Part 16 (1/2)
While the tourists were being transferred to the s.h.i.+p, the band on deck was playing ”Home, Sweet Home,” and the Captain and other officers standing at the head of the stairway gave a friendly greeting to the wanderers as they came on board.
”It is pleasant to be welcomed back in this friendly manner,” remarked one of the ramblers to another as they entered their cabin, ”and then it is so homelike here in our stateroom, with our photographs and nick-nacks pinned around the walls.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: BELOW THE CITADEL WE SAW AN OPEN-AIR MARKET.]
A busy afternoon of re-packing followed the departure from Jaffa, for on the following day the tourists were to leave the steamer at Alexandria to remain twelve days in Egypt. Clothing that was considered suitable for the climate of that warmer region was carefully selected and condensed into the smaller receptacles, and every article that the tourists supposed would not be required was left in the staterooms.
On Tuesday morning, March tenth, at seven o'clock, the Moltke was anch.o.r.ed in the commodious port of Alexandria, which is enclosed by long stone breakwaters that have been built into the sea to protect the harbor. Many vessels were at the docks or at anchor in the port, and a handsome white yacht flying the imperial flag of Germany lay within a stone's throw of our steamer.
”The Crown Prince of the German Empire is visiting Egypt and that is his yacht,” said one of the officers.
The morning was bright and clear. It was a delight to breathe the warm salt air and feel its invigoration. Overhead the sky was brilliantly blue and the sea reflected it in various hues.
”Did you ever see such wonderful coloring on the waters of sea or river?” asked an enthusiastic beholder. ”Near by the sea sparkles in the morning sunlight in azure and olive and darkens into sapphire and emerald, and there beyond the breakwater it changes to tints of violet and purple. I have heard that the colors of the Mediterranean are beautiful; now I know they are.”
The row boats that were to carry us ash.o.r.e gathered around the steamer.
The bare-footed boatmen, with faces of various shades from light yellow to intense black, were attired in red fez, white bloomers, and long red sweaters.
[Ill.u.s.tration: AT THE NILE BRIDGE WE WAITED FOR THE DRAW TO CLOSE.]
At the custom house on the dock the custom officials accepted the statement of the managers that the baggage of the tourists contained nothing dutiable, and the baggage was pa.s.sed without examination. A special train was on the pier ready to convey the party to Cairo.
Beggars and peddlers attempted to approach the train to ask alms or sell their wares, but were driven away with whips by black Nubian soldiers in dark blue uniforms, who appeared to take delight in snapping at the bare legs of the intruders.
It was just noon when our train, the second special section, moved out of Alexandria through long rows of large warehouses; for Alexandria is the chief seaport of Egypt and exports the cotton, grain, sugar, rice, and other productions of the valley of the Nile. As the train pa.s.sed rapidly southward through the delta of the Nile, we realized that we were in a land entirely different from any that we had previously visited. The trip of one hundred and thirty miles to Cairo will be remembered by the tourists as a panoramic succession of interesting pictures of agricultural life. The land on both sides of the railway was a black, sandy loam, level almost as a floor, intersected and broken only by the ca.n.a.ls and irrigation ditches. For some distance out of Alexandria the Mahmudiyeh ca.n.a.l was in sight.
”There is a scene that is familiar to me!” exclaimed one of the party.
”A landscape hanging in the art gallery of our city represents the light blue water of a ca.n.a.l mirroring tufted palms and wing-like sails. It was painted by a noted artist, who has successfully reproduced many beautiful Egyptian views.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”WANT A GUIDE? WANT A GUIDE?” THEY INQUIRED.]
Nile boats with breeze-filled canvas, caravans of camels on the embankment of the ca.n.a.l, and trains of donkeys laden with marketing for the city by the sea, seemed stationary as we rushed by. The land appeared to be thoroughly cultivated. There were no fences or waste corners in sight. Every foot of workable ground was utilized for raising crops.
[Ill.u.s.tration: EACH ARAB'S CART CONTAINED HIS WIVES.]
”Irrigation makes this almost rainless region the most fruitful on the globe,” remarked one of the managers of the tour. ”By the aid of irrigation the Egyptian farmers can raise two or three crops every year.
To do so, however, they must labor incessantly and give the land thorough cultivation. Irrigation with them is not opening the gates of a sluiceway and letting the water flow over the land. It means severe labor, pumping the water up from the ditches, ca.n.a.ls, or river, in which the surface of the water may be ten or twenty feet below the surface of the land. The pumps are the same kind that the people used in the days of the Pharaohs, and the methods of cultivation are the same as in those ancient times, without modern agricultural implements or modern machinery. Three crops, therefore, does not mean great prosperity, but simply enables the Egyptian farmer to pay taxes that would seem enormous to an American farmer, and then to have a surplus sufficient to supply his very moderate wants.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: WHERE EGYPTIANS OF MANY TYPES WERE a.s.sEMBLED.]
The monotony of the level stretches was varied by groups of palm trees whose tall rough trunks upheld graceful heads of outstretched, drooping leaves, and by villages of small mud huts roofed with stalks of sugar-cane, sufficient, we imagined, in that dry country, to protect the inmates from the burning noonday heat, and to shelter them from the chilling night dews. Occasionally the train stopped at large and apparently prosperous towns, where there were substantial stone buildings and busy factories. At these stations Arab venders offered coffee, lemonade, fruit, and other refreshments to appease the hunger and thirst of the travelers.
The fields were full of life. Each cultivated acre had its dark-hued laborers with hoes, or bare-legged toilers drawing water from the ditches for irrigating the thirsty land, or plowmen guiding teams of ungainly, striding camels or dark gray, crooked-horned oxen. In the lush meadows many of these curious-looking animals were grazing. The camels, the small donkeys, and the gray oxen or water-buffaloes as the natives called them, tied to stakes, were restricted to the pasturage within reach of their tethers. Along some of the irrigating ca.n.a.ls naked dark-skinned men and boys splashed about in the water, or stood unabashed on the bank of the stream, gazing at the pa.s.sing train.
[Ill.u.s.tration: I. SMALL AND HAZY IN THE DISTANCE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: II. ”MADAM MIGHT DROP HER SHAWL.”]
”Look at that scene,” cried one of the pa.s.sengers. ”I wonder whether our cattle at home would not enjoy similar treatment.”