wilderness of white crags and pinnacles, with innumerable gorges, ravines, hollows, chasms, and cavern mouths, wrapped in deep shadow, partly concealing them from the eye, and giving rise to mysterious conjectures respecting their forms, is in the highest degree startling, as those who have traversed by night any of the loftier Alpine ridges will certainly have remarked. But in Egypt, the historical, and, still more, the mythological associations, clinging to every scene, more especially where the mute figures of gods look down upon you from wall and cavernmouth and ruin, augment, in a wonderful manner, the effect of the natural scenery, and give rise in the mind to emotions which it would be difficult to describe. To enjoy this magnificent prospect, I sat under an awning on the deck, till the cold of the advancing night compelled me to retreat into my cabin. It was late when we arrived at Manfaloot, where our Arabs very quickly landed, to enjoy the sort of amusement furnished by an Egyptian coffee-house.

Saturday, Dec. 29. Abootij.

CLXXXVII. The town of Manfaloot, which we quitted about ten o'clock, is said to be less populous than Minich, but appeared to be much larger and better built; and its bazār was decidedly superior in appearance to any I had seen since leaving Cairo; the streets being clean and straight, and the shops neat and well constructed. Little novelty or splendour can, of course, be expected in the articles exposed for sale at a place so remote and unfrequented; but even bread,

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS.

263

meat, butter, and the other necessaries of life, were not plentiful. I saw no dancing girls; but in all these towns there are professed story-tellers, who earn an easy and comfortable subsistence by repairing from coffee-house to coffee-house, recounting their wonderful tales, partly taken from the Arabian Nights, partly original. Suleiman, who, during his multifarious wanderings, had learned an infinite number of these histories, and naturally an excellent narrator, was, himself, as good as a whole library of novels; and it was his custom, when the wind enabled us to sail by night, to present himself at the cabin door, as soon as coffee and the chibouque had been served, and ask my permission to relate me a story. This being obtained, he would seat himself cross-legged upon the deck, and projecting his dusky face, beaming with satisfaction and merriment, half way into the cabin, would relate story after story, so ingenious, so new, so wild and mirth-inspiring, that, while thus engaged, day has sometimes overtaken us unawares. The Arabs, meanwhile, would generally be employed in the same manner, at a little distance on the deck and at such times they always shared the coffee and tobacco which were brought in between every fresh narration. Much of the pleasure derived from stories of this kind appears to arise from the firm faith which the narrator himself puts in them. Being ignorant of the bounds which divide the possible from the impossible, the most daring miracles, wrought by enchanters and magicians, offend him not. Sudden turns of fortune, examples of men springing at a few

;

264

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS.

hazardous bounds from poverty to empire, princes reduced to slavery, cities, once opulent, inhabited by jackals and owls, and many other circumstances of a like nature, are spectacles with which the Orientals are familiar. Their favourite theme is ambition, which, and not love, is their ruling passion, young and old; and accordingly, they delight in picking up their heroes from the hovel, and conducting them, by paths paved with crime and slippery with blood, to a throne, where supreme happiness, they imagine, is to be tasted, in spite of remorse, whose stings are invisible to all but those who feel them.

CLXXXVIII. The Arabian mountains continue to follow their southerly direction; but as, in this part of its course, the Nile makes many extraordinary windings, we perpetually approach and recede from them. Near Siout the Libyan range begins to increase in height and projects considerably to the eastward of its usual direction, narrowing the valley of the Nile, and adding a new feature to the scenery. The numerous islands, too, which divide the channel of the river into many smaller streams, improve the effect of the whole; for, on issuing forth from these narrow branches, you appear to be sailing into a broad lake, bordered in several places by deep green woods of acacia trees, which, like youthful forests, cover for miles the whole face of the country, where the date-trees are few and but thinly scattered. At Quastah two of my Arabs, natives of that village, landed to pay a visit to their relations, who all came

to meet

out father, mother, sister, and brother and welcome them home. After a short stay, they returned to the kandjia, accompanied by their whole family. There was a remarkable likeness to each other in them all. The brother who remained with his parents, while the others sought their fortunes in Cairo, brought me a present of dried dates; the old man took me by the hand, and, recommending his sons to my care, conjured me to be kind to them when we should be out of Egypt; while the mother and sister were silent, and stood apart, endeavouring to hide their tears behind their hoods. deed, the young men were worthy of their affection; being patient, industrious, well-behaved,

In

more es

pecially the younger, and, obliging and disinterested beyond any Arab I ever met with. They were both strict observers of the duties of their religion, and seemed to be wholly free from those dissolute habits which too generally prevail among persons of their class. The wind being fair when we arrived at Siout, we continued our voyage, and moored about midnight at Abootij.

SUNDAY ENCROACHMENT OF THE DESERT-ARAB GIRLS-TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN EGYPT - CHARCOAL OF THE ACACIA TREE -CHARACTER OF THE FELLAHS

SCENERY

GAU-EL-KEBIR

MOUNTAIN
CHEMMIS

LORD

WINDS UPON THE NILE - SOOHAJ RUINS OF THE CITY OF PAN -COPTIC CONVENT ABERDEEN AND THE PASHA CHEAPNESS OF PROVISIONS AT EKHMIM-THE DOUM TREE- MINSHIEH-PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE TURK AND BEDOUIN -LARGE-TAILED SHEEP CATTLE

CROCODILES -EXTRAORDINARY

SLAUGHTERING BEAUTY AND FER

TILITY OF THE THEBAID- DEWS OF EGYPT ABYDOS PAINTED
SCULPTURE-CHAPEL-ORIENTAL SUNRISE-PALACE OF MEMNON
-ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP THE CAPTAIN OF MY BOAT-INTERVIEW
WITH THE GOVERNOR OF
INFLICTING PUNISHMENT.

BELLIANEH-SUMMARY

MODE

OF

CLXXXIX. THERE being no wind, I was this morning enabled to resume the practice of walking. In England I always thought it pleasant to stroll through the country on Sunday, when the general cessation from labour appears to diffuse over the faces of the peasantry an air of cheerfulness and thankfulness, closely allied to the more enlivening influences of religion. The Mohammedan of Egypt, who does not keep his own Sabbath, cannot, of course, be expected to observe ours; nevertheless, old habitual associations caused me to imagine that the poor fellahs seemed, like our own husbandmen, more contented and