THE RIVER NILE.

At length I gaze on the Nile—that marvellous river, the sources of which, though many have tried to find them, have only been discovered in our day. The history of Egypt is the oldest known to us. A large portion of its history can be constructed from the native records of the Egyptians, and those records are all to be found on the banks of the Nile. Four thousand four hundred years before Christ, Mena, the first King of Egypt of whom we have a record, founded Memphis, having turned aside the course of the Nile and established a temple service there. In the reign of Ammenehat, 2,300 years before Christ, special attention was paid to the rise of the Nile, and canals were made and sluices dug for irrigating the country; the rise of the Nile was marked on wells at Semnah, about thirty-five miles above the second cataract, and the inscriptions are visible to this day. A thousand years later Seti I. is said to have built a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea. Under the Roman Emperor Trajan the Nile and Red Sea Canal was reopened. Egypt proper terminates at Syene: the territory south of that town and each side of the new Nile is called Nubia. All Egypt depends upon the Nile; where the Nile does not flow all is barrenness—nothing but sand and rock.

The area of the land in Egypt available for cultivation is about 11,500 square miles; the Delta contains about 6,500 square miles, and the Nile Valley about 5,000. The country seems to have been taken possession of by a people from the East about 5,000 years before Christ. They found there an aboriginal people, with a dark skin and complexion. The Egyptians generally called their land black (Kanit), and the term is appropriate, if we consider the dark rich colour of the cultivated land. In the Bible Egypt is known as Ham. All nations have held the land, and have sent their people thither. But it is a curious fact that the physical type of the Egyptian fellah is exactly what it was in the earliest dynasties.

The river Nile is one of the largest rivers in the world. It is formed by the junction of two great arms, the Blue Nile and the White; one rises in Abyssinia, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet above the level of the sea; the other, the true Nile, has its fountain-head in the Victoria Nyanza, a huge basin far below the level of the country. The course of the Nile has been explored about 3,500 miles. From Khartoum to Cairo the Nile falls about 400 yards; its width in its widest part is about 1,100 yards. After entering Egypt, the Nile flows in a steady stream always to the north, and deposits the mud which is the life of Egypt. The breadth of the Nile Valley varies from four to ten miles in Nubia, and from fifteen to thirty in Egypt. The width of the area of cultivated land on each bank of the river in Egypt is never more than eight or nine miles. The inundation caused by the descent of rain on the Abyssinian mountains commences at the cataracts in June, and in July makes a great show. The rise of the Nile continues till the end of September when it remains stationary about three weeks. In October it rises again, and attains its highest level. When I saw it in November the waters had subsided, and the peasants were hard at work, making the best of their opportunity.

The ground was still too wet for ploughing, but gangs were turning up the soil with hoes, and sowing the seed. It seemed to be simple work, under the blue sky and the bright sun. There was no need for high farming; Nature did everything, and the toil of the labourer was richly rewarded. It made me think of what Douglas Jerrold said of Australia—that it was a country so fertile that ‘if you but tickle her with a hoe she laughs with a harvest.’ And the harvest is wonderful. Commercially, the Nile is a fortune to Cairo. It is estimated that if all the land watered by the Nile were thoroughly cultivated, Egypt, for its size, would be one of the richest countries in the world. Till the Cairo Waterworks were established, the people of Cairo depended solely on the water of the Nile; and in Cairo, as in Jerusalem, the water-carrier is still to be seen, bearing on his back a large black goatskin filled with water from the river. At the Cairo railway-station he is always in evidence watering the platform and keeping down the dust. The short legs of the goat cut off at the knee stick out in a most grotesque manner when the skin is full and round. The neck forms the spout, and is held firmly in the left hand, to enable the carrier to sprinkle the contents where desired. The weight of some of these large skins must be very considerable. The skins used for wine are identical in form with these.

In ancient times there were near Cairo no less than seven branches of the Nile; only two now remain. Very busy are the people who have to do with the Nile in the vicinity of Cairo. A large open space at the end of one of the bridges is selected for the collection of the octroi duties levied upon all food and produce entering the city. Here the fellaheen assemble daily, with their camels and asses laden with produce, or with droves of buffaloes and oxen, and flocks of sheep and goats. The scene there is almost picturesque and animated. Another bridge carried over a wide canal, which forms an important backwater to the hill, connects the western shore. From this point roads radiate north, west, and south, each shaded by avenues of the acacia, so common in Egypt. The Ghizeh road is the southern one, following the course of the river, always alive with boats with large triangular sails, always redolent of busy life.

Egypt without the Nile would be a desert. ‘Anyone,’ says old Herodotus, the father of history, the truth of whose narrative every day becomes more apparent to everyone who sees Egypt, without having heard a word about it before, ‘must perceive, if he has only common powers of observation, that the Egypt to which the Greeks go in their ships is an acquired country, the gift of the Nile.’

The prosperity of the country depends upon its inundation: if it should prove excessive, and becomes what is termed a high Nile, towns and villages are sometimes swept away; if it should not rise above a certain height, it is called a low Nile—a large area will be left uncovered, and deficient crops will be the result. Fortunately, a low Nile is of rare occurrence. At one time, the only way of going up the Nile was by the dahabeah, a kind of yacht fitted up for the convenience of travellers, an expensive and dilatory mode of conveyance. Now Mr. John Cook has a line of fine steamers, and the Nile and the journey up and down is done as safely and expeditiously as the trip by the Clacton Belle steamers up and down the Thames. The voyage to Assouan and back is done in three weeks. Facilities are afforded the traveller for the extension of his voyage to the second cataract.

Of course, the ancient Egyptians worshipped the Nile. Hapi, the god of the Nile, is represented wearing a cluster of flowers on his head; he is coloured red and green, probably to represent the colours of the water of the Nile immediately before and just after the beginning of the inundation. An illustration of this worship occurs upon a wall in Thebes, where a priest, in his painted robe, is offering incense, while others play on a harp, a guitar, and two reed pipes. This is the song of one of the priests who lived 1,400 years before Christ:

‘Adoration to the Nile! Hail, to thee, O Nile! who manifesteth thyself over this land, and comest to give life to Egypt; mysterious is the coming forth from the darkness, watering the orchards created by Ra (the sun-god), to cause all the cattle to live. Thou givest the earth to drink, inexhaustible one. Thou createst the corn; thou bringest forth the barley, causing the temples to keep holiday. If thou ceasest thy toil and thy work, then all that exists is in anguish. . . . None A Tourist Streamer—Cook’s Nile Flotilla know the place where he dwells; none discover his retreat by the aid of a written spell. All is changed by the inundation. It is a healing balm for all mankind. A festal song is raised for the harp with the accompaniments of the hand,’ etc.

In a valuable work on the Nile, written by Wallis Budge, Acting Assistant Secretary in the department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum, and published by Thomas Cook and Son, we have a beautiful illustration of the practical side of Egyptian theology, written by a scribe called Ani, who gives his son advice for behaviour in all the varied scenes of life. It is taken from one of the papyri in the Egyptian Museum at Ghizeh:

‘If a man cometh to seek thy counsel, let this drive thee to look for information.

‘Enter not into the house of another; if a man asks thee into his house, it is an honour for thee.

‘Spy not upon the acts of another from thy house.

‘Be not the first to enter or leave an assembly, that thy name be not tarnished.

‘The sanctuary of God abhorreth noisy declamations. Pray humbly, and with a loving heart whose words are spoken silently; God will then protect thee, and hear thy petitions, and accept thy offerings.

‘Consider what hath been. Set before thee a correct rule of life as an example to follow. The messenger of death will come to thee, as to others, to carry thee away; yea, he standeth ready. Words will profit thee nothing, for he cometh—he is ready. Say not, “I am a child; wouldst thou in very truth bear me away?” Thou knowest not how thou wilt die. Death cometh to meet the babe at his mother’s breast, even as he meeteth the old man who hath finished his course.

‘Take heed with all diligence that thou woundest no man with thy words.

‘Keep one faithful steward only and watch his deeds, and let thy hand protect the man who hath charge of thy house and property.

‘The man who hath received much and giveth little is as one who committeth an injury.

‘Be not ungrateful to God, for He giveth thee existence.

‘Sit not while another standeth, if he be older than thou or if he is thy superior.

‘Whosoever speaketh evil receiveth no good.’