelicans and flamingoes stood by thousands, shining
red in the bright sunlight.
At Port Said the Austro- Hungarian colony gave us a
brilliant reception. Surrounded by gaily-decked steamers
and boats, we rowed to the place where our Miramar lay.
In a few minutes we were on board our good ship, greeted
by the strains of the National Hymn. We stood once
more on the ground of our fatherland. Port Said is a
thoroughly European town. The extensive harbour and

FAREWELL TO EGYPT. 261
canal buildings, the ships' docks, building yards and work
shops, the vessels, and especially the Indiamen, lend the
whole scene a purely Western aspect.
Late in the day we gave a dinner on board the Miramar,
to which Abd-el-Kader Pasha and the French gentlemen
were invited ; when it grew dark our countrymen who
reside here improvised a beautiful illumination of the
harbour and a procession of boats. Several brightly
illuminated boats with bands of music flitted round our
vessel, and brilliant fireworks were let off on land.
The hour of separation soon came. Our guests left
the Miramar, and Abd-el-Kader Pasha also. We had all
learnt to value and respect him. He had been a faithful
companion to us and a true friend.
We had passed glorious never-to-be-forgotten days in
Africa, and bore away with us impressions of ancient
grandeur from the Dark Continent and from radiant Egypt,
from the graves of thousands of years of an ancient but
now vanished civilization.

CHAPTER VII.
Voyage to Jaffa — Arrival in Jaffa — Ride to Latrun — Journey
continued to Jersualem — Two Days in Jerusalem.
The morning of the 28th of March found us on the
open sea. " Land not in sight yet ? " was the often
repeated question, while we waited impatiently for the
outlines of Asia to rise out of the waters. At length,
in the forenoon, the dim forms of the mountains of Judaea
were seen veiled in blue mist, and soon followed by the
yellow sands and the terraced fortress-like hill on which
the town of Jaffa stands.
The country seems bare and desolate at first view.
Yellow dunes and grey mountains do not please the eye.
When, however, the vessel neared the town, hoar with
an historic past, one saw the lovely green circlet of wood
and garden in the centre of which Jaffa lies. As there
is no harbour for larger vessels we were obliged to cast
anchor at some distance outside the fringe of rocks
which surrounds the town.
Soon after the governor came on board with his
secretary and the general of division, General Adjutant
Rizah- Pasha, whom the Sultan had been so good as to
send expressly from Constantinople, and to assign to us

:\ «

LANDING AT JAFFA. 263
for the whole of our journey in the Holy Land. These
great officers were of a distinctly different type from that
of the Egyptians. The complexions were lighter, the
features broader — in a word, more Turkish in character.
We were soon to learn that this country differs in every
respect from Egypt. Rizah- Pasha, a pleasant cultivated
man, in whose company we spent many interesting days,
handed me a letter from the Sultan. This high personage
was extraordinarily gracious to us, and we were to continue
to be his guests throughout our entire stay. To his
friendly favour we were indebted for a fine caravan, ex
cellent tents, and many alleviations of the toilsome journey
which was to follow.
After brief greetings the Turkish gentlemen went on
shore to put off their gala uniforms and to make sundry
arrangements. We had ourselves rowed to land soon
after, not, as heretofore, in our own boats, but, as is the
custom here, because of the treacherous coast, in broad
flat-bottomed boats handled by natives. A skilful pilot
was at the helm, and the powerful strokes of his men's
oars soon bore us far from the Miramar. We were not
to see her again for a season, and during our journey
on land she was to anchor at Beyrout, the nearest safe
harbour. Two of the naval officers, Count Chorinsky
and Lieutenant Sachs, accompanied us into the Holy
Land. We soon reached the dreaded circle of the ill-reputed
reef. As the boat glided through the narrow way between
two jagged rocks, one could readily imagine how perilous
the passage would be in wild weather and foaming surf.

264 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
During our transit the sea was like glass, and we
reached without hindrance the stairs of the little harbour
of Jaffa, which is only adapted for small craft.
Here a new country met us, wholly diverse, more
genuinely Eastern, and richer in colour than Egypt.
Everything was novel to me. The pure Asiatic East
was before me for the first time. The town is built
in terraces up a hill. The lower houses, like the rocks
which project between them, are washed by the sea waves.
The Arab quarters built of clay have vanished ; the
crumbling wood carving of the cities of the Nile, the
brown earth-coloured walls, the flat roofs — all these we
have left behind in Africa. The stone structures of the
rich Asiatic East, much mixed with simple Hebrew
reminiscences of the Holy Land, present themselves to
us in the form of solid buildings with round cupolas in
the roofs, flat terraces, gloomy arched gateways, all built
in grey square stones without mortar or plaster.
The first step on the soil of the Holy Land recalls
in the towns the memories of the orderly rule of the
Jewish kingdom, of the wise King Solomon, or of the
days when Jesus sat in the midst of His apostles teaching
on the stone steps of the open square ; and in the
country images pass before the mind's eye which played
around us while we read the Scriptures in childhood.
The patriarch Abraham, the nomad king, rich in flocks,
handsome horses, fine tents, and fair women, the wise
and learned old man, the sage of mystic speech yet full
of practical wisdom, the father of a noble race, could
have existed only in the East, dwelt only in this land.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF CHRISTIANITY. 265
Times have changed and religion has changed its forms.
But of all the many Eastern rites and creeds, similar
in nature and alike in their leading ideas, only one has
maintained its ground, has kept itself pure — the Hebrew,
the doctrine of the true Jehovah and of His prophet Moses ;
and yet the people, the chosen race, have lost country
and political existence ; the Jew alone is immortal, main
taining his type and his creed incorrupt, though scattered
over the whole face of the earth.
Unconsciously he avenges himself by his very existence;
consciously he represents' a certain force with which the
keen intellect of the East has endowed him. The West has
stripped him of everything, scattered him over the whole
world, but never been able to exterminate him, and so this
much-tried people still exists and claims the justice which
may not be denied to it from the history of the world.
Christianity sprang from the Hebrew faith with its
store of wisdom. In no land but one like Palestine —
nowhere but in the East — could the teaching of Christ have
been brought forth ; new in many of its precepts, but in its
origin and its being only the sequel of the ancient Eastern
faiths. Christianity, transferred to the West and to our own
day, finds the birthplace of its leading ideas ever in the
East. The ancient Eastern Semitic religions have been
preserved in their purest and most incorrupt form by
Islam. Springing from these Semitic religions, and destined to
be their continuation among the same races, Islam obtained
power in those countries, and, spreading from them to other
and very different peoples, has kept the East stationary by

266 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

its creed and its existence as a race. Old Abraham is not
dead ; the industrious acquisitive Hebrew of antiquity lives
still. In the towns the Arabs are his brethren, and all the
Semitic families who remain in the old home continue in
the ancient way.
In the steppes along the Jordan, Sheik Ali dwells with
his thousands of horsemen, free and uncontrolled. Flocks,
herds, horses, and women are his wealth ; wisdom and the
books of his faith, his strength ; a people by themselves,
with their aged nomad king at their head, just such as
those of whom Holy Writ tells 'us. In the East nothing
dies. The feverish revolutions of the West go by and leave
no trace ; everything is as it was in remote ages, and will
so continue as long as the primeval sun rises daily,
purpling the bare hills, the orange desert, and the green
steppes of the East — gilding the glorious land, the cradle
of the human race.
Will the reader pardon this digression ? — for these are
the thoughts which force themselves on the traveller when
first he treads the Promised Land.
The scene as we put in at the harbour steps was bright
and picturesque. All the terraces and stairs and the
narrow windows were thronged with people. The dresses
are much richer in colour and more interesting than in
Egypt. The costumes of Asia Minor, as well as the
Turkish, and also those of the ancient Hebrews, are to be
seen. The blue fellaheen shirt and the brown hood are
no longer visible in the streets, any more than the white
burnous ; nor do we, as in Egypt, see scantily arrayed or
well-nigh unclad men.

CONTRASTS — EGYPT AND PALESTINE. 267
Ample spreading garments with broad gay sashes, big
turbans, and sometimes the fez ; jackets or short spencer
like coats trimmed with fur ; full knee-breeches, red slip
pers, sometimes sandals ; such are the most striking points
of the dress you find on the Asiatic coast. Amongst the
genuine Asia Minorites who reside here, as well as among
the Druses, the costumes remind one of those of the
inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula.
The women are picturesquely shrouded in wide dresses,
with white kerchiefs and veils, wholly different from the
Egyptian female dress. As many Christian and Jewish
women inhabit Jaffa, we saw a number of richly clad ladies
in the streets, most of them veiled slightly or not at all, so
that we could note many beautiful and indeed noble faces.
It was remarkable how many had dazzling white skins
combined with raven-black hair. On the whole, com
plexions are fair in Palestine, especially in the towns —
sometimes yellowish, rarely brown. This last hue is only
met with among the free tribes, and chiefly among the
southern ones.
The first sight of the gay and brightly clad throng was
very interesting, and we mounted the stairs slowly on our
way to the Latin hospice. Turkish soldiers in green
uniform, warlike-looking natives of Asia Minor, differing
in all respects from the Egyptians, kept a path open for us.
It was very necessary, for the people surrounded us with.
the utmost inquisitiveness. Some aged Franciscans awaited
us at the door of the hospice. We passed into the church
through a house and up and down innumerable staircases.
The way was both difficult and dirty, and we had to pass

268 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

through fearful odours. The church is ancient, but neither
beautiful nor interesting. On entering we kissed the relics,
and were exhorted to say a prayer lying on the ground.
At every step in the Holy Land you are shown places to
which sacred legends are attached, and Jaffa has some of
its own. The dark church, dating from the Middle Ages,
the dim light of the torches, the hoarse chant of the
Franciscans, the droning of the organ, and all on the soil
of Palestine, wakes thoughts of the days of the Crusades,
when many a brave warrior from the far West received here
a first benediction on consecrated ground, ere he sought in
mailed steel on his war-horse battle with the swift son of
the desert, who, brave and proud, defended his fatherland
against the foreign invader.
The benediction and music over, we made our way
with difficulty through the troops of gazers who blocked
the narrow corridors and stairs. Close and foul air is a
characteristic of such stone cellar-like rooms, be they house,
convent, or church. Let every one beware, especially in
spring, of dwelling under a roof in Palestine.
Our horses were at the gate. It was no small task to
get the caravan together in the crowd of people — noisy
Orientals and numbers of Jews. It was done at last. A
division of Turkish cavalry opened the march, we and our
servants followed, and soldiers again brought up the rear.
In this order we rode through some narrow streets paved
with smooth plaster instead of flags, past the market-place
with its superabounding filth, and out of the town. The
road lies at first among gardens, thick hedges, and fruitful
orange-groves. The trees were bowed under the load of

THE ORANGE MARKET AT JAFFA.

BEGGARS IN PALESTINE. 269
fruit. The great difference of climate between the coast of
Palestine and Egypt was very apparent.
At the end of February we saw the orange harvest in
Cairo ; at the end of March it had not yet begun in Jaffa.
The scented gardens soon disappeared, and we came to a
monotonous grey-green plain — nothing but ill-tilled fields,
an occasional draw-well, a few palms, stony places, a dis
orderly Mohammedan burying-place, and in the far distance,
to close the barren scene, the blue tops of the mountains
of Judaea. Brightly clad peasants watching herds of camels and
goats, and beggars of the worst description, were the only
people we met. The beggars of Palestine are even worse
than those of Egypt ; the most frightful cripples that can
be imagined ; many, too, suffering from the true leprosy
of the Scriptures.
In the fields you might suppose yourself in Europe.
Vegetation lacks the tropical touch of the Nile lands, and,
moreover, everything was backward. Many storks stood
in the fields, but there was little other animal life.
We soon came to some small miserable-looking villages.
The road led past graveyards and watch-towers for Turkish
gendarmerie, and in three hours we reached the ruinous
and notoriously dirty little town of Ramleh. Our caravan
only skirted it, though Ramleh is usually the first station
for pilgrims to Jerusalem. We had no wish to encamp
near it, and resolved to press on to the village of Latrun,
which lies at the foot of the mountain.
So far as I could see, the inhabitants of Ramleh
appeared to be interesting in their bright old Hebrew

270 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
dress. The few Christians living there belong mainly
to the orthodox Greek Church. People poured out of
the town to stare at us, and followed our caravan a
long time.
After leaving the neighbourhood of Ramleh the country
began to assume another character. The road led gently
downhill into a broad valley from whose further side
the Judaean mountains rose. The fields were covered
here and there with stones, and smooth shining slabs of
stone peeped between the evergreen shrubs. In the
vicinity of a sheik's tomb a successful double shot secured
for me a pair of fine large red-legged partridges.
Soon after sunset we got to Latrun, lying most
picturesquely among rocks and green shrubs at the foot
of the chain of hills. Our handsome camp had been
pitched by the ruins of an old fortress (of what date it
would be hard to say). It was quite a city of Turkish
tents, made of beautiful material and fitted with every
comfort. We could not but think of the days of the
old Soliman. Numerous beasts of burden — mostly mules
or small horses, — and the host of servants— Druses from
the Lebanon (sun-worshippers) — hung about the camp
among the rocks.
Mr. Howard, the entrepreneur who in his changeful
life had accepted an English name and protection, is a
pure dark Oriental who lives as a dragoman and purveyor
of caravans and excursions at Beyrout. We learnt to
appreciate his unflinching energy and excellent qualities
in hard days when heavy duties devolved upon him.
Howard had attached to the caravan two Bedouins— the

LATRUN. 271

one a Moor who had been stolen in his earliest youth in
Africa, and now wanders with a tribe of Asiatic Arabs ;
the other a genuine Jordan Bedouin of almost European
complexion — in order that they might keep our larder
supplied with partridges. Both wore the brown and
white striped burnous of thick camel hair which is usual
with the Asiatic tribes.
My uncle and I went out in the evening with these
Bedouins to look out for jackals. We went past the
village, over hedges and walls, to a water tank. Unluckily
there was no moon, and nothing came in sight before
it was quite dark, though we heard jackals howl in the
distance. We stumbled back slowly by the same wretched
road to the camp. Outside Latrun several figures stood,
looking like ghosts in their long cloaks, and viewed us
attentively. This village is said to have got its name from the
Latin " latro," and to have been the birthplace of the
penitent thief Dismas. Recollections attach to almost
every village here, some of them grand and beautiful,
and with evidence of truth, but many also to the last
degree incredible.
On our return to the camp a complete dinner was
served in the large dining tent, and the beneficent
repose of well-earned sleep followed quickly on the Turkish
coffee. Next morning all was early astir. The tents were
struck and placed on the mules, and with the usual
tinkling of the collar bells, cries of the drivers, and
neighing of horses, the caravan got into motion. At

272 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
first the road penetrated a narrow valley, its steep slopes
to right and left being covered with rocks and thick
evergreens. The character of the flora in these regions
is distinctly Mediterranean, such as one finds it on the
coasts of Spain, Greece, Italy, and the western parts
of North Africa, especially Morocco. In Palestine this
zone is a narrow one, and, disappearing gradually at
Jerusalem, gives place eastward of Bethlehem to the
vegetation of the steppes and of the interior of Asia.
Passing the old well Bir-Egyub (Well of Job), we
came through the ravine of Wadi Ali and by the ruins
of an old mosque to the ridge of the hills. Their
appearance is uniform — nothing but dazzling white rocks
separated from each other by thorny bushes. Here and
there tumbling houses or ruins appear among the rocks.
There are few cliffs, but, on the other hand, there are
numerous long and quite smooth slabs on the declivities
of the hills.
Innumerable eagles and vultures soared in the air,
but among the shrubs we saw very few birds ; occasional
partridges ran swiftly up the slopes. After two hours of
travel we attempted deer-stalking along the top of the
hills with our Arab huntsmen.
A fine view opened before us into a stretch of vales
and ravines — always the same in character, with a
Mediterranean flora like that of the mountains of Zante.
In the far east we saw the yellow-grey ridges and tops of
the plateau on which Jerusalem lies, and the commence
ment of the chain of hills in the interior of the country,
which have a totally different aspect.

VALLEY OF WADI KULONIYE. 273
Walking was not at all pleasant among the rocks,
blocks of stone, and almost impenetrable bushes with
their long thorns ;_and as no partridges were to be found,
and the large birds of prey which perpetually hovered
around would not let us approach them, we soon returned
to the caravan route. When we crossed the ridge the
country grew more desolate ; even the shrubs gave place
to dry grass and the picturesque rocks to rubble. A
broad valley lay before us, and the road wound down to
it by serpentine paths.
We passed some tumble-down inns for pilgrims which
stood in desolate, stony olive gardens, and vividly recalled
the little fondas of the Spanish mountains. We were
shown the village of Abu Gosh, where, at the beginning
of this century, the family of a sheik of the same name
dwelt, to the terror of pilgrims. We next saw from a
distance the village of Soba, the ancient Modin, the
home of the Maccabees. Some Jewish tale clings to
every step. Like other travellers, I had to listen to
them, but, I am thankful to say, forgot most of them, and
will only communicate to the indulgent reader, in homoeo
pathic doses, those which had some measure of probability.
At eleven in the forenoon, after a long journey, we
reached the bottom of the broad valley Wadi Kuloniye.
On the steep of the hill lies the village of the same name.
At the lowest point of the valley is a single-storied
European hotel for pilgrims. Palestine is, so long as
you keep on the regular line of march of pious caravans,
a regular land of tourists, a sort of religious Switzerland.
There the taste of the traveller for the beauties of
18

274 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

nature is traded upon, here his faith and devotion are
turned into money.
We halted in Kuloniye, as our arrival at Jerusalem
was fixed for the afternoon. The time which intervened
was spent in roving along the hillsides. We found nothing
there but grey-green, terraced olive woods, occasional
shrubs and rocks. The fierce midday heat scorched the
barren country, and we dragged ourselves painfully up
the steep slopes, an Asiatic nutcracker and the grey
Syrian hare being the only wild species which we saw.
The Grand Duke shot poor puss, but could not find her
among the stones. Hoyos had no better luck on the
other side of the valley with a jackal. I shot some of
the odious large black lizards which are found on every
rock in the stony parts of Palestine.
The heat became intolerable, and we all of us soon
made our way back to the pilgrims' house. We break
fasted in the shade of an olive tree on the spot where the
Emmaus of the New Testament stood, and hard by where
David slew Goliath. Our Consul-general, Count Caboga,
had come out to meet us from Jerusalem, and we eagerly
discussed with him the plans for the next day. After
breakfast the whole company put on full uniform. The
clergy of the different rites and the dragomans from the
consulates met us here, and then preceded us to Jerusalem
to prepare for the grand reception. We then started,
as time was getting on and our entry had to be made to
the minute.
The road winds in zigzags along the slope of the
hill up to the plateau. The shrubs and every trace of

APPROACH TO JERUSALEM. 275
vegetation vanish more and more completely, and a dreary
stony desert begins — the accursed land. One cannot
divest one's self of this feeling. A peculiar, sad, but at
the same time majestic, character seems to belong to the
whole country, and strange and mystic emotions take
possession of each traveller.
Pilgrims of all countries and ranks are seen on donkeys
or in waggons — many of them are men of ruined fortunes
— Jews too from the most distant parts of the world.
We had not yet reached the height when two Franciscans
came trotting towards us. The first, the custode of the
Terra Santa, a fat monk with a black beard, a big, powerful
man born in Tuscany, reminded me of those valiant heroes
of the faith who preceded the Crusaders in battle, bearing
the crucifix on high and inciting the knight to heroic
deeds ; the second, a fellow-countryman, a Bohemian who
hardly knew how to repress his delight while he talked
with me, for the first time, perchance, for years, in his
mother tongue. Both monks greeted us most heartily
and fell into our procession. The Franciscans in the
Holy Land are literally the representatives of the Latin
Church. Brave combatants for their faith, they defend
in constant strife the privileges of the rite as against
other forms and creeds.
We have climbed the hill — the bare desolate plateau
of Jerusalem stretches before us, and in the distance rise
the blue-grey mountains of the Valley of the Jordan.
Yellow grey is the pervading tone of the landscape,
barrenness its note. The first signs of Jerusalem were
visible — the great mass of the Russian church with its

276 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
five cupolas, the Mount of Olives, and to the right the
Greek Convent of the Crucifixion. The Holy City itself
we could not yet see.
On the road there was a great triumphal arch with
a Hungarian inscription. The Jewish colony stood beside
it with banners, singing the National Hymn. With many
compliments and the usual talk and noise the patriotic
Jews surrounded us. They were genuine Israelites from
the north of Hungary. They wore the caftan, high
boots, the velvet cap, the curled beard, and the accustomed
ringlets. You might have supposed you were in a
Carpathian village.
The whole Jewish community followed us from this
point as a matter of course. Both sides of the road were
already thronged with people. Jews of all countries,
Christians from Asia Minor, Greeks, European pilgrims,
Oriental Christian women, some partly and some not at
all veiled, in most picturesque costumes only to be likened
to those of Hebrew women of old, very Madonnas in form
and figure ; beside them Copts, English tourists with
their exterior so destructive of all poetry, Mohammedan
country people, crippled beggars, and an indescribable
medley from the very ends of the earth — all these idly
loitering in the streets and looking curiously at us.
The procession stood drawn up, awaiting our arrival,
at the point from which one first beholds Jerusalem.
Every one knelt to pray with bared head. The holy
Zion, with its ancient walls, its grey white circular houses,
the cupolas of the Church of the Sepulchre, and the great
Mosque of Omar were all before us.

THE HOLY CITY. 277

The city where our faith was born, where with the
crucifixion of Christ the greatest of all changes in the
history of the world began, to whose walls thousands of
Bible stories and all the traditions of our religion cleave,
whose stones are stained with the blood of our forefathers,
the old Crusaders — this city lies there before us. Strange
mystic emotions of religious enthusiasm possess the soul
of each pilgrim and bring him near to fanaticism. To
me it seems quite comprehensible that this spot has been
for centuries, and will be for ever, the centre of the most
vehement and extravagant displays of fanaticism. Our
creed and all the traditions imbibed from childhood have
taken shape and substance, surrounded by a dread, weird
world, laden with a curse under which the people who
dwelt here have been crushed for ever. Any one who stays
long in Jerusalem must become a fanatic. From the
moment one sees the city one is lifted into a region of
mystical enthusiasm which might easily gain a permanent
hold on the mind. These are the emotions which made
the Crusaders shrink from no sacrifice of goods or life,
and lend to all religious wars a desperate energy.
Let us, however, return to our entry. Some kavasses
from the consulate, in peculiar theatrical costumes, rode
in front with long staves. Next came a battalion of
Turkish infantry with their band — wonderful combination,
a procession into Jerusalem with Turkish music, and flying
colours with the silver crescent! We came next in full
uniform, riding, surrounded by ecclesiastics, officers of the
consulates, Turkish and Christian dignitaries.
Crowds filled both sides of the streets. The road led

278 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
past a large building in which the Russian pilgrims are
lodged. Thousands of Russian peasants come to Jeru
salem every year before Easter, led by their priests. Two
thousand of them were present on this occasion. They
stood in groups looking at us. Beside the peasant of
Russia itself, with his wide blouse and girdle, his knee-
breeches, high boots, and peculiar cylinder hat, his snub
nose, blonde beard, limp greasy long hair, and unmistakable
air of the northern Slavonian, one saw figures in light
military cloaks, decorated with medals. There were also
swarms of priests, the blonde Russian, the genuine dark
Greek, and the South Slavonian.
We rode through this most interesting crowd till at
length we reached the Gate of Jaffa, where we dismounted
and passed through the old grey gate into the interior of
the Holy City.
Here stood the Latin patriarch surrounded by an
extraordinarily large body of secular clergy, alumni, and
monks, all robed and holding lighted tapers. The
patriarch and his subordinates wore beards like all Latin
priests in the 'East.
We knelt and kissed the ground. After a short
prayer the patriarch, a Genoese by birth, made an Italian
address, to which I replied in French. Hereupon the
priests began to sing, and advancing in pairs the procession
moved slowly on. The Grand Duke and I walked to the
right and left of the patriarch. All the others followed,
even the Turkish dignitaries. Beside the procession
marched a file of Turkish infantry, which on every such
occasion affords to the different creeds the only guarantee

WE ENTER JERUSALEM. 279
that at the festivals which concern them, each will be left
unmolested by the others.
The streets of the city are very dark and narrow. A
chill vault-like air, poisoned by the most horrible smells of
all kinds, pervades every spot within the confined stone
walls. The pavement, consisting of irregular flags, affords
the foot passengers a way of escape. Jerusalem retains
unchanged the old and gloomy Hebrew character, and has
nothing in common with the bright gay towns of Islam
and their bazaars.
There were as many people in the streets as could be
crowded into them, and the doorways were filled with the
sight-loving public of all kinds — European pilgrims, Jews
and Christians, and Mohammedan Orientals.
The procession went through a number of small streets,
and at length reached a flight of steps. Descending these
we were at the vestibule of the Church of the Sepulchre.
The court is paved and enclosed on two sides by high
walls ; on the third side is the principal facade with very
graceful pillars, and a fine gate with a lofty arch. This all
dates from the time of the Crusaders.
The first sight of this chiefest of all sanctuaries of the
Christian makes a most solemn impression on every pilgrim,
which is further deepened by its position: the ancient
court lying several steps below the level of the rest of the
town, the grey houses of sad Jerusalem around, and in
their midst the weather-beaten Church of the Sepulchre
with its high cupolas.
In the court the dealers in sacred images were squatting
round, and many Greek and Russian priests stood to watch

280 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
our procession. We entered by the principal gate. The
interior of the church is impressive, but likewise sad and
severe. Incense and attar of roses pervaded the damp,
clammy, heavy air.
There were chapel gates to the right and left, staircases
and raised choirs, and the pilgrim soon sees that this great
house of God is an assemblage of differing rites and
modes of worship, and a compromise of their claims, and
that they all find room in the one space for their own
special services. In the centre of the church, in the great
circular hall, one chapel stands — a temple by itself ; it is the
true Chapel of the Sepulchre, which belongs in common
to the Eastern and Latin Churches, and in which all the
ancient sects hold their worship. The newer faiths alone
are excluded — the Protestants and those of similar tenets.
Ere we reached the Chapel of the Sepulchre the whole
procession knelt by the great square " stone of anointing,"
with its heavy candelabra round, and lying flat on the
ground we all kissed it. It is the stone on which the body
of Christ lay when anointed by Nicodemus. As the
Scripture tells : " After this Joseph of Arimathsa, being
a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, besought
Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus : and
Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the
body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at
the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of
myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds. Then took
they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with
the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury."
Our devotions ended, we advanced to the entrance of

THE CHAPEL OF THE SEPULCHRE. 281
the Chapel of the Sepulchre. This small place of worship
was long in the exclusive possession of the Eastern
Churches, and it bears the full impress of the Greek
Church both within and without. It is enriched with gold
and silver, with the black pictures of saints set in metal,
and has all the peculiar character which distinguishes the
orthodox Eastern Church.
Conducted by the patriarch, we were permitted to enter
the interior of the chapel. The vestibule is entered by a
low gate, through which one must literally creep. Then
one is in the true sanctuary, the shrine of the Christian
faith. The naked rock shows everywhere between the
rich decoration, and we venerate this bare stone, for it is
the same on which the Son of God was laid.
The perfume of roses and incense, Greek pomp, the
ruddy glow of the lamps, the murmur of the Latin prayers,
all is overpowering. The narrow vault seems to be the
world, the cradle of our faith. With a believing ardour
the pilgrim presses his hot lips on the bare stone, which
embodies for him his most sacred emotions, and speaks
of comfort, strength, and hope.
In a few moments the patriarch led us out again, and
we all knelt before the chapel, while the sacred chants of
the priests resounded through the majestic halls. We took
leave of the patriarch at the door of the chapel. We
desired to offer our first prayers at this sacred spot, but we
proposed to visit and examine the church in detail on the
next day. I shall therefore give a cursory description of
it later — a detailed account would require elaborate study,
We now passed through some more narrow streets to the

282 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
Austrian hospice, accompanied by the Turkish authorities.
The hospice is a spacious building, with roomy apartments
and a very fine chapel. We reached the gate by a flight of
steps from the street. The superintendent of the hospice
— a priest and a most worthy Tyrolese — received me.
Immediately on our arrival we had to receive the
consuls, and then the Turkish authorities and the ruler of
the city, all in Eastern costume, and finally the heads of all
the Christian and Jewish Churches. The Latin patriarch
came attended by priests and monks, the Greek patriarch
with his popes ; then the Armenians, then Copts, and
then the Syrian patriarch. The Syrian Church is a most
interesting one, and is represented in Jerusalem by a
venerable grey-bearded man, who appeared in his flowing
black vestments, with a veil depending from his pope's cap.
The ancient sect of Jacobeans is, so far as I know, the
earliest which separated from the primitive Church in the
first ages of Christianity. It holds its ground still in
Asia Minor. They pay homage to St. James beyond the
measure rendered by the other Churches.
Last of all, the rabbis waited on us, their president at
their head, one of the priests in the ecclesiastical hierarchy
of the Hebrews of the day. This old man, with his long
snowy beard, yellow waxen complexion, and fine features,
was born in Spain, and wore, like most of the rabbis
residing in Palestine, the ancient Hebrew dress, the
coloured full overcoat trimmed with fur, the turban, a long
robe, and yellow slippers. I have always imagined that the
Pharisees must have looked like these rabbis.
After all these most interesting visitors had left us, we

OUR CAMP OUTSIDE THE WALLS. 283

quitted the hospice by a street leading to the old Gate of
Damascus. Our handsome camp had been pitched just
without the gate, beside some stony places and heaps of
ruin, and amongst stunted olive gardens. The horses and
beasts of burden lay close by. Our people slept on the
ground. The Turkish squadron which had escorted us
from Jaffa bivouacked near us, and the infantry from
Jerusalem made a cordon round the whole camp, as the
public, especially the Jews and Christians, sought to im
portune us with heaps of petitions.
After the heat and fatigue of the day rest was welcome.
A cool evening and fine sunset were restorative, and when
dinner was over stillness soon reigned in the camp. The
incessant howling of the half-savage dogs within the walls
still resounded in our ears, as well as the cries of the
multitudes of jackals who hung about the slaughter- yards,
which were only separated from the camp by a small
valley. Early on the morning of the 30th we all went, masters
and servants, to the hospice, where the chaplain, the clergy
of the house, and some German-speaking Franciscans
confessed the whole travelling party. From thence we
made a pilgrimage to the Church of the Sepulchre, where,
in the chapel on the stone of the sepulchre itself, the chaplain
said Mass and gave the Holy Communion to us all. After
Mass the prelate proceeded to bless the numerous articles
which we had brought as memorials, and which had lain
on the stone of the sepulchre during the service.
Leaving the chapel, we went over the great church and
through another little chapel, belonging to the Franciscans,

284 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
to the small Franciscan convent, which also pertains to the
buildings of the Church of the Sepulchre. By narrow
stairs and dirty rooms, with horrible close air, we came to
a modest cell called the refectory. Here the friendly
monks entertained us with very good chocolate.
During breakfast the custode of Terra Santa described
the contests and enmities which more or less unremittingly
prevail between the different creeds, and which sometimes
proceed from words to deeds. These, if they arise within
the church, are adjusted in energetic fashion by mis
believing Turkish soldiers. The sturdy monk spoke
valorously, and in vigorous terms cast the whole blame on
the Eastern Christians. It is difficult to decide on whom
the heaviest blame should devolve, but it is certain that
these constant altercations do not lend a halo to Christianity
in the eyes of the Turks.
After breakfast we went over the whole convent. The
monks live in wretched cells ; a terrace on the roof is the
only place where they can breathe fresh air. This small
Franciscan convent and the dwellings on the opposite
side of the church for Greek and Armenian priests are
all within the precincts of the Church of the Sepulchre,
which has only one gate, and this only opened by the
Turks, who exercise supreme control over it, on the occa
sion of great festivals or the arrival of many pilgrims, at
the request of one or of all the patriarchs. In the intervals,
often for weeks and months, the church remains closed, and
a combined guard resides within it and keeps jealous watch.
No gate is allowed into the city, either from the poor Latin
convent or from the quarters of the Greek Christians.

THE CHURCH OF THE SEPULCHRE. 285
They are both obliged to hoist their supplies of meat and
drink in baskets through the windows. Near the quarters
of these ecclesiastical guards galleries lead round inside the
church, from which the clergy on patrol can overlook the
whole interior.
We descended from the convent into the church, and
examined the various shrines and historical points, as well
as all the side chapels and places with which legends or
dogmas are connected. One gathers a rich store of inter
esting recollections and ideas there. It is easy to see that
the different buildings date from very different epochs, and
many characteristic reminiscences of the Middle Ages are
to be met with. Individual chapels and shrines — of which
there are a great number — vary in type according to their
owners. Some are quite Latin ; others Armenian, Syrian,
or Coptic. By far the most numerous are the orthodox
Greek, brilliant with gold and silver, and overladen with
dark Byzantine pictures of saints.
To describe the Church of the Sepulchre in all its
detail would be a long task needing preparatory study.
Moreover, fairly minute and accurate descriptions are to be
found by those who need them in many of the hand-books.
I limit myself, therefore, to recording impressions and
scenes stamped vividly on my memory.
Upstairs and downstairs, often over the most irregular
pavement, we roamed round the whole church — not a
corner was there which I did not visit. Everywhere, but
especially at the Greek shrines, we saw numbers of Russian
pilgrims crossing themselves perpetually between their
prostrations.

286 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
We then inspected the adjacent large Franciscan Con
vent of St. Salvator. We looked at the church, the refec
tory, and some of the cells ; but our visit was rather to the
monks, for there is not much worth seeing in this bare and
very poor convent. Our next visit was to the patriarch.
He received us in his house surrounded by his numerous
clergy. His abode is like those in the south, bare, with
little furniture, and here and there sporadic curtains. The
floors are flagged, and the walls hung with religious
pictures of Italian art. The chapel, the court, and the
great staircase, are all very simple, and show how far from
rich are the princes of the Latin Church in the East.
At the venerable patriarch's also we had to follow the
horrible custom of the East and go through the process of
drinking, which is de rigueur at every visit. We began
with chocolate at the Franciscans ; here we were con
demned to stale lemonade and almond milk; and still
worse awaited us in the course of the morning.
On the patriarch's steps a female Christian of these parts
approached me in — pure Eastern, I had almost said— old
Hebrew dress, with a white kerchief on her head and
unveiled. She was a wonderful sight, with fine features,
splendid figure, and a pale complexion. One could imagine
nothing fitter for the model of a Magdalen. She handed
me a petition, and disappeared in the colonnade.
We went along the narrow streets, which were full of
people, to the Syrian patriarch. Many pilgrims, trading
Moslems, and loathsome beggars were about. The patri
arch received us in black robes at the entrance of the
church. His priests, on the other hand, all wore the broad

VISIT TO THE SYRIAN PATRIARCH. 287
rich robes used at Mass, with capes such as one sees in the
earliest Christian pictures, and carried lighted torches. We
made a solemn entry into the church, between the priests
and choir-boys dressed like them, who chanted our National
Hymn in Syrian.
The church itself resembles those of the Greeks. Like
them, it is rich in lavish expenditure of gold and silver ;
but withal has certain peculiarities, and a special tomb for
the devotees of St. James. The altar is very much raised,
and in a side chapel beneath a stone rests the head of St.
James, who is venerated by them almost as a divinity.
The niche, with its relics, is, as a matter of course, most
richly adorned. Near the altar stands a high gilt throne,
which the priests pass with signs of the deepest veneration.
This is the seat of St. James, on which he is perpetually
throned — but of course invisible.
There were many pilgrims in the church of this per
suasion. By their look one might have taken them for
Turks or Moslems.
We moved in solemn procession from the church through
an open colonnade to the patriarch's house, which is so
simple in its appointments as to be almost uninhabitable.
It displays a sofa in one corner, and three melancholy
chairs in the others. The worthy old man received us
most cordially, and compelled us to swallow a perfectly
indescribable rose-coloured beverage.
After a short visit we left for the Jewish quarter.
There are some bazaars in Jerusalem in the hands of the
Hebrews, and the residences of the chosen people are
grouped in a long street full of good shops. Dirt, effluvia,

288 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
and noise, of which one can hardly form an idea, prevail in
those streets. Half-naked children tumbled about on the
pavement, and Jewish women with ill-arranged kerchiefs
twisted round shorn heads, leaned from the windows. The
men bought and sold, bargained and cheated. There were
Jews from all countries, but few of them in ordinary dress.
Many Polish Jews wore the talar, with high boots and
velvet caps ; but most were in Eastern costume, resembling
that of the old Hebrews. All languages might be heard,
German and Hebrew preponderating.
With difficulty we passed through this crowd to reach
the synagogue. The rabbi and elders of the congregation
received us with a German address, and offered us a seat
to rest within the temple. The synagogue is a new build
ing, and looks just like those at home. Very few of the
Jews present were in fine robes. Most of them wore
the caftan and seemed to be Poles. While we remained
they sang a hymn on their circular estrade and recited a
prayer in their quaint fashion, with nervous movements
and turnings of the eyes. We soon left, followed by the
superabounding benedictions of the synagogue.
As the Holy Sepulchre was open, unusual crowds were
passing up and down the streets. Russians, Bulgarians,
Wallachians, Armenians, denizens of Asia Minor, Greeks,
Copts, and pilgrims of the Latin faith, made an interesting
medley of races.
After breakfasting in our camp, we rode on horseback
along the ancient grey walls of sacred Zion to the famous
and wonderful Mosque of Omar. The Haram-esh-Sherif
is a large space enclosed by walls. The principal mosque,

MESDJID-EL-AKSA. 289

Kubbet-es-Sachra, stands in its centre, with a lofty
cupola, pillared vestibule, and a beautiful octagon hall — one
of the most renowned of Eastern edifices. Various small
half-ruined monuments and wells stand between the chief
mosque and the buildings which abut on the enclosing
wall. The chief of these is the very beautiful Mesdjid-el-
Aksa, a church built in the reign of the Emperor Justinian,
in honour of the Virgin, and afterwards appropriated by
Omar to the Mohammedans.
We were shown round by the chief dervish, an elderly
and capable-looking Mohammedan in bright apparel. The
population in Palestine, as in all other Asiatic Mohammedan
countries, is far more fanatical than in Egypt ; and travellers
must be on their guard in no way to wound their feelings.
We went over both mosques carefully. In the centre of
the great octagon there is a huge block of stone, around
which the temple has been built. This rock may vouch
for the great uniformity of Eastern legends, and the Jews
also venerate it. The Talmud mentions it, and Hebrew
tradition teaches that Abraham and Melchisedek sacrificed
here; that here Abraham was about to slay Isaac, and
that Jacob also consecrated it. The ark of the covenant
stood here; and here the Jews believe it still remains,
having been hidden by Jeremiah. This rock is believed
to be the centre of the world. The same opinion is also
held of the Church of the Sepulchre, where the spot is
indicated by a small stone.
It is an interesting fact that the great mosque stands on
the site of the Temple of Solomon, and the Moslems adopted
all the Hebrew traditions, and added them to their own
J 9

290 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
legends. They say this stone floats unsupported over
an abyss ; and, to show this, the traveller is taken into a
hollow space beneath the temple, where he sees the remains
of old walls of Jewish times. The Mohammedans also show
the praying-places of David, Solomon, Abraham, and Elias ;
and here Mohammed has left the impress of his head.
To recount all the myths connected with this most
important spot in the story of Asiatic creeds would be a
toilsome task ; but to show how all the creeds which have
originated in the East hang together, we may mention that,
according to the Mohammedans, this rock is the spot where
at the last day the throne of God will be set up, and
hither will the Kaba of Mecca come to the Sachra, for here
the trumpets will resound which open the judgment. In
the first days of Mohammedanism this place was almost as
important as Mecca, to which it but gradually yielded
priority. From this stone Mohammed ascended to heaven,
and the archangel Gabriel had to hold the stone back,
as it was inclined to soar after the Prophet. The hair of
Mohammed's beard, his banner, and that of Omar, and the
shield of Omar's uncle Hamsa, were shown us here, together
with some beautiful old Korans. We also noted mosaics
of great importance in the history of art, some fine glass
windows, and various architectural treasures, which we have
not space to record here.
Mention must, however, be made of the old Kufish
inscriptions. The verses of the Koran which, from a
Mohammedan point of view, refer to Christ, are preserved
on the walls in beautiful writing. Sur. xvii. 3 : " Praise be
to God who has had no son, and none to share his govern-

LEGENDS OF THE MOSQUE OF OMAR. 291

ment, and needs no helper to save him from dishonour ;
praise him," etc.
We came out on the open place and went to the outer
wall. It descends vertically into a deep, rocky ravine.
Here there is a splendid view across the high table-land to
the mountains of Jordan and the Dead Sea. The Golden
Gate in the wall attracted our attention. Jewish legends
from the life of Christ are told about it, and the Moham
medans have filled it up with stones and rubbish ; for,
according to their belief, this is the gate by which a fair
king shall perchance one day come from the west, and,
entering in to the court of the Mosque of Omar, put an
end to their rule.
We left this most interesting spot after a long visit. It
is the place where the old Jewish temple stood, the palace
of Solomon, the centre of radiance of the highly civilized
Hebrew kingdom. Here, too, in later time, Christ taught,
and many records of His deeds and of the doctrines of our
faith are connected with it. Later still the victorious
Romans entered here, massacring the Jews. Here stood
the Temple of Jupiter, and under Justinian a Byzantine
Christian church. Last of all came Islam, and made it
a vast mosque, in which in our own day the doctrines and
myths of the three great religions mingle strangely, and
point us to their common Eastern birth.
The Mosque of Omar bade us also remember Raphael's
famous picture of the marriage of the Virgin.
Passing along the Wailing- Place of the Jews, where
they still go to deplore their lost kingdom and the ruins of
their temple, we crossed the city to the Church of the

292 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
Sepulchre by the street known as the Via Dolorosa. A
great number of Catholic pilgrims had assembled there,
and we all received lighted tapers, and, with the Francis
cans at our head, moved in procession from one sacred
spot to another, singing as we went. At the appointed
places of devotion we knelt, repeating the prescribed
prayers. This round lasted for an hour. The dark church
dimly lighted with torches, the low monotonous chants,
and the powerful incense, all produce a mystical effect on
the spirit. Throngs of pilgrims daily take part in the
procession, to which extensive indulgences are attached.
We returned to our camp to mount our horses and ride
round the city. In the glorious evening light we rode past
the kings' tombs and the grave of Absolom ; saw the field of
blood, or Aceldema, and the Valley of Kedron, desolate,
stony, and grandly gloomy, — all as it stands in Holy Writ.
The twilight drew on, and drinking in with enjoyment
these great impressions, we rode slowly back beneath the
old walls to our camp.
On the 31st of March our whole party went from
the camp to the Church of the Sepulchre to hear Mass
in a side chapel. The custode of Terra Santa awaited us
at the portal, and led by him we went upstairs into a
dark chapel, where there were two altars separated by a
lattice. One, plain and simple, belongs to the Latins;
the other, showy with silver and gilding, is Greek. The
first is on the spot where Mary stood at the Crucifixion ;
the second bears the name of Golgotha. The bare rock
shows beneath the Greek altar, and during the Latin
Mass many pilgrims, chiefly Russian peasants, came one

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CONVENT OF FATHER RATISBONNE. 293
after the other to kiss the sacred spot. We followed their
example, and were in so doing lavishly sprinkled with
consecrated rose-water by their priest. The orthodox
chapel was hung with black, for an hour later Mass was
to be said for the poor deceased Czar Alexander II.
We left the church after service, and went through
several streets to the convent for women founded by the
well-known priest, Father Ratisbonne. The church
which belongs to it stands on the place Ecce Homo, and
has no special interest ; it is a new building, in French
taste, dazzlingly white, and not solemn or impressive.
It looked very like the Protestant places of worship.
The girls' school attached to the convent is a really noble
institution, for which the worthy priest deserves great
credit. This institution, which is clean and very well
arranged, provides instruction for rich and poor children,
mostly Christians, but the tolerant priest allows Jewish
and Mohammedan girls to share the blessings of
education. From the platform of the house we had a splendid
view of the Mount of Olives and the country round the
Holy City. In the parlour we had to drink the usual
lemonade, and then went on to the adjacent Chapel of
the Scourging. After sundry raps at a decaying door,
the keeper of this holy place opened for us. He was
an aged and neglected looking Franciscan, born in Spain.
He led us through a ruined court into the little chapel.
It was built in 1839, and has therefore no interest.
Beneath the altar is the hole in which the column of the
flagellation was fixed.

294

TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

We next went to the government buildings to pay
our respects to the Pasha and governor. In the court
of the large Oriental building stood a guard of honour,
who received us with music. The friendly master took
his guests to the reception-room on the first floor. Matting
was spread over the floor, the walls were bare, and divans
covered with rich materials stood along the four walls, and
formed the sole furniture. We were ushered to seats with
formal Eastern etiquette, and excellent Turkish coffee,
with cigarettes and tobacco from the Lebanon, were served.
After a short visit we took leave of the Pasha, and left
the government buildings as we had entered them, to
the sound of trumpets.
Our next visit was to the Ccenaculum, the famous
chamber of the Last Supper, which lies in a house on the
margin of the town — very ancient, but now quite Moham
medan in its arrangements. We were shown in the same
house, amongst stones and rubbish, the tomb of David, on
which account the spot has an interest for the Moslem.
The old house belongs to a once wealthy family who trace
their descent direct from Osman. These people live in
wretched poverty, but wear large green turbans and bright
and picturesque, if somewhat tattered, clothes.
In memory of their great ancestor they received us
in a manner which, though friendly, was full of con
descension, and gave to our call not so much the
character of a visit to a historical site as that of a
homage to their own illustrious selves. The whole party
had therefore to sit on some rotten divans in a half-open
corridor, to drink coffee out of dirty cups, and to smoke

THE VALLEY OF KEDRON.

THE VALLEY OF KEDRON. 295

cigarettes. These worthy people had noble features and
an unmistakable air of distinction ; they wore long beards,
and told long stories with the utmost pathos in Arabic,
to which we could only reply with friendly smiles. The
visit was short, and then we betook ourselves to our
horses, which were waiting outside the next gate of the
city. The Grand Duke and the other gentlemen rode back
to the camp, while Count Caboga and I took the rough
road into the Valley of Kedron. In this gloomy and
dismal valley, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, there
are an enormous number of tombs. Even in the time of
the Jews this valley was counted unclean, as contrasted
with the adjacent hill of the temple. Pre-Christian
tradition taught that the judgment would be held here.
The Moslems accept this belief from the Jews, and bury
their dead on the eastern side of the Haram, while the
Hebrews keep to the western slope of the Mount of
Olives. Both believe that at the sound of the trumpets which
announce the day of judgment the hills will recede and
make room for the multitudes of risen bodies. Christian
belief holds that here is the place where the rocks opened
and the dead appeared at the moment when the Redeemer
bowed His head in death, and the sun was darkened, and
the veil of the temple of Solomon was rent in twain.
The Mount of Olives is steep and rocky in its lower
part ; higher up the slopes ascend gently, and are covered
with slabs of rock and pebbles, interspersed with ancient
gnarled olive trees — the picture of a grey-green gloomy

296 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
hill. We went up to the top by a winding path. A
small chapel with a kind of circular drum and insignificant
cupola covers the spot from which Christ ascended to
heaven. The prints of the Redeemer's feet remain on
a slab of marble.
The place belongs to the Mohammedans, and is held
sacred by them, but they permit the Christians to say
Mass there on certain days. By the chapel is a minaret ;
some narrow steps lead first inside, and then, as usual, to
the outside. The rail is broken and the stones are
slippery, and not to be recommended to persons liable
to vertigo. From the summit there is a splendid view
of Jerusalem and the hills which divide the plateau and
the neighbourhood of the Holy City and Bethlehem from
the Valley of the Jordan. They are grey-green hills
like steppes. In the remote distance one can discern
the high mountains east of the Jordan and of the Dead
Sea, and through the inlet of a valley a glimpse is caught
of the dark-blue mirror of the inland sea.
The Mount of Olives and the buildings on it are
terribly neglected. The Garden of Gethsemane, at its
foot, alone bears trace of the care given to it by the
Franciscans, to whom it belongs. A monk lives in the
small house beside it to take charge. The Mount of
Olives and Gethsemane wake most solemn thoughts.
Every stone attests the truth of tradition, and one seems
to behold the story of the Passion in living pictures.
I felt as though I had known these two spots all my
life; so completely did the reality accord with the
pictures which imagination had framed of them.

A HAUNT FOR THE VULTURE.

297

We rode back by the walls from the Valley of Kedron
towards our camp. At the slaughter-yard I dismounted
and made a fruitless attempt to approach a carrion vulture.
Hundreds of large vultures soared aloft, and dogs haunted
the bloody spot. The horrible smell obliged me to make
a speedy flight.

CHAPTER VIII.
Journey to Tantur — Hyaena Hunt — Bethlehem — Ride to Mar-
Saba — The Convent on the Rock — Ride to Nebi-Musa — Ride
to the Dead Sea and Ain-es-Sultan.
I had now to quit Jerusalem. Taking a last look at the
grey walls of venerable Zion, I drove away with Count
Caboga by the excellent road to Bethlehem, passing close
under the wall of the western side of the city from the
Gate of Damascus, by which our camp lay.
At the entrance to the Valley of Kedron the road winds
among stony flats with a few bushes and scanty grass,
alternating with broken-down garden walls, stunted olive
plantations, and ruinous houses. To the right lie the
barrack-like buildings of the German colony ; to the left
all is desolate and barren. The finest view is that of the
high battlements, walls, and towers of the Holy City which
we are leaving behind.
The road gradually ascends the opposite slope of the
valley. A bare hill hard by is shown as the place where
the house of Caiaphas stood. We also pass the spot where
the Philistines encamped when David slew them, and
further on the ruins of the house of the aged Simeon, and
the Well of the Magi, where the star in the East again

THE CASTLE OF TANTUR. 299
appeared to the wise men. The saddle of the hill was
soon attained, and we found ourselves by the garden wall
of the great Greek convent, Mar-Elyas, standing amidst its
olives. The view from here is charming — a broad, stony,
grey-green valley, intersected by deep cuttings, rises to the
heights, on which Bethlehem lies in picturesque beauty.
The fissures and small valleys and the fall of the ground
all lie in the direction of the mountains which bound the
Valley of the Jordan, and extend through these to the Dead
Sea. In the south-west we saw in the distance a large
olive wood, and among its dark foliage the pinnacles of the
summer habitation of the Latin patriarch. To the north
the view is closed by the hill we had just crossed, but west
ward a maze of stony hills, small valleys, and plateaus give
variety to the landscape.
After going downhill for a quarter of an hour, we came
to the garden wall of the small Maltese fortress of Tantur.
The castle, built in the Middle Ages, stands on the mountain
slope, and reminds us of the days of the Crusaders. The
white cross flag of Malta waves on the battlements, and
the adjoining buildings, fitted up as a hospice, bear witness
to the beneficence of the old order of knights. We passed
through the garden to the second wall and into the paved
courtyard, in the middle of which a deep well stands.
Count Caboga founded this castle and the little hospice for
sick pilgrims and countrymen. He leads a pleasant life
here the whole year round, devoted to serious study and
works of charity. His servant, Ferdinand Nicodemus, a
Syrian Christian, a very well educated young man, does
good service in the hospice as a skilled apothecary. He is,

300 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
moreover, a most handy fellow, a capital horseman, and
quick-witted and adroit in dealing with the people of the
country. He accompanied us all through our journey in
Palestine, so that we learnt his value.
The moment we entered the courtyard, splendid Arabian
dogs sprang out on all sides — beautiful creatures, not unlike
our Hungarian wolf-dogs. They greeted their master,
whimpering joyfully. Count Caboga is a lover of animals,
and tames the most diverse kinds. For a long time he
had a perfectly tame hyaena : now a beautiful Asiatic sheep
followed him up to his room, and a cockatoo, living wild
among the pigeons in the tower, flew lightly down and
settled on his shoulder.
After I had looked all over the castle I accompanied
Ferdinand and my huntsman to the place where hyaenas
were to be looked for at night. For a short distance we
returned to the road by which we had come from Jeru
salem. Some hundred paces below the convent of Mar-
Elyas there are old walls loosely built of large stones. In
one of these, close to the road, an invisible ambush had
been very cleverly made. An old donkey in a most
putrid condition, as the hyaena likes it, had been laid in
front. There was, unfortunately, no moon at this time, and
I feared that any attempt to see wild beasts, and still more
to shoot them in the pitch darkness, would be quite vain.
I had therefore brought plenty of strychnine with me, in
order to obtain possession of a hyaena. We drew on big
leather gloves and skilfully prepared the leg of the jackass
with a fatal dose. According to hunters' use, some small

PREPARATIONS FOR SPORT. 301

morsels, also poisoned, had to be laid round the principal
bait, as most animals have the habit of tasting small scraps
before they address themselves to the larger task. These
disgusting preparations were just completed, and we were
arranging the firing-holes in the ambush, when an Arab
appeared with a long gun and offered his services. He
was most anxious to accompany us at night to our station,
gave us much good advice, and recounted all his triumphs
in hyaena hunts. It was difficult to reduce him to silence.
As it was not nearly time yet to keep watch, we resolved to
return to the castle, and take the Arab with us. We feared
if we dismissed him that he would in revenge destroy our
station. Ferdinand knew him as an untrustworthy man,
who lived by partridge shooting and vagabondizing about
Bethlehem. His sly, deceitful face confirmed this view,
and I resolved to make him harmless for this one night.
I left the young guide to keep an eye on the ambush
till our return. The sun was setting, gilding Tantur, the
picturesquely placed town of Bethlehem, and the mountains
of the Valley of the Jordan with magical hues. An after
glow, reminding us of our Alps, was reflected from the
lofty, barren steeps of the mountains beyond the Dead
Sea. The sky was covered with vaporous, fleecy clouds,
and a cool breeze swept across the plateau.
The temperature of the neighbourhood of Jerusalem
and of the line of mountains on the coast between Beth
lehem and the sea is not to be compared to the mild, equable
delicious air of Egypt. Rough winds remind one of the
high level of the bare plateau, and snowstorms in March
are not of rare occurrence. At Bethlehem, a league east-

302 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
ward from this spot, the flora and the climate change, and
the stifling air of the Valley of the Jordan makes itself felt.
We walked back with our Arab to the castle. Arrived
there, he was plentifully supplied with meat and drink, and
at the same time deprived of liberty in a well-barricaded
room for twelve hours. We too made a very good supper,
served by the count's men in the costume of the country ;
and then I hurried back to my hyaena station. Night had
fallen in the interval, and, unluckily, heavy clouds made
the country additionally dark.
Hodek was crouching in the shed, and told me that soon
after sundown some jackals had appeared. With stony
patience we lay in the ambush till midnight, but we soon
realized the hopelessness of the case, as the place where
the dead ass lay could scarcely be seen. Had the ground
been smooth rock or desert sand, as in Egypt, my pro
spects would have been better ; but here, as everywhere
near Jerusalem, big rocks and stone lay about with dark
grass between. We were, moreover, enduring real torture
in the close, narrow berth. The wind was good for sport,
and blew direct from the carrion towards us, bringing us
the most fearful odours through the firing-holes. Some
times we thought we heard the wild beasts creeping up,
and several times people passed in the road singing, and
the watchdogs at the castle howled piteously in true Eastern
fashion. At midnight, as I have said, my patience was
exhausted, and we groped our way carefully back to the
castle. On the ist of April I was called at sunrise, and went
out to see the effect of the strychnine. Our astonishment

A FIRST GLIMPSE.

SEARCH FOR OUR PREY. 303
was not small at finding that the great heavy donkey had
disappeared. No sign of dragging was to be seen on the
ground. The grass was not turned, and so it seemed
proved that an unusually strong beast of prey must have
simply carried the heavy ass away. As some of the small
scraps were also gone, we searched about and found a large
jackal not twenty paces off. Longer legged, bigger, and
with a shorter and more bushy tail than the Egyptian, and
a yellow coat only broken by a greyish-blue stripe on the
back, the fine creature seemed to me different from any
jackal which I had previously killed.
We soon found a track of blood which led direct from
the place to the road, and across it to a wall. Here we could
see that the ass had been dragged over the stones, as hair
and blood stuck to the sharp corners. On the other side
the carrion had again been carried. The track of blood
now took the direction of one of the deeply cut valleys
which lead towards the mountains by the Jordan.
I crept cautiously forward, and looking over a mound
I saw about fifty steps in advance a dark object, and beside
it a small orange-coloured animal. One of those wonder
fully pretty dainty ferrets (desert fox), with his long bat's
ears, was making a comfortable breakfast. A good shot
laid the little fellow low.
Hastening to the spot, I found my prey lying by the head
of our ass. As a matter of course, I examined everything
with minute care. The heavy, large skull of a full-grown
ass of the large Asiatic breed had been simply bitten clean
off; one could see the marks of the teeth. The beast of
prey had vanished with the rest of the body. To this spot

304 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
it had brought the entire ass — not dragged it along, but
carried it on its back. Hyaenas are very large and strong,
but they are not, in my opinion, capable of doing so much
as this ; neither are they accustomed to carry off their booty
without touching it. Those are the ways of the bear, and
I feel convinced that a yellow Syrian Isabel-bear, which
Brehm, in his " Animal World," says are met with in Pales
tine, played us this trick. Had it been full moon we should
have had a splendid night. So, vexed, and out of humour, I
went back to breakfast at the castle. It was very lively on
the road. Caravans of asses and camels laden with provi
sions came in from the country to the market in Jerusalem,
and one saw varied costumes as well as interesting types
both of men and women.
Our luggage and the whole column of beasts of burden,
with Mr. Howard conducting, soon appeared from the
sacred Zion, where the camp had broken up in the morn
ing. They passed the castle, and went forward to pitch
our camp for the next night below Bethlehem. The
gentlemen were to spend the forenoon in Jerusalem, and
would not arrive at Tantur before noon. I employed the
spare time in watching at the ambush for large birds of prey.
The head of the ass had in the meantime been dragged
up to the shed, and I had plans for employing poison the
next night with those last remains of our splendid jackass.
Storks were passing in great numbers from south to
north, and soon the daily troop of vultures followed. They
come from the mountains of the Dead Sea to the towns,
and especially to Jerusalem, to gather up the carrion.
Hundreds of vultures, one after the other, and some eagles

BETHLEHEM. 305

too, were to be seen aloft in the course of the forenoon.
The ambush was unluckily too near the road, on which
there was constant traffic, and so great numbers of the
birds hovered over the spot without venturing to come
down. One solitary carrion vulture had the courage to
pass near the shed several times, for which he at length
paid the penalty with his life.
After this I went once more to the castle, and waited
with Count Caboga the arrival of my fellow-travellers,
which soon followed. They came full trot into the court
yard, and I had forthwith to relate my hunting experiences
and give them the benefit of the events of the last few
hours. Count Caboga entertained us with an excellent
breakfast, and we started — some in carriages and some on
horseback — on our short journey to Bethlehem. The bad
stony road winds between old walls, olive gardens, and
half-ruined houses, always downhill, towards the steep
hillside on which this famous town, the birthplace of our
Saviour, is built.
The name Bet-lahem is very ancient, and signifies in
the Hebrew " the place of bread." In Bible story this
place was known both for the fertility of the country round,
and as the home of the House of David. The name of
Ephrata, which also refers to the fruitfulness of the district,
often occurs in the songs and warnings of the prophets :
"And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall He come
forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel ; whose goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
The town is built picturesquely on the ridge of a hill,
20

306 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

along which it extends for some distance. Between the
stony slopes level gardens of olives and vines are planted,
which give the place an air of sheltered verdure. The
houses built of white stone with flat roofs, the cupolas and
towers of the churches, the terraces and the convents, all
give to this hallowed spot the look of a much larger town
than it really is.
After passing the first houses we turned into a narrow
street ; uneven pavement, rough woodwork, gloomy walls,
and an incessant up and down hill are the first impression
the traveller gets. There is scope, however, for interesting
ethnographic study, for Bethlehem is far more than Jeru
salem the type of an old Hebrew town. The people
whom one sees on the flat roofs of their houses, in the
streets, and at the windows, are old Scriptural Jews, just as
imagination has depicted them. They wear big turbans,
flowing robes, and bright vests ; the rich are arrayed in the
garb of the Pharisees, and the poor like those who heard
in the streets and squares the life-giving words and precepts
from the lips of the Redeemer.
The faces are thoroughly Hebrew ; the long bent nose,
the pale complexion, the black or red beards curled and
ending in two points, are such as we see in the pictures of
Christ and His apostles. The women are most striking,
wrapped in broad, full, coloured clothes, with a white cloth
picturesquely draped round the head, of pale complexion,
and with the most beautiful eyes, features, and hair that
can be imagined. I have never seen such beautiful women
as in Bethlehem, and nowhere else so many of them in one
town. One beauty follows another. The noblest Madonna

jKbjUjji | Ii g l|j§i^ -  - ¦-¦

WOMEN AT BETHLEHEM.

CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY. 307
ideals, and the grandest women of whom we read in the
New Testament, walk about here in flesh and blood. The
astonished traveller fancies himself transported in a dream
to the days of the Saviour, when Mary brought forth the
God-man in a poor stable, and when the wise men of the
East, following the star, came from the Valley of the Jordan,
where their free nomad kingdoms existed then as they
exist now.
Bethlehem and its holy places are exactly reproduced
in the cradle scenes which we see in the pictures of pious
painters of the Middle Ages, and the painted toys which
are now given to children at Christmas. The town is
chiefly inhabited by Christians, and of five thousand souls
only three hundred are Moslems.
We came out of the street into a square surrounded by
Oriental houses, on one side of which stands the great
Church of the Virgin, with the buildings pertaining to it.
The most sacred places are under one roof, and belong to
the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians in common. All three
sects have their respective convents communicating with
the church.
The custode of Terra Santa awaited us at the great gate
with some of his Franciscans, and the square was crowded
with people. Innumerable petitions were handed to us in
the space of a few minutes. The church is very ancient
and handsome, of Byzantine origin, and fairly preserved
from the time of the Emperor Constantine, who built it.
Inside, one is surprised at the nooks which have been added
in the course of time, and the many low, narrow doors
through which one can scarcely squeeze ; their purpose is

308 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
to protect the holy places from invasion by the Arab
tribes, whose abodes are not very remote, and who are
quite lawless. The church, with its chapels and halls, bears
the character of the earliest Christian, i.e. Byzantine, times.
Unhappily many of the most ancient mosaics and paintings
are effaced or have fallen off, and the statues are broken.
The church, too, is not well kept up as a whole. One sees
at every turn in its interior the results of the compromise
between the three rites. Altars, fonts, and shrines of the
different religions stand close beside each other. Fran
ciscans and Greek priests walk about in numbers. Few
pilgrims, and they chiefly Russian peasants, were there on
this occasion ; but all the more inhabitants, as the town is
Christian, followed us in our rounds, among them the
most beautiful and picturesque figures which fancy can
pourtray. The most interesting parts are the subterranean grottoes.
We reached the brightly lighted Chapel of the Nativity by
a flight of steps, and through doors from the church. In a
niche to the east is an altar ; beneath it a silver star is let
into the ground, and round it are the words, " Hie de
Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est."
The narrow, gloomy chamber makes a great impression
on the pilgrim, and ancient mysticism, the weight of tra
dition, and the conviction that here Christianity was born,
and that from hence went forth that religion which has
changed the face of the world, stirs solemn and sublime
emotions. Unbidden he falls on his knees and kisses the
stone which thousands of lips have pressed in the lapse of
ages, breathing vows of fidelity with pious fervour.

CHAPEL OF THE CRADLE.

309

Three steps lower down is the Chapel of the Cradle,
where, according to tradition, the cradle of the child Jesus
stood, and opposite to it the spot is shown where the three
wise men of the East sank on their knees, paying homage
to the Divine child. In an underground passage we came
to a hole in the naked rock, from which a spring burst
forth for the use of the holy family ; a door led into another
passage, where we were shown the spot at which Joseph
received the command to flee into Egypt ; and yet further
down is the cave-like Chapel of the Innocents, where
Herod had the babes massacred who had been hidden by
their mothers.
Our way next took us to the altar and grave of St.
Eusebius of Cremona, a pupil of St. Jerome. The grave
of this Father of the Church is close at hand, and we were
shown further on the chapel hewn in the rock, in which the
saint lived and where he wrote. This was the last of the
underground chambers, and we ascended by a staircase
through the Church of St. Catherine into the Latin convent.
It is a simple but well-kept building. The Franciscans
regaled us in the refectory with sundry sweet liqueurs.
After a short stay the Greek bishop, a man in the prime of
life, with a long black beard and handsome features, a
thorough Greek, courteous and graceful, invited us in most
elegant phrases to visit his convent.
It is a plain building, inhabited by monks of the order of
St. Basil, and most orthodox in its arrangements, which differ
a good deal from those of the Latin rite. We took our seats
in a bare and uninhabitable room, from which, however,
there was a fine view over the town and the surrounding

3io TRAVELS IN THE EAST.

country. My uncle, the bishop, and I sat on the same
divan. We were scarcely seated when priests appeared
with horrid beverages. We made our escape as soon as
possible, and went to the Milk Grotto, which we reached
by a broad entrance and a few steps. Tradition has it that
the holy family having hidden here, some drops of the
mother's milk fell upon the stone. Many women visit this
spot in the belief that a libation on this stone will increase
the supply of those who require it. Christians and Moslems
both hold this grotto in the deepest veneration. The altar
inside it belongs to the Latins. After we had taken leave
of the Greek and Latin clergy, we hastened past the last
houses of the town, along the hill-side, between olive
gardens and stone walls, to our camp, which lay near the
filthy but prettily situated village of Betsahur.
The inhabitants crowded round with curiosity, and the
Turkish gendarmes had difficulty in keeping the camp
clear. Two hunters soon appeared offering their services.
They were a handsome pair of brothers, citizens of Beth
lehem, in complete Jewish dress. There was a touch of
the vagabond about them, and they professed to live by
partridge shooting. One of them spoke French well, and
seemed to have dealings with several tribes of Bedouins
in hunting matters. He undertook to arrange an ibex
hunt, and also to procure us some young live specimens.
He was a Christian, like all Bethlehemites, and had fought
bravely in the French army against the Germans.
Count Lesseps met him during his journey in Palestine
and took him as servant. In France he made him enter
the army which was marching to the Rhine. In this way

HILLS AROUND BETHLEHEM. 311
he took part in the campaign of 1870, and returned, soon
after the conclusion of peace, to his own home to shoot
partridges as before.
Hoyos and I now set forth with this pair to search
the country for game for the afternoon. Advancing into
a valley eastward, we passed some flocks. The pic
turesquely clad shepherds pleased me much. Those who
first worshipped by the cradle of the Son of God were
surely such as those who now roamed the hills with their
goats, singing monotonous songs.
The hills rose higher and steeper, and were covered
with yellow grass. I noticed that there was already a
change in the character of the flora. Betsahur is the
last village in this direction, and at the beginning of the
grey-green mountains and of the flora of the Jordan,
the territory of the Bedouin tribes is entered, where a
certain amount of caution must be exercised.
We clambered eagerly about on the hills. We saw and
heard some partridges, but the few that are to be met with
in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem are so wild there is
little chance of getting up to them. We roamed with our
experienced huntsmen over some hills back towards the
village, entering the region of olive trees and neglected
gardens. Southward from the ridge on which Bethlehem and
Betsahur stand is a deeply indented valley whose sides
have terraces of olives and vines ; between these rise rocky
cliffs with piled-up stones, forming niches and hollows
covered with evergreens, giving a most picturesque aspect
to the whole.

312 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
The narrow bottom of the valley is filled with blocks
of stone, old walls, and tanks. A stony path, made for the
flocks, winds from the village up the opposite hill-side.
Hoyos and I climbed between the olive woods and the
rocks, looking for birds whose call we could hear, when
suddenly the Grand Duke and some of the other gentlemen
appeared opposite, near the village, and strove to make us
understand by signs that game was moving about below
us. The terraced ground forbade our getting a good
view, so we hurried across to the other slope and learnt
that a big jackal had been doubling leisurely one stage
below us.
Thereupon we scattered to different points of the
valley, to lie in wait for the wild beasts coming out at
sunset. My Eastern companion averred that the " Wauis "
also greatly liked this place. The Arabs of Palestine call
the jackal Waui, not Taleb like the Egyptians, and in
general the Arabic spoken here differs so much from that
of Egypt as to be unintelligible.
The evening was fine and the sun set. Flocks came
by led by picturesque herdsmen. The sound of the bells
mingled with their melancholy songs, and we could hear
the Ave Maria ringing in Bethlehem. The shadows
lengthened and the last red vanished from the mountains
of the Dead Sea, the eagles went to their roost, and a
jackal glided ghost-like across the valley. He came
towards my hiding-place, but the wind was not in the
right quarter, and the cunning beast disappeared behind
some rocks.
A strange, dismal melancholy haunts the desolate

MASS IN THE CHAPEL OF THE NATIVITY. 313
ravines of Palestine, especially in the evening. One can
imagine how well adapted such spots are to wild beasts ;
hyaenas, wolves, and jackals assemble and howl by the old
tombs. I left the damp chill place before it grew quite
dark, and hastened past the village to the camp. A
shadow flitted by me, and on a chance shot a poor
stork fell mortally wounded.
Next morning we started early and rode to Bethlehem.
There was again a great crowd, and it was with difficulty
that we pushed through to the church door on our neighing,
capering horses. The Franciscans accompanied our party
to the Chapel of the Nativity, where the chaplain said
Mass. The public had pressed after us into the holy places
underground, and some wonderfully beautiful women of
Bethlehem knelt on the bare rock, strangely lighted by
the dull glow of the lamps.
After the service we hastened to the square where our
horses stood. A great surprise awaited me there. On the
terrace of a house lay a colossal hyaena with a wondrous
skin and long mane, and beside it two jackals smaller and
different in colour from that of the previous day, but larger
than, and differing altogether in appearance from, the
Egyptian Canis aureus. The poison had taken effect.
The day before, the head of the ass which was left had been
saturated with a strong dose of strychnine and left on the
spot. Naturally the half-starved beasts of the lonely spot
fell greedily on the dainty morsel and found in it speedy
death. I sent the prize on the back of a donkey to the tent
of our skin-dresser.
We rode back the same way as the day before to Tantur

314 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
to the picturesque Maltese castle. On arriving there we
decided to beat one of the adjoining barren hills regularly
through. We requisitioned as many beaters as possible ;
servants of Count Caboga, our own grooms from the camp,
shepherds and country folk out for a walk — all were taken
along with us. One part of the gentlemen placed them
selves to shoot in the valley on the southern slope of the
hill, while Hoyos, the huntsmen, and I placed the line
of beaters and at a given signal began to beat ; several
Turkish gendarmes also assisted and showed decided gifts
for that kind of sport.
Some partridges, an unfortunate quail, and a jackal flew
or crept up in front of us, but unluckily did not take the
direction of the guns. It was not till the end of the beating
that some birds passed above the gentlemen, of which one
was shot. One genuine grey Syrian hare came within
fire, and was shot by Chorinsky. It was thinner, smaller,
and much darker than our field hare, but more like that
than the African desert hare.
After this not brilliantly successful beat we went past
the hyaena ambush, to the convent of Mar-Elyis, whence
a splendid view of Jerusalem could be had. It was our
last view of the Holy City and its environs. Thence our
course lay eastward and then to the north.
From the convent we resolved to make a long drive on
the principle of Bohemian partridge shooting, at one
stretch up to our camp. It was a long distance, and over
very broken ground ; one hill rose behind another, and all
were separated by steep valleys. We made the beaters go
further apart, and I planted the gentlemen and the hunts-

FROM MAR-ELY AS TO BETHLEHEM. 315
men in between, as in this way a broader strip of country
could be covered.
The sun scorched fiercely, no breath of air stirred,
and the blue sky lay cloudless in the mid-day haze.
Climbing the first hill was melting work ; the steep sides
overgrown with short grass were slippery, and not a stone
gave foothold. Some partridges rose up in the distance,
a big jackal was missed by Chorinsky, and the Grand Duke
killed a remarkably large serpent which it required a good
shot to capture.
Two grassy green hills were happily surmounted, but
the beaters followed languidly. Gaps occurred, and the
form of a correct drive according to European notions
got more and more lost. The country now assumed
another character. Flat stone cliffs, caves and grottoes,
old walls and terraces between, built up for olives and
vines, and rocky valleys like those behind the village of
Betsahur, took the place of bare hills. We had hardly got
on this ground when a jackal leaped out just below me
from beside a big rock. A shot sent after him brought
him down, but the agile beast, though mortally hit,
disappeared at once into a deep burrow.
As I wished to secure my booty, I despatched my
huntsman to the camp to fetch the dachshunds, and
waited by the spot, where the faithful and ever-ready
Achmed refreshed me with lemonade. The other gen
tlemen continued the drive to the camp. Count Waldburg
shot another partridge which rose close to him.
My huntsman soon returned with three dachshunds.
Scheck, the biggest and strongest, a Sclavonian by birth,

316 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
ran first eagerly into the burrow. Croat and Opeka, his
Croatian comrades, followed him. But few seconds had
passed when we heard the racket under the stones. I
thought at first it was a battle with the wounded animal,
but I was soon undeceived, and a glance into the funnel
showed me the efficiency of the brave dogs. They were
dragging the dead jackal with all their might into the light
of day. We now set off home across a most painfully cleft
ridge. I let the dogs search some caves, outside which
were fresh tracks of foxes, jackals, and in one case of a
hyaena. These searches had unfortunately no result, and
the sun was scorching and the dogs tired quickly on the
hot stones.
We soon reached the camp. A few hours' rest were
most welcome. Before sunset Waldburg and I climbed
about the slopes of the same valley in which we had made
a firing-place for jackals the evening before. A search
with the dogs, and our own diligent efforts to get up to an
old partridge cock which was tumbling about on the stones,
were alike unsuccessful, and we contented ourselves with
climbing the opposite slope, and reaching the highest point
of the ridge, in order to get the beautiful view towards the
mountains of the Dead Sea. We returned at nightfall to
the camp, where stillness soon settled on all, as a helpful
precursor of coming days of travel in the Valley of the
Jordan. There was a general stir in the camp early on the
morning of the 3rd. The tents were struck, and all the
baggage put on the pack-horses. Two more hyaenas had

OUR BEDOUIN COMPANIONS. 317
arrived from Tantur, fine large specimens, which had
poisoned themselves in the night with the same head of
the ass.
Some Bedouins from the mountains on the south-western
margin of the Dead Sea came into the camp — fine, manly
fellows, with noble faces, muscular and powerful, and with
rather dark skins. They were members of poor but wild
and quite lawless tribes. One of them, probably the sheik,
wore a party-coloured turban, a full white robe, yellow
shoes, and, fastened to his waist, a large bent Turkish sabre.
The expression of his face, his thin features, sharply defined
mouth, round which a derisive smile played, and his piercing
black eyes did not inspire confidence.
These Bedouins, thorough Arabs in their habits and
appearance, and wholly different from the more Hebraic
natives of Bethlehem, had come to offer to sell me three
young ibex kids, which I purchased. They also wished to
induce us to make a hunting expedition among their barren
hills, where the Arabian ibex, a fine creature with long
gristly horns, is found in great quantities. The excursion
was, alas ! out of the question, for it would have detained
us for several days and led us along the shore of the Dead
Sea to its south-western point, and our time was already all
laid out. I was therefore compelled, though with a heavy
heart, to send back these dark children of the steppe to
their home, consoling them with a backsheesh.
The camp was, as usual, struck with extraordinary
speed, and under Mr. Howard's guidance the great caravan
moved towards Mar-Saba. We rode once more up to
Bethlehem, where the chaplain said Mass. We took leave

318 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
of the custode of Terra Santa and his Franciscans on the
square outside the church. A great crowd had assembled ;
the beautiful women of Bethlehem scanned us curiously,
and, covered once more with a shower of petitions, we left
the sacred birthplace of Christ. The last town and the
last dwellers on cultivated ground were left behind, and we
were now for some time to be denizens of the territory of
free nomads, the true Bedouins.
On leaving Bethlehem we had to ride past our recent
camp, but we soon struck into a narrow valley shut in by
grey-green hills, and Bethlehem, Tantur, Mar-Elyas, the
stony mountains, the plateaus, and their cultivated slopes
disappeared from our sight.
The Mediterranean type, the Asiatic character of the
steppe, the monotonous hills covered with short grass, the
winding valleys, excluding all distant views, now met us.
The road was good at first, and we could sometimes even
ride in quick time across the meadows ; but the further we
went the steeper grew the hills and the narrower the
footway, which at last kept entirely along the steep slopes,
as the bottom of the valley became a rocky ravine. A
Bedouin, on an ill-dressed but very graceful bay, rode in
front. He was sheik of one of these mountain tribes.
His dress, a wide, dark cloak thrown over light trousers,
and his plain sword and yellow slippers bore some trace of
poverty. The ride in the narrow valley did not afford much
variety. Here and there very bad pieces of road called for
caution, and we often had reason to admire the skill with
which the Arab horses trod on slippery grass or smooth

BEDOUINS WEST AND EAST OF THE JORDAN. 319
stones in places where a single false step would have
involved a fall into the depth below. The animal world
was not largely represented on these desolate hills.
Vultures, eagles, and here and there a solitary stork passed
overhead ; with this exception all was still.
We saw a Bedouin camp on the top of a distant hill.
It is a great mistake to think of tents as high, pointed,
airy erections of dazzling white cloth ; on the contrary, they
are dark, low huts made of skins. A blue column of smoke
rose from the camp, and men and flocks were moving
about round the temporary settlement. Only very poor
tribes inhabit this region, between the cultivated land of
Palestine, Bethlehem, and the Valley of the Jordan. They
move about along the border hills, let their herds, horses,
and goats pasture on the grassy slopes, and shift their camp
as necessity arises. They often come near the towns
where they trade with their cattle, but they do not stop
long ; they acknowledge, so far as it does not incommode
them, the authority of the Sultan, and pay such taxes as
suit them — generally none at all. These small tribes often
wage war amongst themselves, chiefly arising from thefts
of cattle or perchance of a mare.
The true life of the Bedouins of the great, powerful,
and rich tribes begins at the Jordan. On the eastern shore
of the river the wild hosts live absolutely unsubdued ; they
neither acknowledge the Sultan nor his caliphate, and
whenever the slackness of the Turkish military force
permits they swim across the sacred river and disturb the
Holy Land.
The narrow valley came to an end after a long ride,

320 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
and the footpath led along the ridge of a high mountain
top, from which a splendid view opened. Immediately
below us was a steep declivity — at its base a circular valley
surrounded by high hills ; right and left rose countless
summits, ridges, and far-stretching hills, all alike grey-green
— a true landscape of the steppes. A narrow ravine-like
gorge leads out from the bottom in a south-easterly direc
tion, and through it one catches a closely bounded view
of the deep-blue waters of the Dead Sea and the bare white
cliffs of the fine range of mountains on the opposite coast.
The path descended in zigzags along the steep slope
below where we stood. The greater part of the pack-
horses of our caravan were still engaged in this difficult
descent, to the ceaseless tinkle of their bells, while the
quickest had already arrived in the valley, and our un
wearied servants were putting up the first tents in a
stony field.
The gentlemen went straight on, but the Grand Duke
and I preferred to wait on the ridge until the entire camp
was pitched, and meanwhile we had a kid slaughtered and
placed behind one of the summits which admitted of a
covered approach. Hundreds of vultures and eagles came
from the mountains of the Dead Sea and passed one after
another all in the same direction. They were taking their
daily promenade towards Jerusalem with punctual precision.
They did not condescend to bestow a single glance at our
kid. Only two ravens and one carrion vulture hovered
over the place, but without settling.
The sun was burning intensely, no air was stirring,
and not the smallest cloud dimmed the dark-blue sky.

AN AMBUSCADE.

DESCENT TO THE VALLEY OF THE JORDAN. 321

At the end of an hour we left the chosen spot, and dragging
the kid with us, as we wished to put it out the next day,
we went down on foot into the bottom of the valley.
The lower we descended the heavier and more oppressive
grew the air. A leaden atmosphere came up the side
valley as a first greeting from the Dead Sea and the
Valley of the Jordan. We were to learn to dread it in
the next few days.
We soon reached the valley where our camp was
already completely pitched. It stood there like a small
town, and the utmost activity prevailed in the otherwise
lonely region.
The two Arab huntsmen who had followed the caravan,
shooting as they came along from Latrun, appeared with
an ample supply for the kitchen. They brought with them
some of the pretty little rock partridges. It was the first
time that we had come within the limits of diffusion of
this beautiful bird.
The Arabs, who with their imperfect weapons can only
shoot at sitting birds, creep up to their game under cover
of a brown or yellow painted curtain, which is stretched
upon two rods of sugar-cane, and gives sight and space to
fire through two openings for the eyes and one for the gun
barrel. The foolish birds see no one, and stare at the
moving curtain till the deadly shot issues from it.
We breakfasted as soon as we arrived, while the Oriental
servants with much dexterity made quarters for the night
possible. Every stone had to be moved and the whole of
the grass searched. Great fat scorpions lay about every
where. We made full acquaintance with their bad qualities
21

322 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
during the last days of our journey. After breakfast we
agreed to pay a visit to the famous convent of Mar-Saba.
The road from the camp led through the narrow valley
mentioned above. The grass-covered sides fall steeply
on the right and left, but abruptly change their form and
terminate as vertical rocky cliffs in a deep stony ravine.
The path wound above the rocks on the lowest edge
of the grass. The rocks below us in the whole of the dark
and gloomy ravine were undermined and full of caves
and nooks, in which quantities of rock pigeons and red
falcons breed peaceably side by side. At every step we
scared these feathered inhabitants, and they fluttered in
terror from one side of the ravine to the other In half an
hour we reached an old watch-tower which stands at the
edge of the rock ; coming from above one sees no other
sign of the vast ecclesiastical establishment which is hidden
among the rocks of the ravine. At the tower the traveller
must knock with all his might at the securely bolted door
before they move below behind the thick walls and the
door slowly opens.
The poor monks have to adopt many precautionary
measures for their own protection, for the Moslems have
played them many ugly tricks. In the year 614 the
convent was sacked for the first time by the Persian
hosts under Chosroes. In 796 and 842 other Asiatic
races followed their example, and after repeated minor
attacks came the great massacres of 1832 and 1834, in
which the wild tribes from the left bank of the Jordan
butchered all the monks. Now every pilgrim who desires
admission must hand in a letter to the priest who keeps

A DIFFICULT ASCENT.

ENTRY TO MAR-SABA. 323

guard at a window of the tower, and who, by means of
special apparatus, lowers the same to the main building
of the convent. Permission to enter is returned in the
same way, and the door is then opened. After sunset no
one is admitted even with a letter, nor may any woman,
according to the strict rule of Greek monasteries, tread the
domain of this pious colony.
We passed through the gate below the tower by a
flight of steps to a second door, and from thence by a yet
longer flight of steps to a small flagged terrace. The
roads divide here, and one gets the first sight into the
interior of this remarkable building. It is a conglomerate
of stairs, platforms, terraces, and living rooms built on to
the rock. Old wooden sheds and galleries carried on
beams, chapels, caves and grottoes stretch along the cliff
from the tower at the top nearly to the bottom of the
ravine. The lowest part is only connected with the
convent by a staircase leading down to it. The entrance
below is, of course, defended from intruders from the valley
by strong doors and a labyrinth of galleries. To describe
all the chambers of this remarkable building would be a
tedious task. A jumble of staircases, much dirt, little light,
and bare rock showing through everywhere, are the dis
tinctive peculiarities of this convent.
The Greek Bishop of Bethlehem received us on the
first platform, surrounded by a large number of very poor
looking monks. In the centre of the platform there is a
small building with a cupola in which stands the richly
ornamented tomb of St. Saba ; hard by is the small church
of St. Nicholas (more or less a simple hollow in the rock),

324 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
in which the skulls of the martyrs slain by Chosroes are
preserved. The principal church of the convent is a pure
Greek basilica, and contains many black pictures of saints
on gold ground, and all the rich silver-gilt and silver articles
which one finds in the orthodox Greek place of worship.
The bishop recited a Greek prayer of thanksgiving in our
presence at the altar, and choral songs by the monks
followed ; the effect within these old walls was very fine.
The tomb of St. Chryssorrhoas of Damascus, one of
the foremost of the Fathers of the Greek Church, was also
shown us. We had, of course, to kiss many sacred spots
and stones, and to inhale much incense and attar of roses.
We next proceeded to a regular inspection of the convent.
The sixty-five monks live in the cells of the main building —
more or less habitable hollows in the rock, and in wooden
sheds built on the rock. On the platforms and terraces,
wherever a spot could be found, the pious brothers have
made small gardens with soil laboriously carried thither ;
in one of these is an ancient palm which St. Saba himself
planted, and which bears stoneless dates to the present day.
Visiting all the chambers is a fatiguing process — upstairs
and downstairs, and often through such low passages that
one has to walk bent double ; in addition to this a dreadful
smell pervades the whole place. In a separate small
building there is a poorly fitted stranger's room, and here
the kindly monks treated us to their dreadful rose-coloured,
insipid drinks.
From this room we went by an outdoor staircase to
the entrance of the cave of St. Saba. We had to pass
through several damp chambers in the rock. According to

A SOLITARY — MOUNTAIN STARLINGS. 325
the legend, the saint and his lion (whom he had tamed by
prayer) lived happily together in two grottoes. Fresh
straw laid down showed that specially enthusiastic monks
inhabit this gloomy spot from time to time in order to
imitate the saint. Near this spot we saw another cave in
the rock. An aged monk clad in miserable rags, his pale
face furrowed by religious excitement, had chosen this
abode for himself. He reached his dwelling by vertical
steps and a narrow plank fixed to the rock. He had to
cross this perilous road daily. We saw him returning
to his home from the church by this dangerous footway.
From one of the large platforms we had a good view
into the ravine. The opposite cliffs are at most one
hundred and fifty paces off. There are caves and grottoes
in them too, now tenanted only by jackals, falcons, and
pigeons ; formerly they were occupied by hermits.
A bird which I saw nowhere else in Palestine lives in
great numbers on the rocks near the convent. This was
the mountain starling. All the pinnacles, platforms, roofs,
and rocks are literally covered with these brilliant blue-
black birds with reddish-brown pinions, and their song
resounds on all sides. A monk has tamed them so that
when he whistles and calls at an appointed hour each day
they come fluttering down and settle at his feet, or even on
his head and shoulders, and take crumbs of bread from his
hand. Even the wild beasts are lured hither ; every
evening at the hour of prayer jackals appear in the ravine
and wait till pieces of bread are thrown down to them.
From all this it may be assumed that Eastern Chris
tianity has here remained stationary on the level of the

326 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
ascetics of the first centuries. The traveller involuntarily
fancies himself carried back to the days of the hermits of
Mount Athos and other holy places at the dawn of Chris
tendom, where in the far East pious men who have since
been canonized lived in ceaseless prayer in caves and dens.
Such was the early Christian Church. It was Eastern,
and the Mar-Saba of our day has kept itself pure and
uncontaminated at the level of those pious hermits of the
third and fourth centuries. It is no convent according to
European ideas, but a settlement of hermits, a group of
solitaries living independently, but gathered into a narrow
space by common dangers.
Neither learning nor luxury have place on this moun
tain, nothing but prayer ; daily the same continuous worship,
complete self-annihilation and mortification. A child of
the nineteenth century, of purely Western training, cannot
conceive of such a life. Only the East could produce the
fanaticism which still holds its ground there. The rabbis,
who wail at the wall of the temple ; the dervishes, who
pass their whole lives in squatting or turning or mutilating
themselves — in what do they differ ? The substance is the
same ; the form alone is changed.
The ascetics of Mar-Saba eat only bread and vege
tables. The loud bell of the convent calls the hermits
daily to the church to united prayer. Nightly at the twelfth
hour they celebrate high Mass, and the old Greek chants
do not cease till morning breaks. I found some Russians
among the brothers, Transylvanians, Wallachians, Scla-
vonians, Servians, and Bulgarians, but by far the most were
Greeks from Europe and Asia Minor.

A JACKAL BETRAYED. 327

The story of the jackals appearing every evening
attracted me, and, obtaining leave from the monks, I crept
down all the ladders and galleries into the ravine, and
crouched beside some stones near an old tank. The spot
was stern and dismal — the bare rock in front, the rocky
habitations of the monks behind, above my head a narrow
strip of blue sky. As evening drew on the starlings,
falcons, and pigeons flew to their holes, and only now and
then the brief song of a bird was heard. One might fancy
one's self in the days of St. Saba.
It began to grow dark. The Greek bells called aloud
to prayer. The last sound had hardly died away when a
bit of bread fell close beside me ; a moment after, and a
jackal stood not twenty steps off. A successful shot killed
him. I was glad to hurry up with my prey out of the
terrible gorge which is at the level of the Mediterranean.
A leaden air such as I never felt before seemed to stop
one's breath, and hang like a weight on the whole body.
In the next days we were to go lower still, and to be yet
more oppressed by this malarious atmosphere.
I climbed the whole way up through the convent, and,
taking leave of the pious monks, we hastened out through
the tower at the top, but it was quite dark when we reached
our camp. We dined and made our plans for the next day,
and by ten stillness resumed its sway in the desolate valley.
At sunrise the party assembled at breakfast. We were
at table, when a carrion vulture had the audacity to stroll
into the camp and settle itself to consume some waste from
the kitchen between the tents. The Grand Duke fetched
his gun and shot the daring bird.

328 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
We agreed to disperse for the morning hours in different
directions. The Grand Duke and I ascended one of the
highest of the hills which enclose the valley, in order again
to place our kid on the summit ; the other gentlemen
went pigeon shooting in the ravine of Mar-Saba.
We had a long and tiresome climb. The slope was
steep and slippery ; red flint rocks had to be scrambled over
and the heat was already to be felt. On reaching the top
we found an excellent ambush, which my huntsman had
erected the previous afternoon. We sat watching for two
hours, tormented by insects, but except a carrion vulture,
which we would not shoot, nothing came. The flight of
the birds of prey began again, but, as before, they kept the
direct line to Jerusalem. No lure could tempt them from
their course.
We scrambled down, having gained nothing, and took
the shortest way to the camp, which had meanwhile been
broken up, and was already for the most part in motion.
Only a part of the kitchen remained, in which we made
a slender breakfast to strengthen us for the rest of our
journey. The gentlemen had shot a number of pigeons, falcons,
and sundry other small birds in the ravine.
After our frugal breakfast we took leave of Count
Caboga, to whom we were under many obligations. He
had to return to Tantur that day, but lent me for the whole
of the rest of the journey his servant Ferdinand, and the
good horse, a beautiful Arab, which he had bought from
a tribe of Bedouins, and which I had ridden daily since
our arrival at Jerusalem. I was extremely grateful to the

STRIKING TENTS AT MAR-SABA.

MOUNTAIN AND STEPPE.

3^9

Count for this attention, for the beautiful animal was sure
footed on the mountain and fleet in the plains ; it could
also stand the heavy work of the day and the open air at
night. As soon as every one was on horseback we set
forward, the Bedouins in front.
The country at first was of the same character as that
round our camp, but the valleys soon grew narrower and
the hills higher, and in place of grass bare yellow earth
and smooth large slabs of stone had to be ridden over.
On a small field surrounded with rocks in the middle of
this wilderness stood two storks. They were probably
migrating. I shot one of them as it rose.
The path was exceedingly difficult for the horses, and
they had to step with the greatest care, for the ground was
such that a fall into the abyss might easily have occurred.
We came by countless points and tops, over ridges, through
valleys and ravines, riding perpetually up and down hill.
The ground was much broken, and was also quite without
a trace of human activity. After a long ride, the character
of the ground changed. The slopes were more gentle, the
stones disappeared ; tall thin grass and blossoming flowers
bespoke the true steppe in spring array.
The tawny mountains which we had climbed before held
on their course from south to north, barring all view to
westward. We came upon a plateau perfumed with
flowers and crossed it at a gallop. The ground was good
and the horses pranced about, glad to have escaped from
the smooth rocks and steep paths.
A steppe is majestic, and though monotonous is not sad,
like the far more impressive desert. The wealth of

330 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
flowers gives the steppe the advantage in spring ; the desert
can only show variety in its stones. Again a hill rises in
front, belonging to the so-called mountains of Judaea. It
has strayed away from the direction in which the rest are
seen, and advances into the plateau with its steep outlines
and its peculiar form and colour.
The whole of this pointed cone is a conglomerate of
yellow clay, red rock, and brown and grey stones, and is
quite without plants. We had to pass through a deep
ravine between it and the other border mountains. It was
a mauvais pas — nothing but smooth stones and precipices
below. Our Bedouins themselves dismounted, and at
one place the horses could not even be led. The clever
animals followed their masters of their own accord. It is
at such times that one learns to value the great intelligence
of the Arab horse. A pack-horse fell to a great depth at
one of the bad places, but luckily came upon his back, with
the pack underneath him, and, wonderful to tell, escaped
with a few bruises.
The ascent from the ravine was better than the descent,
and crossing a grassy plain we came along the northern
base of the hill to Nebi-Musa. This is a considerable
place of pilgrimage for Mohammedans, who here point out
the grave of Moses. A small half- ruined mosque and a
wretched house for pilgrims mark the place, which is
visited each year by thousands of devotees. During the
days sacred to the Prophet no Christian may venture into
the district ; his life would not be safe.
When we arrived there was no one there except the
Turkish family to whom the care of the shrine is en-

AX ACCIDENT ON THE WAV.

BESIDE THE GRAVE OF MOSES. 331
trusted. Our camp had been pitched near the mosque.
The spot is most picturesque. It is a small plateau covered
with grass and shrubs, shut in to the south by the red
mountains, and to the west by the grey-green mountains
which follow the Valley of the Jordan. To the north the
plateau falls gently, towards the east steeply, in the shape of
grey slate-clay sides into this valley. We got a splendid
view here over the broad, moist, green plain. We were
glad to have reached even the vicinity of the sacred river
— the bountiful stream of life, dispensing blessing to this
land, and promising sport to us.
The partridges were piping on all sides, and we
divided to look for some of this excellent game, but unfortu
nately the sun had already set and twilight drew on. I
put up some quail in the long grass, and quantities of small
birds flew from bush to bush. It was impossible to shoot,
so we all went back to our camp to dine and sleep peace
fully beside the grave of the great sage and prophet
Moses. At sunrise next morning the whole party started once
more. The great caravan was sent the shortest way by
Jericho to Ain-es-Sultan, while we, guided by our Bedouins,
and with the gendarmes for escort, made an interesting
expedition to the Dead Sea. We rode from Nebi-Musa
due east, across steep mountain slopes, by narrow paths
and washed-away crevasses, over a slaty-grey soil quite
destitute of vegetation. Some eagles and vultures sat on
the sharp ledges and projections that in this part run down
from the mountain parallel to each other and separated by
narrow gorges. In an hour we had come to the foot of

332 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the mountain, and at once found ourselves among thick
bushes and on excellent sandy riding ground. Patches of
luxuriant shrubs alternated with grassy flats, and we passed
these stretches at full gallop. We rode down an old, now
dried- up torrent, and forcing our way among high reeds,
long grass, and tall shrubs, reached the flat sandy shore of
the Dead Sea.
Every step of the horses could be felt cracking the
crust like that of frozen snow. The sand here is all coated
with saltpetre, and so are pieces of wood which have been
washed up. The Bahr-Lut (Lot's Lake), as the Arabs call
the Dead Sea, since Mohammed has admitted the story of
Lot into the Koran, is a wonderful mountain lake. Deep
blue, large, and well shaped, it is bounded on the east by
the jagged grey-green hills that had been in view for the
last days, and on the west by really lofty mountains with
their whitish-grey cliffs.
The water itself, a thick heavy mixture strongly impreg
nated with minerals, makes life impossible to every kind
of animal, and the lake is in fact quite dead. Some of the
gentlemen tried to bathe; to drown would be impossible,
for the human body will "not sink in it. On the other hand,
thick salt deposits are made by it on the skin which do not
improve one's comfort.
The air at the Dead Sea is like lead, resembling that
breathed in deep mines, and prostrates every one. This
effect is in consequence of its low level, for the water of
the Dead Sea is 394 metres below that of the Mediter
ranean. We rode for a short distance close along the
shore, and then bent northwards across flats of sand and

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-i'"A'A ¦¦'»iSr";"-,?S.,':; *:.?•;- '. Rfn pM|F"'i'l;t,^ilv!!1.l]l>::'lv''|>'?:\,';||l

BY THE DEAD SEA.

333

clay. To our right we saw a plain which extends to the
thickly grown meadows of the Jordan, and to our left, below
a large fall of earth, a marshy depression filled with almost
impenetrable thickets of reeds and briars.
A big wild boar doubled just in front of the horsemen
by one of these thickly grown patches. The moment I
caught sight of the huge creature I jumped from my horse
and followed its track ; going round the clump of bushes,
which was only a few hundred paces in circumference,
I found proof that the beast had not yet passed through.
I posted the gentlemen quickly and got the gendarmes
to drive. It soon became clear to us how hard it is to get
an animal out of an impenetrable mass of brambles, reeds,
and grass, even when that mass is but small in itself. All
our efforts were vain. We tried setting it on fire, but only
the grassy parts burnt up, sending gigantic columns of smoke
into the air. The innermost thicket, with the full sap of
spring, did not so much as crackle, and afforded a secure
hiding-place for the game. It was a pity that we failed, for
all the game from the steppes, barren mountains, and rocks
betakes itself to these splendid luxuriant thickets of the
Valley of the Jordan, which are unapproached by man, and
there it remains. The tracks which we found in the moist
clay told of the wealth of animal life in this spot. Within
a narrow space I saw the tracks of several wild boars,
hyaenas, wolves, jackals, of the Asiatic panther, the lynx,
and smaller beasts of prey which I was unable to dis
tinguish. Two wild geese and several strand-runners flew
up from a water pool, and a flock of pelicans and one
inquisitive osprey floated in the clouds of smoke.

334 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
The pelicans came suddenly along from the Dead
Sea, crowded round the fire for a few minutes, saluted by
fruitless shots, and then departed, flying heavily up the
valley northwards. As time was short, I left this spot and
galloped without intermission along splendid ground over
sandy stretches and grassy heath, between the thick
shrubs, little groups of small low trees — one might almost
have called them miniature forests — and across some
mountain streams with broken banks, big stones, and
abundant growth of plants, hastening to the Jordan, until
we came to the village of Jericho.
The Jericho of the present day consists of some wretched
huts inhabited by miserable people, perishing from the
climate, and in ill repute because of their marked pro
pensity to theft. Hedges protected by thick, long thorns
surround the village. A tower rises as the last remains
of the days of the Frankish kingdom, and beside it is said
to be the spot where the house of Zacchaeus stood. An
aged sycamore is shown as the tree from which the pious
man beheld the Redeemer. Miserable and decayed is this
place, where a flourishing city stood in ancient times and
even down to the days of the Crusaders.
We rode past the outside huts, and came through fields
of wild oats and flowering shrubs and a vegetation resem
bling that of a garden, to the foot of the western hills.
Our immediate goal, the fine and famous Well of the Sultan
(Ain-es-Sultan), lay before us. At this point the expedi
tion into the Valley of the Jordan proper was to commence.

CHAPTER IX.
Ain-es-Sultan — El-Audje — Abd-el-Kader — Baisan — Mount Tabor
— Nazareth — Journey to Haifa — Embarkation.
At the limits of vegetation, where, along a sharply defined
line, thick shrubs give place to stony mountains, a fountain
bubbles forth from the ground in plenteous fulness and
flows into an ancient stone basin. Wherever springs
rise from the earth or brooks descending from the moun
tains bring blessing, there is verdure in wood, bush, and
field. These favoured strips extend along the currents
of water from the foot of the bare mountain to the Jordan
with its broad meadows. Alongside this blooming line
a rib of genuine steppe runs up to the next rivulet. The
plain of the Jordan is traversed lengthwise by the sacred
river with its green bands ; crosswise it is divided into
alternating bands of steppe and of fertile though wild
garden landscape. The most beautiful of all these oases
is that which, beginning at the fountain of the Sultan,
descends as a broad band to the Jordan along the banks
of the rivulet. Our camp had been pitched beside the
spring at the foot of the mountains and the edge of the
verdure. From henceforth our journey was from spring
to spring, for to these the caravan which traverses these
wild regions must closely adhere.

336 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
Behind our camp rose a high, bare, rocky hill, projecting
from the range of frontier mountains and separated from
them by a ravine. Greek hermits dwell in the caves
in the sides of this deserted valley. This settlement of
pious anchorites has existed from the beginning of the
Christian era to the present day.
As we rode up to the spring a splendid sight awaited
us. The camp of the free Bedouins was pitched on the
left of the Jordan. Wonderful horses, mostly white, fed
in the rich grass. A chestnut mare, a dainty creature,
stood beside a tree, bound to its branches. It was the
battle horse of the master, of the grey-haired Sheik Ali.
Bedouins in long white robes, with turbans on their heads,
and armed with guns, daggers, and sabres, sat beside a fire
at which they were cooking their food. Long lances, the
badge of the great lawless tribes, the largest weapons which
can be described by the name of lance, cut out of the finest
wood, were driven into the ground side by side.
Sheik Ali waited for me in front of our tents surrounded
by his sons and companions. The grey-haired nomad
king, with his noble delicate features, his pointed white
beard, his tall and still sinewy and upright figure, was
dressed in a richly ornamented robe of dazzling white
ness. He had a Turkish sabre buckled round his loins,
yellow shoes on his feet, and a broad turban on his head.
He extended his jewelled hand to me in friendly greeting.
His sons and the leading chiefs of the tribes stood round
him respectfully. Every movement bespoke unbounded
obedience, love, and reverence for their wise and long-
tried chief.

SHEIK ALI.

SHEIK ALI. 337

He seemed the impersonation of those recollections of
Scripture stories, familiar from early childhood, to which I
alluded as crowding on my mind on first entering the Holy
Land — the lineal representative of the prophets and rulers
of patriarchal times, or those later wise men who brought
their offerings to the infant Christ in His cradle, and must
have looked as did Sheik Ali when he stood before us in
flesh and blood, the living embodiment of a thousand years
which had brought no change.
Again I was impressed by the absolutely stationary
aspect of life in these regions. Tents have not been
replaced by towns, nor has civilization, under the guise of
improvement, shackled the existence or changed the
character of these children of the desert, who still move
free and uncontrolled over the steppes and mountains.
The pride of their chiefs still consists in a pastoral wealth
of flocks and herds, and in the martial resources furnished
by a thousand valiant combatants on swift coursers. The
regions over which they roam have no boundaries. The
plots of pasture ground determine the places where their
tents shall be pitched.
I was glad to see this (in his own way) mighty
monarch, and thankful to understand by this meeting
that the Turkish authorities had placed us, with friendly
urgency, under his protection. And this protection is
absolutely indispensable for a journey beyond the Jordan ;
for the river is the frontier, and from it to Bagdad is the
free territory of lawless tribes. No Caliph is acknowledged ;
they feel themselves nearer to Mecca than to the Osman,
and no one would dare to force his way with arms along
22

338 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
these steppes and deserts where only the true nomad
can exist. The territory ruled by the Turks reaches
to the Jordan, but the garrisons in Palestine are weak
and placed only in the larger towns ; as already said,
many poor but valorous Bedouin tribes infest the frontier
hills, and they, too, are unfriendly to the government. The
territory of the Jordan is therefore perpetually exposed
to the attacks of the great tribes from the left bank, and
the history even of this century records many of their
predatory incursions.
The squadron of cavalry which escorted our caravan
would have helped us as little as the commands or menaces
of the authorities, had those agile spearsmen swum the
river in hundreds some fine evening and surrounded us.
We might therefore well be grateful to the Pasha, who
had formally announced our journey and its course to the
aged sheik, and commended us to his protection.
The nomad king, sensitive like all Orientals, felt
flattered by this courteous treatment, and came himself
from a great distance (for he spends most of his time
far away from the frontier), accompanied by a troop of
splendid horsemen, to the banks of the Jordan, crossed
the river by swimming, and awaited us beside our tents.
Briefly, but in words of power and sincerity, he assured
us that we could pass safely along the whole course of
the Jordan, and that whatever we needed for the chase
was at our disposal ; and, in fact, at every station we found
parties familiar with the locality, who procured us the
best sport and served us unweariedly. When Sheik
Ali promises safety one is more secure in those regions

CLIMATE OF THE VALLEY OF THE JORDAN. 339
than in Central Europe, as his word is law with all the
wild tribes. Formerly this was not so, for the Bedouins
were in constant strife and deadly warfare amongst
themselves, and to have the friendship of one tribe
sufficed to expose the traveller to the hostility of all
the others.
The sage patriarch has now united almost all the tribes
under his rule, and the region whose nomad population
obeys him blindly is well-nigh boundless. Thousands of
horsemen, bold militant sons of the desert, do his bidding,
and a kind of caliphate has thus arisen. After brief
discourse Sheik Ali took ceremonious leave of us. A
dignified repose marks the demeanour of these people,
and a proud self-consciousness such as one seldom sees
in like measure in Europe. They then mounted their
noble steeds, and, surrounded by a faithful group of lancers,
the nomad king rode back to his boundless steppes.
The governor of Nablous, a genuine Turcoman, an
agreeable and very cultivated man, and ever most
desirous to comply with our wishes, was also waiting for
us at the tents. He wore the robe of a Pasha, but on
account of the heat had white cloths stretched over
his fez.
We breakfasted hastily ; no one could eat much. The
air grew more oppressive towards midday, and persistent
and insatiable thirst extinguished all appetite in this
region, lying as it does below the level of the sea. After
a rest of one hour some of the travelling party broke
up to employ the afternoon and evening hours in the
chase.

340 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
Salim, the leader of a body of hunting Bedouins, was
to direct us to a spot rich in game. He was a capable,
excellent fellow, to whom I soon grew attached, and whom
I valued as a sportsman. Bred up on horseback, hunting
or in battle, he might be taken as the model of a typical
and absolutely free Arab. His frame was small but
sinewy, his countenance marked by its energetic features,
its short beard, and a pair of falcon eyes. His complexion
was singularly dark for this district, and- had more the
hue of the African Arab. His apparel consisted of a
small turban, a white tightly girt burnous, and yellow
shoes, above which his skinny legs showed. He bore
by way of arms a short knife in his girdle and a whip
in his hand. His comrades were about fifteen in number,
tall lanky fellows, mostly bearded and of a dark yellow-
brown complexion, with tattered garments and turbaned
heads, their clothes made partly of white and partly of
brown and white striped stuff, armed with long muskets,
old pistols, and short knives, and brandishing sticks or
lashes. They were hearty, kindly fellows, devoted to
the chase. The dogs followed, wolf-like beasts of no
breed or race, but whose gifts we learned to appreciate.
Some of the Bedouins had curly hair and exceptionally
dark skin — indicating plainly the trace of negro blood.
We left the camp with this company ; a longish march
was before us. Riding was impossible, for the horses had
been out at work since sunrise, and we required them
in full health and strength for the coming days. Salim
guided us at first through so-called forests. These are
more truly luxuriant green meadows, and fields of wild

ABOUNDING BIRD AND ANIMAL LIFE. 341
oats, covered more or less with bushes and dwarf trees.
Everything in the Valley of the Jordan is prickly. The
tall grass in spring has long thorns, with barbs which fix
themselves in the flesh of man and beast ; every tree
is beset with prickles. It may be imagined how skin
and clothes fare, and the really cruel sufferings which
the sport-loving traveller in those regions must endure
with resignation.
In tree and bush there was the stir of many kinds of
birds. In this happy tract of land the animal creation
is closely packed together, and many beautiful, and to
us novel, species presented themselves. The voice of
the genuine Asiatic cooing dove was heard everywhere,
and the tender turtle-doves flew high in the air above.
The great shrike and many other song birds warbled
amongst the thick shrubs, while quails rose at every step
from the wild oats ; birds of prey, eagles, kites, and falcons
also abounded. The smaller animals appeared to be
amply represented ; slender lizards, fat frogs, and insects
big and little made the place dangerous.
After a time we quitted this garden land and reached
the steppe. Yellow grass covered the ground, reminding
me vividly of home and the Hungarian marshes. In
numerable grasshoppers chirruped under our feet, and we
could understand how these creatures become in Asia, at
certain times, a real plague.
Suddenly Salim paused and announced that we had
reached our goal. A rivulet descending from the mountain,
and flowing in a direct line through the plain to the Jordan,
lay before us and between us and the clay cliff. The

342 TRA VELS IN THE EAST.
formation of these water-courses is interesting. Hemmed
in on each side by vertical broken banks some fathoms
deep, they present a spectacle of wild confusion. In the
middle flows a brook— at this time of year only a narrow
one ; around it lie a medley of rocks, marshy places, thick,
and in fact impenetrable, bushes, trees, decaying trunks,
mould and ruins of all kinds — a primeval forest in a
narrow space. In the broadest part the distance from one
bank to another does not exceed two hundred paces.
Some of the guns were now to go to the right, others to
the left or upper side of the clay bank, while the Bedouins
with their dogs were to keep on the same level and beat
the bushes and rocks in line. Salim remained beside me
and directed the whole of the chase.
Amidst continuous howling and hurling of stones the
beaters sprang and leaped about in the brook. The shots
cracked merrily as one bird after another flew up, soon to
fall heavily back into the bushes. Red-legged and rock
partridges, quails, and singing birds of many kinds flew out
from their hiding-places. In the broken banks rollers and
bee-eaters had their nests. In the marshy places we found
tracks of wild boar and porcupine- — quills, too, of this last,
and its burrow. Unluckily this shy animal creeps under
ground at the slightest sound, and is therefore very seldom
captured by day.
We had been shooting for some time, and had gone over
a considerable stretch of the bank, when suddenly the
dogs gave tongue in an almost impenetrable thicket. I was
searching for a rock partridge, and was therefore, fortunately,
at the bottom of the valley. At this moment a shot came

SMOKED OUT.

HOME OF A LIZARD. 343

from the other bank, and one of the gentlemen called to me
that an armadillo had just been missed and was running
from the dogs. The Bedouins and I followed the chase
at full speed, when suddenly all was still. We found beside
a tree, built up round its roots and stems, a beaver-like
tower, several feet high, made out of branches. One cannot
otherwise describe this admirable piece of animal architec
ture. On two sides there were circular entrances. When
the Bedouins saw this establishment they drew back
cautiously. Salim posted me beside one entrance, while he directed
his people to light a fire by the other. As the flames burnt
up brightly and the building began to crackle, a peculiar
creature, somewhat like a dragon, of orange colour and
certainly over four feet in length, crept circumspectly out,
and was going to take itself off at an easy trot, when a well-
aimed shot put an end to its life. My interesting booty was
a lizard. I do not know much about reptiles, but, so far as I
can judge, we had one of the great Varan lizards before us.
Our next object was to send this rare specimen undamaged
to the camp, and as the Arabs positively refused to touch
the cold body with their hands, we had to construct a small
bier with sticks, to deposit the mighty dead upon it, and to
despatch a Bedouin in charge of it. We continued our
sport, but we soon observed that the birds had been scared
by the multitude of shots, and we seemed this time to have
no luck with the wild boars. The entire shooting party
therefore betook itself to a shady spot under a large tree,
and, weary with the intense and oppressive heat, we all lay
down in the grass, even the Bedouins, while their sturdy

344 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
dogs panted for water with drooping tongues. There was
but little water in the brook, and none that was very clear,
but the excellent Achmed had, as usual, some bottles of
lemonade ready, which he carried in a knapsack on his
back. After half an hour's rest Salim summoned us to further
sport. The Grand Duke, Hoyos, Eschenbacher, and Rath
resolved to return towards the camp, looking out for game
as they went. Chorinsky and I were still athirst for
action, and followed the Bedouins to the steppe. After a
long march we came to some low bush, followed by marshy
ground and a circular mass of reeds some hundred paces
in extent. Salim placed us on one side, while he posted
the beaters on the other. Whatever game might quit this
thicket was to be fired at as soon as it appeared. Achmed
is a worthy fellow, but free fights with wild beasts were not
to his taste, and as soon as he understood the situation he
begged me to allow him to rest behind some shrubs at a
certain distance, and disappeared without waiting for an
answer. Prepared for a vigorous wild boar hunt, I placed myself
by a well-marked rising. The dogs had hardly got among
the reeds when a wild baiting began. The sound of the
chase and bay came in quick succession, and the bark of the
dogs mingled with the demoniac cries of the beaters. At
length, after a tedious though exciting quarter of an hour, a
large wild boar rushed from the thicket, and betook itself
in full flight towards the point at which I stood. Deeply
wounded by a shot under the shoulder, it fell as I fired, but
recovering itself and foaming with rage, at once pursued its

ACHMED IN DANGER,

ACHMED S PERIL.

way. The good Achmed, not knowing the length of a wild
animal's run, stood right across its path. The wounded beast
came rushing on, and seized the helpless man in its blind
rage. By good luck I had followed as fast as I could run,
and found Achmed with his knife lifted to strike, and
screaming loudly, standing upon one leg, while he raised the
other as protection against the angry beast. The boar
reared itself for the decisive onslaught, but before it could
reach our hero he lay flat on the ground. Realizing his
extreme danger, I fired, and the ball fortunately was instan
taneously fatal. It struck the strong two-year-old female
when its snout had already grasped Achmed's loose trou
sers. Wild boar and Egyptian now lay peacefully beside
each other, the latter green from terror and trembling in
every limb ; it was some minutes before he recovered speech.
The Bedouins, their eyes sparkling with delight, soon came
on the scene. The wild boar, which is extremely like our
own, especially those huge specimens from the Hungarian
forests, is totally different from the much smaller, more
delicately formed, and pitch-black North African boar. My
huntsman disembowelled the beast quickly, and the Arabs
laying it on the staves which they had bound together, four
men bore the heavy load back to our camp.
Chorinsky lost an African hare in the bush— the hare of
the desert, a small yellow beast with which we had become
familiar in Africa. The walk across the steppe under the
scorching sunbeams was not too pleasant. When the sun
had gone down in orange mist behind the border hills we
had reached the forest and the shrubs, whence another
hour's walk had to be accomplished. Quails rose at every

346 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
step, but we were too weary to fire, and only thought of
our camp. A merry, plashing brook with tolerably clear
water gave us passing refreshment, and we went on again.
Night had fully set in, and some fires sparkled among the
bushes. It was the camp of the Bedouins who had been
appointed to attend us. Their tall figures looked ghostly
in their long white burnous and the dull reflections of the
dying embers. The long lances rose high, and rough
Arab gutturals and melancholy songs resounded through
the night. The horses were rolling in the grass, and the
dogs ran barking to meet us. Chorinsky and I passed
among these sons of the desert, who gave us friendly
greeting, and reached us cooling drinks as we went by.
Yet another quarter of an hour, and we came to our viva
cious Druses, the servants of Howard, and the mules ;
beside these the Turkish cavalry were encamped. Another
hundred paces and we had reached our tents.
After sunset the oppressive heat increased so much that,
even during the night, we all lay bathed in perspiration, and
some of the gentlemen and servants became unwell from
the unwonted closeness of the air. Despite the deeply
interesting experiences of the day, and our successes in
sport, a strange depression of spirits seemed to prevail
among the whole travelling party. This was yet to increase
in the following days. The climate of the Valley of the
Jordan has a distressing effect on all Europeans.
Early on the 6th we determined to divide into parties
for our sport. Several of the gentlemen went in the
direction we had taken the day before. The Grand Duke
and I, accompanied by Salim and his people, rode through

WITH THE BEDOUINS.

SPORT WITH THE WILD BOAR. 347
the luxuriant garden lands towards Jericho. Near this
place a stream descends from the hills and crosses the
plain to the Jordan. Again we had steep clay banks, big
blocks of stone, plashing water, and an even thicker under
growth than that by the brook we had visited before. The
Grand Duke remained on the left bank, while I climbed to
the right. The Bedouins pushed into the thicket, and a
merry chase began. In a few minutes we had shot several
birds, but we soon abandoned the smaller game, as the
Bedouins came upon numerous recent tracks of the wild
boar. Immediately the dogs challenged, and a huge boar
burst through the bushes, but was only visible for a
moment, and no shot could be fired. A second soon fol
lowed, bounding like a hare through the long grass before
the beaters. The Grand Duke brought it down with a
ball. A middle-sized two-year-old female was hauled out
of the brook, and despatched on a donkey to the camp.
Several wild boar escaped us in the thick undergrowth,
either turning back between the drivers or pushing too far
ahead. The Grand Duke missed one in the middle of the
brook. The dogs soon gave- cry again. With noisy tumbling
and scrambling a very fine boar, decked with long daz-
zlingly white tusks, climbed the slope between me and the
beaters, and strove to escape to the steppe. A ball under
the shoulder-blade laid him low, and, highly delighted, I
despatched my splendid spoil to the camp. We now
turned our attention to the numerously represented smaller
birds. Red and rock partridges, purple and night herons,

348 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
besides quails and snipe, were shot ; but some eagles at a
great distance were missed.
As the midday heat became excessive we resolved to
suspend our shooting for a time. Going down to the brook,
I found in the clay tracks of the hyaena, wolf, and jackal,
also those of the lynx and the smaller cats. According to
the report of the Bedouins, the animals of canine race.
descend from the hills in search of water at night only,
whereas the cat family dwell in the .thickets and trees close
at hand, but are never driven from their hiding-places even
by dogs. The track of the porcupine was also pretty frequent,
and once the dogs ran to a burrow, where we found some
quills and recent traces of this curious creature. We now
resolved to look him up in his own den, and to this end
my huntsman was despatched to the camp with instructions
to bring the dachshunds and some shovels back with him.
Meanwhile the sportsmen lay down under a tree to drink
lemonade and smoke cigarettes. The Grand Duke had in
the course of the morning shot a very rare animal, the
kangaroo-like jerboa.
As soon as the dachshunds arrived we set them at the
burrow. We soon heard snarling and barking, but, alas !
the dogs, usually so valiant, soon crept forth to the light of
day, with their tails timorously between their legs, and
would not venture into the burrows again. We then told
the Bedouins to dig-— a process which advanced but slowly,
for the heat was scorching, and free wild sport is more to
their taste than servile labour.
We felt that our endeavour was vain, and resolved to

THE BEDOUINS OF THE JORDAN.

A PLAGUE OF FLIES.

349

abandon it, but in the meantime we had found an inter
esting relic. In the funnel of a burrow a Protestant hymn-
book was discovered, probably carried thither by the inmate,
after the fashion of many animals that burrow. Here, at
any rate, were the genuine evangelic psalms and hymns,
and the prayer for the Emperor William. On the whole,
the volume was in good condition, outside as well as in ;
only a few stains of blood on the paper. God only knows
how this European book came into this savage spot, and
how its owner lost it ; perchance his bones may be bleaching
hard by in the impenetrable thicket.
We mounted our horses and rode home. Salim
went in front at a hand gallop. He sat without saddle
or horse-cloth on the bare back of a small roan, guiding
the frisky creature with a rope fastened to it only on
one side.
Close to Jericho I noticed a "Jean le blanc" eagle
washing in the brook. I crept up to him under cover of the
overhanging bank, and in a few minutes had the splendid
specimen in my bag.
The other gentlemen had also shot a considerable
quantity of smaller game, and a regular show was set
up when we had all reached the camp. After this we
breakfasted. Unhappily the meal consisted rather in driving
away the flies than in eating. It is difficult to form an
idea of the throng of insects that attacked our food. We
passed the hottest hours in camp, seeking rest. The
terrible heat unhappily made this a prolonged torture, and
it was difficult even to collect one's thoughts so far as to jot
down the necessary notes and to write some letters home.

350 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
At midday in the Valley of the Jordan we enjoyed daily the
agreeable temperature of 12 2° Fahr.
Towards five in the afternoon I set forth again, this
time accompanied only by Salim and some Bedouins. At
first I shot cooing doves among the trees ; then we roamed
across some wild oat fields, where I shot a plentiful supply
of quail for the larder- — a matter of necessity, for our stores
began to smell somewhat badly, and the much-vaunted
preserved meats in particular spread an evil exhalation
throughout the camp. Sauntering by bush and grove, I
could not but remark the glorious vegetation of this region.
I specially noted the Zizyphtis Lottis and the Spina Christi,
from the fruits of which are made the well-known jujubes
so dear to Europeans afflicted with a cough ; and also the
Balsam tree, Solanum sanctum. The famous rose of
Jericho is only found, and that but scantily, on the shores
of the Dead Sea. At sunset I returned to the camp, where
we dined and went to rest.
The next morning the whole camp broke up before
sunrise ; the tents were struck, and, with the wonted
clamour and cries, the caravan got into motion. We
followed soon after breakfast, led by a Bedouin with long
lance and flying mantle and riding a beautiful chestnut.
He might have posed for the model of a genuine Arab.
The sheik who had hitherto acted as guide had been dis
missed by the Pasha for reasons unknown to me. At first
we rode at the foot of the border hills on the verge of
vegetation. We passed among thick shrubs and under
low trees which were literally covered with storks awaking
from sleep. After a while the bushes disappeared, the wild

EL-AUDJE. 351

garden land of the well region of Sultan-Ain was passed,
and the steppe again received us.
The ground was good for riding on the whole, and one
could almost always gallop ; only here and there stony
places and water-courses in the proximity of the mountains
had to be passed. After a two hours' ride a tolerably broad
mountain valley opened on our left. In its interior, at its
farther end, is the spring of El-Audje — a fountain which
both fertilizes the land and maintains it in fertility. It
flows through the valley, and thence across the plain to the
Jordan. Low trees and shrubs had again to be crossed,
and at the other side of this narrow band of vegetation
Salim was awaiting us with his people, eager for the
chase and ready to lead us to ground richly stocked
with game.
The great caravan and most of the gentlemen turned to
the left into the side valley to the fountain of El-Audje ;
the Grand Duke, Hoyos, and I followed the Bedouins. An
amazing number of birds of prey were on the trees here,
and in the space of a few minutes I shot a " Jean le blanc "
eagle and a booted eagle, and Hoyos a booted eagle also.
There were stretches of wild oats between the shrubs that
swarmed with quail, which rose at every step, and had we
possessed sufficient ammunition our success would have
been brilliant with those birds. The red-legged partridge
was but sparingly represented, and the rock partridge was
wholly absent. A long stretch due east led us far into the
interior of the plain of the Jordan. Once more returning to
the edge of -the steppe, we rested in the shade of a tree for
half an hour, then remounted our horses and, followed

352 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
by the Bedouins running on foot, rode along the grassy
yellowing plain.
In about half an hour we came to the edge of a deep
cut in the elevated plateau ; far below a brook was rippling
between high banks of brown earth. This vision of land
scape appearing so suddenly had a startling effect. Leav
ing our horses, we had to scramble down the steep bank.
We hastened forward through the narrow defile by the
brook, whose salt waters disappointed us, till we reached a
small ravine surrounded by almost vertical clay walls some
hundreds of feet in height. Its interior was filled with
patches of marshy grass, some low bushes, and a reed
morass. The only outlet was a narrow track up the east
side of the cliff to the summit of the ridge.
Salim now bade us take our stand on the opposite side
of the thicket, while he, with his men and dogs, should beat
the sedge. We had not long reached our stations, when a
big boar left the thick cover, took the only way of escape
by the track up the mountain, and climbed it with the agility
of a chamois. Several shots sent from a distance of four
hundred paces took no effect. I now ran quickly to the
vicinity of this narrow passage. I was still at the
distance of at least two hundred paces, when yet another
large wild boar took the same narrow way. I despatched
two shots at his hide, neither of them necessarily fatal.
Badly wounded, and halting with the hind leg, he dragged
himself slowly over the ridge of the mountain.
Thereupon the beaters came up round me, and I bade
them follow me cautiously at a certain distance, for I wished
myself to pursue the red track. To begin, I found the

THE JORDAN. 353

recent track of a panther, and immediately after that of
the wounded boar, marked by plenteous trickling from the
wound. We soon attained the top of the ridge, and a
splendid view opened into a valley, not broad but rich
in all kinds of vegetation — bushes, meadow, and high
trees. On the opposite side steep cliffs rose and closed in
the view.
Following the same track, I hastened down the steep
decline to the bottom of the valley. Arrived there the
tracks led me across a meadow, between bushes, over a
stony brook and marshy places, to the edge of a thicket.
There I awaited the arrival of my two companions and
the Bedouins. The dogs were at once set on the track,
and in a few moments I heard the joyful sound of baying
and of a hot fight. Hastening through the thicket, I
reached a small meadow closed in by wood and shrubs ;
within it a fierce fight was proceeding. The dogs bore
themselves bravely, and tugged and bit their enemy, which
could still defend itself with vigour and courage. Seizing
a favourable moment, I sent a fatal shot at the powerful
boar, which had handsome tusks.
I now had time to look at my surroundings. Between
the high trees and bushes I could see, at no great distance
in front of me, the sparkling surface of a sheet of water,
and could hear the rush of a river. I hastily summoned
my companions to share the joyful discovery. Thanks to
the pursuit of the wounded boar, our wish had been fulfilled,
and we had reached the river held sacred from afar— the
renowned Jordan. We hastened down the broken ground,
through luxuriant shrubs, to a sand-bank whence we could
23

354 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
closely survey the stream and its lovely surroundings. On
both sides there were blooming pastures, leafy shades,
willow bushes, and a rich undergrowth of flowering plants,
with a flora recalling, on the whole, that of the water
meadows of Europe. The river itself has the character of
a genuine mountain stream, rapid and foaming and splashing
among the rocks and stones. One might have supposed
one's self transported to the banks of the Inn or the Traun
in the midst of our beautiful Alps. While the Bedouins
slaked their thirst and then placed the wild boar on the
back of an ass which they had brought with them, we
rested under the shade of a tree and divested ourselves of
one garment after another.
The water of the Jordan is very cold as compared with
the high temperature of the air, and a careful cooling of the
body before bathing in it is quite indispensable. In half
an hour we ventured far into the middle of the stream.
It was not only an unwonted and helpful refreshment, but
also a real episode of interest in our journey. Here had
the Israelites, protected by a miracle, crossed the swift
stream. Here David had returned to his kingdom in a
boat with Barzillai. Here Elijah had smitten the waves
with his mantle so that they parted asunder.
In later times the giant Christopher had borne the
child Jesus through those selfsame waters. And what
touches the Christian most nearly is the baptism of the
Saviour Himself by John, who dwelt in this desert, clothed
in camels' hair and living on locusts and wild honey, and
whom Jesus of Nazareth came to visit, to be baptized by
the pious solitary, the forerunner of the new faith. And

STORKS AT EL-AUDJE. 355
in these meadows, too, the voice of the Lord was heard —
" Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Great processions of faithful pilgrims come year by
year to bathe in the Jordan and bear back some of its
water for the baptism of their children. The orthodox
bathe in the sacred river in the same garment which they
propose to reserve for the day of their death.
Strengthened and refreshed by our bath, we hastened,
followed by the Bedouins, to retrace our path up the wild
boar track, across the bottom of the valley, and up to the
edge of the plateau from which we had descended. We
mounted our horses, and, under Salim's guidance, rode full
gallop athwart the steppe. Near the entrance of the
narrow valley of El-Audje the governor and some gen
darmes met us. Our long delay and the direction we had
taken towards the Jordan had made him uneasy, and he
had come out to look for us. The spot where we had
begun our sport in the morning had to be passed, and then
we turned towards the interior of the valley, which is
clothed with rich verdure, while the hills that enclose it
maintain the same character as the rest of the border
mountains — long steep slopes scantily covered with grass.
Our narrow and seemingly interminable path led us up
the valley through thick and thorny bush, now and again
crossing to the opposite bank of a stony brook. Innumer
able storks stood on the steeps. I have never seen such
quantities of these birds assembled in one spot as here,
notably in the valley of El-Audje, and generally in the
whole of the plain of the Jordan.
After a prolonged ride we at length reached our camp.

356 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
The tents stood at the foot of the mountain, on the grass
of the steppe and the wild prickly oats, but close to the
more plenteous verdure and to the banks of a little brook.
We had now almost reached the top of the valley, which
ends in a picturesque basin hemmed in by steep banks.
We fell with furious hunger on our luncheon, for it was
now three p.m., and we had eaten nothing since five a.m.,
besides exerting ourselves considerably in the interval.
We spent the afternoon in our camp. The life of a
caravan in the open air and in tents has a great charm, and
differs considerably from the routine of European existence.
Unfortunately the camp of El-Audje had some special
inconveniences. The tents stood on the dry and very
inflammable heath, and a cigarette thrown carelessly away
occasioned in the space of a few minutes a fire which
could only be extinguished by most summary measures.
As we had a large quantity of ammunition with us,
double care had "to be taken, and there was nothing for
it but greatly to limit our smoking. Furthermore, the
brook, so indispensable to the caravan, dried up shortly
after our arrival, Inquiry was made, and it was discovered
to have been blocked and diverted from its channel. It
was evening before it could be brought back into its old
course and could give relief to the thirsting mules and
horses. The Pashas had reason to suspect that the Bedouin
chief who had been dismissed the day before and driven
from our caravan was the contriver of this piece of mischief.
In the evening several of the gentlemen went out to
take a short stroll with their guns. I succeeded in killing

OUR NEW SHEIK. 357
a red-legged cock partridge and a stork which was making
for its sleeping-place. Thousands of these long-billed
creatures came past our camp, and as many as could find
place settled on the low trees to rest. At sunset we all
returned to dine. As I fell asleep I heard close by the
tents the howl of hungry jackals.
Early on the 8th of April the servants struck the tents
and the caravan was again in motion. At first we had to
retrace the weary way through the side valley. In the
main valley things went better, and after a two hours' ride,
galloping along the good steppe ground at the foot of the
hills, we came to a marshy depression. Some scattered
clumps of bush and, unfortunately for us, a somewhat too
extensive morass marked the spot as hunting ground.
Salim and his agile allies were already there, but as his
circuit terminated here, another party of Bedouins were
awaiting our arrival, led by a very handsome sheik and
followed by many large dogs. The footmen were clad like
Salim's people, but their leader seemed of a wealthier class.
His good chestnut caparisoned in rich trappings indicated
this, as well as his gay apparel, large coloured turban,
embroidered morocco slippers, and handsome Turkish
scimitar. His whole appearance bore the stamp of the
tribes of the interior of Asia rather than that of the pure
Arab. He escorted the Grand Duke, Hoyos, and myself with
marked urbanity to our posts on the opposite side of
the thicket of reeds. The other gentlemen, with the
rest of the caravan, meanwhile pursued their further
march.

358 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
Some traces of wild boar and hyaena filled us with
hope, but we were soon sadly undeceived. The morass
proved to be too large and marshy. The beaters could
not penetrate into it, and the driving consisted in running
round the edges with loud cries. The game was wary,
and not a single head left its safe shelter.
Thereupon we remounted our horses and rode after
the others. A projecting ridge of stony ground had
to be crossed. From its northern slope we had a
splendid view over the broad plain, the grey western
border hills, and the lofty rocky mountains on the eastern
side of the Jordan.
Before us lay, already visible, the mouth of the valley
and the well district of Abd-el-Kader — -the immediate
goal of this day's travel. One sees a long distance in
these plains, and can attain but slowly the wished-for
station. The road led uninterruptedly across the steppe,
keeping at the foot of the mountains. Wherever we
turned we saw nothing but storks. They let the horse
men pass within a few paces of them without vouchsafing
so much as a glance. Some birds of prey fluttered up
into the air, and a pair of the large Asiatic imperial eagles
floated low over my head. I lowered my gun quickly,
but only cartridges, and no small shot, were to be found
in my pouch.
The sun burnt fearfully. The grey mantle of cloud
which had darkened the sky in the morning hours had,
alas ! entirely vanished. I soon overtook the caravans.
They presented a piteous picture. The mules followed
each other at intervals of some hundred paces, and

A BATHING-PLACE. 359

dragged themselves painfully along, urged by blows from
their conductors. The effect of the great heat, the forced
marches from Latrun before we reached Jerusalem, and
the recent want of water were very perceptible ; almost
all the mules had sore backs from the weight of the
luggage, and broken knees.
After a ride of several hours I reached the entrance
of the valley of Abd-el-Kader, which runs in a north
westerly direction between high mountains. As usual
a brook purled down its centre, and the banks were
covered with a more than usually abundant vegetation,
which followed the course of the stream across the plain
down to the Jordan. As the brook could only be ridden
across at one point, we were obliged to ride far into
the interior of the valley on its southern bank, and then
to retrace our steps for the same distance on the northern
side, to where the valley opened into the great plain, and
where, beneath a peculiar cone of rock at the border of
vegetation, our camp was to be pitched.
The gentlemen had already arrived, but the caravans
were still a long way off, and so we had the pleasure of
waiting the arrival of the pack-horses in a little hollow
which afforded shade. Some of us employed this time
in searching for a bathing-place. The whole brook was
so filled with succulent plants of more than man's height,
and oleander trees thickly covered with large red flowers
of aromatic perfume, that one could scarcely reach the
water. Moreover, the whole air of the place had so
completely the look of a southern lair of serpents, and I
have such a respectful regard for the poisonous reptiles

360 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
of those regions, that I greatly preferred to bathe in a
narrow and somewhat dirty tributary brook, in the company
of harmless toads and frogs, and where I could thoroughly
examine the locality first.
Returning to the principal stream, we found a tent
and the kitchen already in their places ; we were there
fore sure soon to breakfast, though in terrible heat and
surrounded by a swarm of large and disgusting flies. We
agreed to devote the afternoon to sport. Some of the
gentlemen were to follow the brook out into the great
plain, while the Grand Duke and I were to push up into
the interior of the valley. Under the guidance of Salim
and the other sheiks, we tried to beat the thick shrubs
on the bank. Some wild boar tracks confirmed us in this
intention. It was a veritable garden that we entered —
a wealth of flowers, moist bushes, and leafy shrubs, their
topmost shoots dyed with the crimson of the splendid
oleander blossom. A wondrous perfume, the true odour
of the glorious East, a paradise like that of the " Arabian
Nights," entranced our senses. But as there is nothing
in the world without a darker side, here tree, bush, leaf,
and grass were beset with thorns and prickles.
The dogs all refused their work, and under these
circumstances there could be no talk of sport. Every
step brought new torture, and we escaped as quickly as
possible from this thorny paradise and betook ourselves
to regions of scantier vegetation.
The great abundance of many kinds of bright-coloured
lizards in this garden of anguish had struck me — at every
step and turn reptiles rustled in the grass. We made

AN EARLY START. 361
a detour, shooting some smaller game as we went, and
returned in the evening to the camp. The other
gentlemen had had better luck, and brought in two
frankolins the colour of guinea fowl, with a red band round
the neck. We had therefore now touched the habitat of
this new species, and should in the next few days make
its better acquaintance.
We here took a very hearty leave of Salim and his
comrades. Those fine fellows were returning to their
own home. After dinner I was interested by the
picturesque look of our encampment. The fires shed
beautiful lights on the cliffs and the various figures of
the servants and Bedouins as they moved to and fro, A
great undertaking was before us for the next day in the
matter of marching, for we purposed to take two stations
at one stretch.
Before sunrise, and indeed while it was still quite
dark, the whole camp was astir. The tents were struck
and packed, and the great caravan set out on its way. We
soon followed, riding round the cone of rocks and getting
out on to the steppe. The valley narrows at this point.
The western hills advance into the plain, and steep slopes,
deep ravines and stony places have to be traversed.
We enjoyed some beautiful views across the Valley of
the Jordan, which is here intersected by mountain streams
and gorges, and the splendid hills of the further side, with
their lofty grey cliffs and picturesque outlines. An old
tower stands on one of these mountains. I could not
learn what its date was, or who had erected this fortress
in a region inhabited only by wild tribes.

362 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
Nowhere in the Valley of the Jordan had we found a
region at once so accentuated in line and form, and so poor
in vegetation, as that across which we journeyed in the
first hours of this day. A great number of birds of prey
were soaring in the air, and one imperial eagle flew so low
over my head, that I brought him down with a shot, and he
fell among the horses with heavy flapping.
We had next a toilsome climb up a projecting spur of
the mountains. On reaching the ridge a magnificent view
was spread before us. The Valley of the Jordan grows
broader, and one sees more and more of the plain up to
the hill country by Lake Tiberias ; to the right and left
are the finely formed frontier mountains, and closing the
view to the north, the lofty summits of Lebanon and the
broad snow fields of Hermon — a strange contrast. We
languished in the most terrible heat, such as only the Valley
of the Jordan suffers, and before us, in the far distance, the
crystal snow sparkled on the mountain top.
At this interesting spot we halted for rest. We
determined that while the caravan pursued its long and
toilsome way, we would ride down to the Jordan and spend
some hours on the banks of the sacred stream. The
Bedouin, in his long flying mantle, and lance in hand, who
had led us well hitherto, frankly confessed that he did not
know the direct way down to the river, so we separated in
order to find the quickest way to the east. I galloped across
the steppe — had to clamber over some ravines, and thus
reached a spot where a little spring bubbled forth amongst
low rocks and a garden of luxuriant shrubs. Following the
course of the water along the higher margin of the rocks, I

TRACKS OF DEER. 363

came to the edge of the plateau, where a steep slope fell
before me. At the bottom of this I discerned, to my great
joy, green meadow and rich pasture, and among these the
silver streak of the Jordan, which makes a considerable
bend at this spot. The peninsula so formed is covered
with an underwood richer and more luxuriant than any
that I had seen before. On the border of this wood, in the
shadow of its last trees and bushes, but still on the meadow,
we took our rest, let the horses graze, and unpacked a
modest luncheon, consisting of bread and cold meat, after
having first bathed in the cool rushing waves. Here as
elsewhere in its course the Jordan maintains the character
of a mountain stream, and foams away between the rocks
and over big stones. After our frugal meal I resolved to
examine the underwood, and perhaps to get up a little
beating. The first half of this peninsula is covered with shrubs
something over man's height ; the ground is thickly over
grown with large-leaved plants of all kinds, and the bushes
are closely bound together with creepers. The whole com
bination is so thick and luxuriant that it is difficult to
penetrate, and every forward step demands the exercise of
a man's whole strength.
When the first part is successfully passed you come to a
clearing dividing the wood into two halves. Here I found
in the loam an incredible number of fresh tracks — traces
of the panther, the lynx, the wild cat, the wild boar and
porcupine ; the wolf, the jackal, and two kinds of deer
were also represented. These tracks of a small roe-like
and of a larger fallow deer interested us very much, and

364 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the more so as Herr Rdth on his descent to the Jordan
met, as he says, in one of these ravines with a small stag-
adorned with short horns.
The second part of the wood consisted also of a leafy
grove of almost tropical character, with a nearly impene
trable undergrowth. The numerous tracks impelled me to
try a beat for good luck. I placed the gentlemen in the
clearing at the most trodden tracks, and made the Turkish
gendarmes and some of the servants beat the wood, under
the direction of my huntsman. The undergrowth was so
thick that it was out of the question to attempt a regular
chain of beaters, and we very soon perceived that all
endeavours to drive an animal out of the thicket would be
labour in vain. I noticed in this copse a pair of plovers
and some kites.
We now hastened back to our horses, had them saddled,
and rode back to the edge of the plateau. We had noticed
from below peculiar dark mists beating up into the sky,
but had not been able to account for the appearance.
When we got to the top we had a very remarkable sight.
The entire steppe, from the Jordan to the foot of the
eastern border hills, was wrapped in a cloud of smoke, out
of whose murky blackness bright flames burst forth here
and there ; the country across which we had ridden in the
morning was now a sea of smoke and flame. The grass
of the steppe burns with incredible rapidity, and we could
gauge from minute to minute the advance of the fire by
the approach of the column of smoke which seemed to
pursue us.
Jussuf, a Turkish cavalry officer born in Turkistan, a

L_____ - " - *:1mffom>'?f,&

BAISAN.

365

powerful grey-bearded man with a leather-thonged whip
in his hand, as sign of authority, rode in front to show the
most direct way. It was a glorious gallop along the steppe,
across country, pursued by the great fire, a spectacle
which the vastness of other continents can seldom rival.
A wild boar, fleeing like ourselves from the fire, rushed
past my horse at the distance of but a few paces.
A long hand gallop brought us quickly across the
steppe and through a region overgrown with tall long-
thorned thistles which distressed both us and the horses.
At the end of two hours the character of the country began
to change. The valley grew broader, and low green hills
rose in its midst, covered with bushes and dwarf oak. To
the north the view was closed in by fine mountains : the
spurs of Carmel, the mountains round Nazareth, the lofty
Tabor with its distinctive outline, the Anti-Lebanon and
the snow-clad Hermon, the mountains of the Sea of
Gennesareth (the Tabariye of the Arabs) ; and to the east
the heights of Djebel Adjhun could all be distinguished,
thrown up in effective light. Our way led past a
little Bedouin burying-ground. Two wonderful ancient
sycamores gave the gloomy spot a still more dismal
aspect. We gradually approached the goal of our day's journey,
the village of Baisan. The famous well region of this place
extends round it in a wide circle. In all directions small
watercourses break forth from the plateau, and thick low
bushes, tall reed grass, morass, and marshy places fill the
neighbourhood. The cry of the blackcock, which is
found here in immense quantities, is heard on all sides.

366 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
Old cut stones and debris in the midst of the now
overgrown vegetation in the immediate proximity of a
wretched village, consisting of a few stone huts, bear witness
to the former but long-forgotten importance and culture of
the place. In old Biblical times the Canaanites dwelt here.
The city was taken later by David. When conquered by
the Scythians it received from the Greeks the name of
Scythopolis. In the days of the Romans it was a rich and
flourishing place, and Cleopatra had her meeting here with
Alexander Jannaeus. Pompey advanced through Baisan to
Judaea. In early Christian times the town was the seat of
a bishop and famous as the birthplace of Basilides and
Cyrillus. Saladin conquered the town and burnt it to the
ground, and it lost for ever its greatness and power.
The last relics of an old theatre and some temples, and
of many columns of basalt buried in the bushes and marsh
grass, still remain. It is a gloomy, marshy place, damp and
unwholesome, filled with the unceasing cry of toads and
frogs. In the wretchedly filthy village, the ruined inhabitants
seemed to be starving beside their damp stone walls, and
children and dogs rolled on the sodden marshy ground.
We found our camp already pitched and in the best order
on the north side of the village. Close beside it a ravine
fell steeply down, within which a spring was running gaily
among rocks, shrubs, and sycamores with their spreading
branches. We saw here traces of Roman baths hewn in
the rock. Above our camp, to the west of the village, is
the plateau and the region of the springs.
On our arrival I went at once with a hunting Bedouin,
who was waiting for me by my tent, to the damp marsh.

PALM SUNDAY. 367
Water dripped everywhere ; the ground was like a sponge.
Reeds, sedge, and shrubs sprouted from the marshy ground.
Many tracks of wild boar and well-beaten runs proved the
wealth of game in the place — an old Roman column was
quite worn away by the wild boar. Every evening, in
the absence of trees, they came here to rub themselves
against it. The Bedouin wished me to hide behind a
bush and await the coming of the animals, but I did not
feel the slightest desire to remain in that poisonous marshy
air till sunset, so I returned quickly to the camp.
The great caravan was a somewhat melancholy sight.
Horses and mules lay around exhausted, and the men
were not in much better condition — the joint effect of the
extremely long day's march and the distressing weight of
the air of this marshy spot. After our meal we all retired
wearily to our tents.
On the 10th of April, Palm Sunday, we were astir at
sunrise. We had fitted up the largest tent as a chapel
and decorated it as well as we could. The court chaplain
said Mass, and blessed the palm branches which were dis
tributed to all the Christian members of the caravan.
After breakfast we arranged to go out hunting. Some
of the gentlemen proposed to scour the country north of
the camp, and the Grand Duke and I, with a party of the
hunting Bedouins of this district— handsome, wild-looking
fellows— were to hunt the wild boar in the direction of the
Jordan. We passed through the village to the eastern slope of
the plateau, and descending between thickly wooded and
marshy patches, we reached a brook whose steep banks and

368 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the verdure of the bottom of the vale gave promise of sport
such as we had in our last days in the Valley of the Jordan
with Salim. We discovered, however, after many fruitless
attempts, that neither the Bedouins nor their dogs would
penetrate into the thick underwood, so we undertook a long
expedition across the steppe to a morass described by the
sheik as excellent for our purpose. In the grass of the
steppe we first put up some quail and then a flock of
plover. The nearer we came to the morass, which could be
seen a long way off, the thicker grew the bushes ; from
among them sprang out two remarkable little creatures —
smaller than deer, of yellowish colour, with horns like a roe,
and with the springing movements and long brush of the
fallow-deer. They were unfortunately too far off to allow
us to have a fair shot at them. The edges of the morass
were covered with marshy spots and the tall moist green
sword-grass. We shot on this wet ground some beautifully
coloured frankolin cocks and one female bird in its sober
suit of brown, not unlike that of the hen pheasant.
The Grand Duke was now despatched to the further
side of this forest of pale yellow reeds, while the Bedouins
and I endeavoured from our side to penetrate its interior.
Reeds and sedge of more than man's height met over our
heads, and we waded knee-deep in marsh and mire and in
the decaying matter of the plants. After long walking over
this loathsome ground, which swarmed with toads, I reached
a clearing where, standing in the water, I was, at the bidding
of the Bedouins, to await the further course of the chase.
Myriads of disgusting marsh insects buzzed around me, and
it was in truth a spot so unpleasant as not to be easily

Wm

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111

ROMANTIC MEETING.

A CONFLAGRATION.

369

forgotten. The Arabs strove to beat the reeds in all
directions, but their efforts were vain. We heard the wild
boar breaking through the thicket, but not one left the pro
tecting cover; only some purple herons floated languidly
over our heads. I endeavoured to get out of this horrible
place as quickly as possible, for I felt that I had already
inhaled too much of the marsh miasma and the odours of
decaying matter. By evening I had to experience its further
ill consequences. The Grand Duke, too, soon came back
from the other side of the morass, driven away by the
foul air; so we mounted the horses which the excellent
Ferdinand had brought after us and rode homewards.
We repeatedly scared the frankolin in the long sedge,
and killed several of them. Riding over the grass of the
steppe, I wished to try how quickly a conflagration could
be started, and accordingly dropped some lighted matches
as I rode along. In a few seconds there was a great fire,
which spread so rapidly that we were obliged to gallop
from it as hard as possible. The next day we could see
from a distance that part of the steppe still wrapped in
clouds of smoke. We quickly got back to Baisan, whither
the other gentlemen had also returned with some game.
After luncheon some Egyptian rope-dancers, who were
travelling that way, performed before us. Amongst many
other more or less unsuccessful conjuring tricks, we had the
bee-dance, so familiar to us in Egypt, executed by a woman
on a rope. In the afternoon we all again left the camp,
and dispersed among the high sword-grass by the village,
among which the frankolin had been making its voice
heard the whole day. This beautiful large bird is easy to
24

370 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
shoot and delicious to eat — most desirable game, therefore,
for the travelling sportsman. Each of us took some
Bedouins or servants to shoot over an appointed spot.
We had divided the best plots near the village in well-
defined circuits, in order that one gun might not interfere
with the other.
I was in full swing, when suddenly a violent fit of
dizziness came over me ; a feeling like that of paralysis
disabled my feet ; severe headache, and, despite the heat,
an icy chill over my whole body, compelled me to crawl
home as best I could. An attack of fever, which in this
climate will come on in a few minutes, had changed my
good health into sickness. All my muscles ached and
every movement was painful. The other gentlemen came
home with a nice supply of frankolin. During the night
the unfortunate Chorinsky, and later Sachs also, were
bitten by a large scorpion. Chorinsky received the first
full strength of the poison from the abominable beast,
and exhibited symptoms of severe poisoning which caused
the utmost anxiety. Next morning there was a general
depression in the camp. Every one had to pay some
penalty for the bad air. Chorinsky and I, still languid and
miserable, had to be kept on the sick list, and there
were also some victims of the climate among the servants.
Any moment might bring further attacks of fever, and the
adventure with the Asiatic scorpion spread a certain panic
through the caravan.
Our original intention had been to spend this day also
in Baisan, then to make an expedition to the Lake of
Gennesareth, and from thence to go on to Nazareth and

RIDE TO MOUNT TABOR. 371
take part in the solemnities of Holy Week up to Easter
Monday. In order to escape from the fever we now
resolved to pass the next night on the summit of Mount
Tabor and next day to travel thence to Haifa, to
which place the Miramar was forthwith to be sum
moned from Beyrout, where she lay at anchor. We had
thus a long journey before us, and set forth immediately
after breakfast. I could hardly sit my horse from languor,
and it will be long ere I forget this ride. We had, more
over, to pass through a most uninteresting country in the
scorching heat. The steppe-like character of the Valley of
the Jordan had given place to long level ridges and inter
minable valleys. Stony flats with scanty bush alternated
with ill-cultivated land. We passed herds of camels and
goats. The country of the Bedouins lay behind us. The
population here was more variously clad — in a more
northerly and, if I may say so, more Asiatic fashion than at
Jaffa. We observed many big turbans, gay burnous, fur-
trimmed jackets, and most singular red shoes.
The journey was very tedious, as the invalids could only
travel at a foot pace. Our sole consolation was the outlook
beyond our miserable surroundings to the beautiful moun
tains. At length we reached the foot of the steep and
solitary Tabor, standing isolated from all other hills. Its
slopes, to the summit, are covered with slabs of rock, loose
stones, and dwarfed oaks. The road winds up the side,
through a miserable little village, consisting of stone cabins.
It is almost incomprehensible how the horses manage to
get up. Among the rocks evergreen shrubs grow, and the
low knotted oaks offer no attractive picture. The type of

372 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
the flora is that of the Mediterranean coast. The far
more interesting Asiatic flora already lay behind us. The
ride to the summit of Mount Tabor in the afternoon and
after a long journey can afford little pleasure. Slipping
and stumbling, our weary horses at length reached the
outer boundary wall of the little convent. I could hardly
keep my eyes open from weariness, and was still suffering
severely from the effects of the fever. The Grand Duke
had sickened in the course of the long ride, and by night an
attack of fever, similar to that from which I had suffered
the day before, only in a severer form, set in with him.
One tent had been sent on in front to Mount Tabor ;
the rest of the caravan remained in Nazareth, as they
could not have got the greater part of the weary mules
up the mountain alive. We lay down in this tent to sleep
until we could get food. We had quitted the heavy
oppressive air of the Jordan — the atmosphere of a region
lying below the level of the sea — for brisk mountain air,
and a sensibly cool evening, with a sharp breeze, followed
the heat of the day.
There is a splendid distant view from the top of Mount
Tabor. To the south-east the broad plain of the Jordan
extends, veiled in the vapours of the heated air, with border
mountains on either side, the western range grey-green,
with innumerable tops and cones, the eastern, lofty, bare
and stern — the home of the noble free Bedouin tribes. To
the north-east sparkles the mirror of the great Lake of
Gennesareth, framed in gentle hills. To the north are the
snow-clad tops of Lebanon and Hermon. Below us, at the
foot of Tabor, is a hilly country, traversed by valleys and

MOUNT TABOR. 373
ravines covered with stones and oak woods and extending
to the mountains. To the west an undulating but unlovely
country reaches to the lofty, isolated, mountain mass of
Djebel-Mar-Elias, or Mount Carmel.
We enjoyed this beautiful scene in the evening hours.
Some golden eagles and king vultures were circling above
the quiet, richly wooded valleys. Perfect stillness reigned
around ; only the clear bell of the little convent wafted the
Ave Maria to the lonely spot. I began to feel equal to
crawling slowly round the top of the mountain to look at
the interesting buildings and ruins. A Greek convent
stands opposite the Latin one in whose court our tent was
pitched ; between these two buildings and around them
lie the half-ruined walls, stones, and remains of an ancient
fortification, now overgrown with plants. A pointed and
well-preserved gateway arrested my attention. Beside it
were ruins of all dates and descriptions, as the remains
of a castle from the Middle Asres of Arabia show.
In the Old Testament Mount Tabor figures as the boun
dary between the tribe of Issachar and that of Zebulon.
Deborah assembled an army here, and from hence the
Hebrews descended into the plain and slew Sisera, the
captain of King Jabin of Hazor. Under Antiochus the
Great, a town called Itabyrion stood on the summit of the
mountain. In the year 53 after the birth of Christ a
battle with the Jews was fought here by Gambinius.
Josephus had Mount Tabor fortified subsequently, and
under Vespasian numerous Israelites were slaughtered
here by his general Placidus.
This mountain has always been held, since the earliest
24 — 3

374 'TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
times of Christianity, to have been the scene of the Trans
figuration, and has been venerated accordingly. Origen
and Jerome describe it. The Crusaders built the first
convent on Mount Tabor, which, however, was again de
stroyed by the Moslems. In the year 12 12, Melek-el-Adil,
the brother of Saladin, built a fortress on it, which was
afterwards fruitlessly besieged by the Christians, and then
in the course of time, when it had lost its importance, was
razed by the Moslems themselves. The present con
vents are not of ancient date, and have been built on
the ruins of those which first stood there.
The whole neighbourhood is full of historic reminiscences,
and therefore doubly interesting. In the vicinity of Tabor
a circular hill rises from the midst of the green vale ; at its
foot Saladin obtained his greatest victory on the 3rd and
4th of July, 1 187. The power of the Crusaders was then
finally broken. King Guy de Lusignan and many others
were taken prisoners, the knights sold for slaves, the
Templars and Brothers of St. John all executed, and Saladin
slew the Grand Master of the Templars with his own hand.
This same hill is indicated as the scene of the Sermon on
the Mount, and of the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
In the evening we dined in the large room of the
convent, and then went early to rest. The Grand Duke
was suffering much from fever, and had to take quantities of
quinine. On the 12th of April we awoke with the sun.
Our last night in tents was now past, and I could not leave
my airy quarters without much regret. We descended the
mountain from the convent on foot, as riding was all but
impossible. The column, with the sick and barely con-

NAZARETH. 375

valescent, moved slowly over the slabs of stone and rubble
and through the oak woods. The air was cool and pleasant,
and the high mountains around, touched by the morning sun,
shone with the most exquisite tints. After a toilsome
march we at length reached the valley and mounted our
horses. A second chain of hills, with slabs of rock, bushes, and
woods, could be crossed on horseback, and from the
opposite slope we had our first view of Nazareth lying
deep in a stony valley. We reached the further end of the
little town by some narrow streets. The doctor had for
bidden me, on account of the fever, to enter any of the cold
cellar-like vaults. I was therefore unable to visit the
church, the famous Chapel of the Annunciation, and all the
other holy places.
The architecture of the place recalled that of Bethlehem.
The population, composed of the members of many different
religious sects, has a different type of countenance from that
of the people in Southern Palestine. The complexion is
lighter, and the costumes both of men and women are very
bright and picturesque. Our dining tent had been pitched
on an open space, and a part of the caravan rested on the
grass around. The greater number of the mules had gone
on with our luggage to Haifa. We breakfasted quickly, and
entered some low carriages drawn by small horses which
were waiting for us. A Swiss entrepreneur established
many years ago this carriage communication between Haifa
and Nazareth. The road, if it can be called a road, which
we had to travel baffles all description, and we were almost
shaken to pieces up and down mountain sides and over

376 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
rocks and stones. The carriage crossed some ridges of
hills covered with scanty oak woods and evergreens. In
the valleys between these were marshy meadows in which
the coaches threatened to stick fast. The weather was
fortunately fine and not too hot, and the country was rather
picturesque. Many of the woods, too, were fairly well grown,
and flowers abounded. After a long drive we reached a
broad plain which stretches along the bay, whose northern
point is the well-known town of Akha or Ptolemais, and the
southern cape, with Mount Carmel falling steeply to the sea,
is bounded by the town of Haifa. The plain itself is
well tilled and, along the banks of the little river of Nahr-
el-Mukatta, even fruitful. A dreadful road with deep
ruts tortured us during the last hour we had to pass
in Asia. Heavy clouds rose on the horizon. The sun was
darkened, and a cold wind from the sea seemed to bring
our first greeting from that chilly Europe to which we were
about to return. The last troop of camels, the long-eared
goats, the Arab horses, the fine manly figures in their
burnous, the. gay raiment, the ample turbans, the Eastern
houses and burying-places, and all the peculiar and charm
ing movement of Eastern life which had interested and
delighted us for so long, to which we had grown accustomed
and attached, were now eagerly gazed upon ; each of us
sought to rivet a last look in his memory, in order that
hereafter, in cold grey winter days, when the storms of the
North torture the poor European, these scenes might rise
before the mind's eye, and one might feel one's self trans-

ON THE ROAD TO HAIFA.

FAREWELL TO THE EAST. 377
ported to the cradle of humanity where Paradise stood —
to the sacred, golden, glorious East.
Descending by a narrow street of the little town of Haifa,
which is built in terraces on the steep slopes of Mount
Carmel, we soon reached the quay. One step more on
Eastern soil, one last look on the brightly coloured throng of
human life, and our hard parting from the East was over.
A boat from the Miramar bore us over the swaying waters
to the ship which lay at anchor.

CHAPTER X.
Journey Home by Candia, Zante, Channel of Ithaca, Corfu —
Some Hours' Detention at Corfu — Bocchi di Cattaro—
Ragusa — Zara — Trieste — Journey to Vienna — Conclusion.
We started before nightfall. The shades of evening covered
the misty outlines of the lofty hills of the Asiatic coast.
The waves beat high and some unquiet hours began. The
whole of the 13th was spent on the open sea in chilly
weather. Heavy clouds hung over the sky, and there was
stillness on the deck of the Miramar. Those of the travel
ling party who were well enough to appear on deck watched
the play of the waters, lost in thoughts of the glorious East.
In the quiet season sure to follow a time of such deep and
varied interest one dwells long on the memories of happy
days. The 15th of April brought us less sea and the sight of
the Island of Candia, so rich in natural charms. We
passed close along the coast, admiring the snow-clad Mount
Ida. On the 16th we saw Cape Matapan, the Greek
mountains, and in the afternoon, Zante. We passed from
between the island, decked in all its spring glories, and the
Grecian mainland to the sombre summits of Cephalonia.
In a splendid moonlight we passed the famous channel of
Ithaca, the home of Ulysses, and saw the rock of Sappho
and the islands consecrated by Greek mythology. Early

Mm i" \wv\wi
mmm

o M <

JOURNEYING HOMEWARD. 379
on the 1 7th the Miramar ran into the harbour of Corfu.
Peals of bells greeted us. It was the Palm Sunday of the
Greeks, and a procession with banners and richly dressed
priests, followed by country people in picturesque costumes,
moved along the strand. Our coal supply had to be made
good, so we employed the time in an expedition to the Bay
of Ipsa. Our boat put in beside a small country house, and
we climbed through blooming gardens, and an oak copse
coming into luxuriant leaf, to a height whence we obtained
a view over the beautiful island and the Albanian moun
tains of the opposite coast. When we returned to the
Miramar and continued our voyage, the afternoon was calm,
the air warm, and we glided past a beautiful coast view.
On the 1 8th we awoke at Punta d'Ostro. As most of
my companions were unacquainted with the Bocchi di
Cattaro, the Miramar steamed between the high grey cliffs
to melancholy but magnificently situated Cattaro. We
made a short expedition into the little town, and admired
the varied and picturesque dresses of the peasantry. A
special charm seems to rest on this wild rocky highland
district, inhabited by chivalrous valiant mountaineers.
In the afternoon we reached Lacroma, and landed at
once on my small but enchanting island. Everything was
green and flowery, and for the last time we breathed a truly
southern air and enjoyed the sunbeams of a real spring day.
We were rowed over in a boat to Ragusa, the ancient
Dubrownik of the Sclaves, and took a walk round the
town, rich in palaces and handsome buildings.
We passed the night on board the Miramar in the
harbour of Gravosa. The 19th brought us a rough sea

380 TRAVELS IN THE EAST.
under cloudy sky, scuds of rain, and a very cold wind. The
voyage among the Dalmatian islands, generally so beau
tiful, yielded us therefore little enjoyment. We remained
for the evening and night at Zara.
On the 20th we started early from the capital of Dal-
matia, and reached Trieste in the afternoon amidst rain and
under cloudy skies. We spent a very enjoyable day there,
and left in the afternoon of the 21st, taking an affecting
farewell of the commander and officers of the faithful
Miramar. At Karst we sent our last adieus to the beautiful
sea, for we were now to belong for a long period to terra
firma. The night passed quickly. We dreamt of Bedouins on
Arab horses, of slender minarets, of lofty mountains, of
boundless deserts, of the sacred Nile, of waving palm-trees
and sycamore forests, and of the mysteries of the temples
of Isis. Soon our pleasant visions were dispelled by reality.
Waking at the Semmering we were greeted by a rough
north wind, ice, and a mantle of snow. In Vienna, heavy
clouds covered the sky, and the travellers, accustomed to
the sun of the South, shivered in the damp cold atmosphere
of Northern Europe.
The journey was over and the travellers separated, but
their thoughts still turned back irresistibly to the distant
East. Hail to thee, thou golden, glorious, sunlit East !
THE END.

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