Part 15 (2/2)
When we started up the river a peddler came to the boat and offered us some small fly brooms. They are very much like the brush used by the apprentice in a blacksmith shop to protect the horse that is being shod. The brush part is made of split palm leaves or horsehair and the handle is decorated with beadwork. The idea of a person sitting about and whisking himself with this ornamental duster struck us as being most unusual, not to say idiotic. Before we travelled far up the Nile we had joined the grand army of whiskers. The fly broom is essential.
It is needed every eight seconds. At Luxor we went out to see a gymkhana under the auspices of the Luxor Sporting Club and every one of the two hundred spectators sat there wearily slapping himself about the head with the tufted fly brush while looking at the races.
The Luxor Sporting Club is not as dangerous as it sounds. The presiding judge of the races was a minister of the gospel and the receipts were given to local charities. A gymkhana is the last resort of a colony shut off from the metropolitan forms of amus.e.m.e.nt, and yet it can be made the source of much hilarious fun. Nothing could have been more frivolous than the programme at Luxor, and yet the British spectators seldom gave way to mirth. Doubtless they were laughing inwardly. Several ponderous committees had charge of the arrangements and attended to them with due solemnity.
First there was a race between native water-carriers, distance about three hundred yards, and each contestant carrying a goat skin filled with water. Then there was a donkey boys' race, each rider being required to ride backward. This enabled him to encourage his mount by twisting the tail. In the donkey race for ladies several of the contestants fell off gracefully and were carried to the refreshment booth, where they revived on tea. The ”affinity race” was an interesting feature. The contestants rode their donkeys in pairs, a gentleman and a lady holding a long ribbon between them. They were required to gallop about two hundred yards, turn a post, and return to the starting point without letting go of the ribbon. By far the most exciting features of the programme were the camel and buffalo races.
These animals have a.s.sociated with the hysterical natives so long that they have lost all of their natural horse sense and are quite daft and irresponsible. At the word ”Go!” instead of running down the course, they would snort madly and start off in all directions. If any of them finished under the wire it was by mere chance and not because of any guiding intelligence. One demented water buffalo turned and ran at right angles to the course. The last we saw of him he was disappearing over a hill toward the setting sun, with the native jockey riding on all parts of the upper deck, from the horns back to the tail.
The gymkhana is intended to provide an afternoon of undiluted nonsense, and for the benefit of those who find reason tottering on her throne and who don't care what they do as long as they enjoy themselves, I shall append a few sample compet.i.tions from an Egyptian programme and suggest that they be tried in America.
Bucket Contest--Compet.i.tors to gallop past three buckets, throwing a potato into each bucket. Marks to be given for pace. Best of two runs.
Hat Tr.i.m.m.i.n.g Compet.i.tion--Gentleman to ride to lady with parcel containing hat and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. Lady to trim hat and gentleman to return to the winning post wearing hat.
Dak Race--Compet.i.tors to drive at the trot about one-half mile, unharness and saddle same pony and ride 200 yards, returning to the winning post.
Housekeeping Stakes--Gentleman on side saddle to ride to lady and give her envelope containing an addition sum. Lady to open envelope, add up this sum and return it to gentleman. First past the post with correct sum wins.
Needle Threading Compet.i.tion--Lady carries needle and thread 100 yards to gentleman partner. He threads the needle and returns it to lady.
First past the post with needle properly threaded wins.
Egg Carrying Compet.i.tion for Ladies--Each lady carries an egg in an ordinary teaspoon for a distance of about fifty yards. If egg is dropped it must be recovered with the spoon and must not be touched with the hands. First past the post with unbroken egg wins.
There are many other contests which tax the intellect in a similar manner, but possibly the foregoing will be sufficient to provide a fairly demoralising afternoon. Of course, in America it is impossible to secure the real Levantine donkey. In Egypt the donkey takes the place of the motor car, the trolley, the hansom, and the bicycle. In size he ranges from an average goat to a full grown St. Bernard.
Ordinarily he is headstrong and hard to manage, having no bridle wisdom whatever, but he is of tough fibre and has a willing nature, and behind his mournful countenance there always seems to be lurking a crafty and elusive sense of humour. The names are marvellous. At the various stops on our way up the Nile I became personally acquainted with Rameses the Great, Rameses Telegraph, Rameses Telephone, Jim Corbett, Whiskey Straight, Lovely Sweet, Roosevelt, Sleeping Car, Lydia Pinkham, and others equally appropriate which I cannot now recall.
As I have indicated above, our wanderings have carried us as far as Luxor. Luxor (the ancient Thebes) is the superlative of all that is old and amazing in Egypt and therefore it calls for at least one separate chapter.
CHAPTER XVII
IN AND AROUND LUXOR, WITH A SIDE LIGHT ON RAMESES THE GREAT
Until we arrived at Luxor we did not know the total meaning of the word ”old.” The ruins, which are the stock in trade of this ancient City of Thebes, date so far back into the dimness of Nowhere that all the other antiquities of earth seem as fresh and recent as a morning newspaper.
”Old” is merely a relative term, after all. I remember in my native town we small boys used to gaze in reverent awe at a court house that was actually built before the Civil War. We would look up at that weather-beaten frame structure, two stories high, with a square bird cage on top of it, and to us it had all the historic interest of a mediaeval castle. Later, in Chicago, when the special writer on the newspaper ran short of topics he would dish up an ill.u.s.trated story on the oldest building in town. It was constructed away back in 1833.
When a man from the West goes East for the first time and sees Independence Hall in Philadelphia, he takes off his hat and tries to grasp the overwhelming fact that the building stood there even in the far distant Colonial period. When he travels to London and walks through St. Paul's or stands in the Henry VII. Chapel at Westminster he begins to get a new line on the meaning of ”old.” Later he sees the Forum at Rome and declares to himself:--”At last I have found something really ancient.”
But when he arrives at Luxor and rambles among the elephantine ruins and sits in the deep cool shade of temples that had been standing a good many centuries before anyone thought of laying out the Forum in Rome he will begin to understand how everything else in the world is comparatively hot from the griddle. One day we were in the shop of Mouhammed Mouha.s.sib, in Luxor, and the old antiquarian reached under the counter and lugged out a mummy. The body was well preserved, and the embalming cloth in which it was wrapped and cross-wrapped still retained a definite texture.
”This mummy dates back beyond any of the dynasties of which we have a record,” said the dealer. ”There were no inscriptions on the mummy case, because when this gentleman lived it was not the custom to inscribe the coc.o.o.n. You will observe, however, that he was buried in a sitting posture, and we know that this manner of burial was discontinued about 6000 B.C.”
As we stood there gazing into the calm features of the unidentified has-been and realised that he had been sitting in that easy att.i.tude for eight thousand years waiting for us to come along and be presented to him, we began to get a faint inkling of what the word ”old” really means.
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