Samuel Bevan

“ Could I but tell how to shape a course we might soon reach one or other of the low ranges of sand-hills which skirt the Suez desert. But should we fail to hit the rising ground, our strength might be exhausted, and escape still more uncertain. ”

“ Never did juice of princely grape or humble “malt” confer such unalloyed satisfaction as that pint of tepid, highly-flavoured Nile-water! Then the bonnie Arab and I dined together off horse-beans and tank-water, and, exhausted by the combined effects of heat, fatigue, and excitement, laid ourselves down side by side on the same bed of straw, to sleep. ”

“ And anon the puffing little English steamer, no bigger than a Thames penny ’bove-bridge, with its English captain (!) in gold-laced cap and familiar “go-ahead” and “ease her.” And then Atfeh and its darkness, din and confusion fade away in our wake, and we gratefully sniff the morning air borne down upon the bosom of old Father Nile; and the cheery rattle of cups and saucers, and the fragrant aroma of early “Mocha,” force from us the admission that there may be a bright side to every picture. ”

“ He will recall the hurry-skurry scramble on donkey-back through the bazaars and labyrinthine suburbs of Alexandria; the limited ablution, and the comfortless confusion of the odd thè-dinant at the hotel, and finally, perhaps, the writer’s “call to horse” if such a term can be properly applied to the kicking, braying, fighting squad of ready-saddled donkeys below. Then the pell-mell race at full gallop by rough and treacherous paths, over the half-hidden ruins of ancient Alexandria, to the unsavoury Mahmoudieh, and lastly the squeeze into the omnibus-like and overcrowded treykshuyt. ”

“ I get into the saddle again and stand up in the stirrups to obtain a more extended view. Nothing but the grassy tufts! Nothing, probably, six inches above the ground for miles around me, save, perhaps, the carcase of some unlucky camel festering in the hot sun! ”

“ Hastening down, and threading a few of the very narrow streets of Cairo, for the inn-yard is not accessible to anything with wheels, we find in a somewhat more open space, half-a-dozen or more of the rude-looking carriers’ carts before alluded to, used by Waghorn and Company for traversing the desert. ”

“ Some years ago, before viaducts spanned the Nile, and tall poles marked the course of the iron way which now crosses the Goshen desert, travellers to and from India found their way over it as best they might. For those who preferred to ride in carriages, there were machines on two wheels with tilted covers, like errand-carts. ”

“ For timid maidens and elderly ladies, there was the donkey-chair, a rude invention, closely resembling the old sedan, where asses took the place of chairmen, and whose motion, when the forward donkey indulged in a gallop, whilst his lazier friend in the rear would persist in a trot, was indescribably parabolic and dislocatory both of limb and temper. ”

“ But not for long. My own safety confirmed, I remembered Selim and my carpet-bag. Had the old bawaub seen aught of them? Not he. Then perhaps he thought it possible that the dromedary might have bolted with Selim, and Selim with the bag? The old fellow thought it extremely likely, and evidently wondered at my simplicity in presupposing any other contingency. Had the overland travellers passed Suez-ward? They had not. ”

“ The Arab starts, but does not break away, and the little white cloud ascends for a second, and then meeting an upper current is borne slowly away from us. I determine to follow the opposite direction, feeling sure that if we could steer northward we must ere long reach the hills on which were still standing the old deserted stations of the telegraph formerly in use between Cairo and Suez. ”

“ So I discharged my carbine to add to the general uproar, and in half-an-hour afterwards was amusing myself with one of the most noisy of the turkey-cocks in the company of the faithful Selim and my carpet-bag. ”