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110

PEOPLE OF UPPER EGYPT.

blows and violence; and they were charged with behaving worse under the milder treatment of Abbas than under the iron rule of Mehemet Ali. But an Englishman, with a recollection hanging about him of certain things in his own country, is infallibly inclined to doubt all such statements : and now he and his friend of the Fortunata' conjointly propounded their absurd notions over the dinner-table, as they warmed their hearts with Yusaf's soup and old-fashioned fancies. In the Howara country,' said they, 'fine intelligent-looking men (they had, it is true, rather a more bold and independent bearing than the Fellaheen of the lower parts of Egypt), and women with uncovered faces, and athletic young fellows who played so jovially and cleverly at such a a civilized game as Jellal, worthy of Twyford-these people must have some good in them, which asks for development—must, somehow, merit to be looked on as something better than the beasts of the field-as human beings that may be ruled, as some other human beings are ruled, by the elevating hand of education and of clemency, and not by the brutalizing one of tyranny and neglect, and for the advantage of all ranks, under whatever sky they dwell-even that of Africa. Is there the man beneath any clime in whom God hath not placed materials for good?' So did they talk.

CHAPTER VI.

New Year's Day-The Arab Boatman's Fireside-Crocodiles and their Characteristics-A Dinner Party on the Nile-A Bill of Fare-Selim and the Big Fish-Thebes-Important Missives-The Captain and his Three Wives -A Reconciliation-Esneh-Sheikh Tombs-A Scarabæus for a Penny-A Mutiny-Justice and Mercy-A New Road to Sea Service-'No Baksheesh'-Peace Offerings and Harmony.

NEW YEAR'S DAY, in a country we know of, is usually a nipping day; but within a few miles of Keneh, and on the edge of the tropic, it is summer time. And what a sunset was that of the last day of the old year-and what a night-what a glorious night! At nine p.m. the thermometer marked 121o of Reaumur, and the day had been like an English one of August, with the addition of a zephyr just arrived from the Garden of Eden; and the sky was full of swallows, high up and enjoying the soft, clear,

112

THE ARAB BOATMAN'S FIREside.

This

warm air; and on that winter's night we sat late on deck, the boat moored to an island, where the grasshoppers on the bank were singing their summer song. The crews of the two boats were on the grass, sitting round a large fire of Indian corn stalks, and were as jolly as so many boys: not that they wanted any fire for warmth, but it was their custom always, when we passed any night by a bushy bank-whether the night were hot or otherwisetheir social custom to collect bushes, or whatever they could find, and make a blazing fire. they would sit round for hours, and talk deep into the night, ready at any moment, at the cry of "Wind-Yallah!" to rush on deck and push off into the stream. On chilly evenings, in lower Egypt and these were sometimes damp, and not warm, lower down the river-'the slaves' would light up a great fire, and, as the flames rose, would stretch their bodies over it and the smoke, and put their naked limbs into it, with cries of enjoyment, as so many wild savages.

But let us get on up the river. The Belgians bought a live crocodile, about eight feet long, which had been caught by fishermen in a net. These had stunned the monster with blows of heavy sticks, and then had tied up his mouth with a cord, and his fore feet up over his back-an

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inglorious situation for the sacred animal predicament the brute lay in the Belgian's skiff. They paid forty piastres for their prize- about eight shillings. As we soon after this lost sight of the Belgian boat, I never heard what became of the sacred prisoner. It was suggested to Yusuf, that a crocodile might be caught with a hook baited with meat, but he eagerly denied the possibility of such a capture, adding "Him too clever -crocodile looking out of his eye so (making a squint)-he see everything like one man-crocodile like man-people thinking him was one man long time-very long time." Perhaps this curious belief is a remnant of the ancient estimate of the brute's powers, sagacious and terrible as he is— possessing such qualities as these poor people have no means of contending with, and therefore in their eyes investing him with a character different from and superior to that of other and to-be-dominated animals. The natives say that a crocodile never attacks a man in deep water, as he always strikes his prey first with his tail, and, except he has a purchase for his feet, he cannot strike-and thus the natives all bathe in deep water safely, in places abounding with these animals. If the crocodile sees across the river a solitary person standing in

VOL. I.

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shallow water, he will dart across like an arrow, so rapid is his passage through water, strike unseen the legs of the person, who falls—when the monster will seize him with his paws, put his victim's body under his arm, and go off home to some deep place, where he will remain under water for many hours, that his prey may be quite dead. It is said that very few of these will eat animals, the young ones living on fish and on pigeons- the small wild pigeon, which drops on the water and stays thereas we saw numbers of them do continually in front of the villages, but principally on fish, as do the old ones; and that only one here and one there, at perhaps miles apart in the river, will attack any animal-whether man, or sheep, or goat, or colt. According to the natives, too, he is nice about his food, and will not eat anything not killed by himself. In some cases it has happened that a crocodile carrying off a human being, has been attacked by another. They fight, and the one is obliged to drop his prey. The fight over, neither will touch the body, which then is carried by the stream on to some sand-bank or island, and recovered by the natives, and bearing on it the marks of the crocodile's claws, bnt not otherwise mangled. Some of the Nile fish run to a great size-to forty pounds in weight, and more. One day, a villager

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