A Thousand Miles Up the Nile

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We now observed with some surprise that every word of the lessons as they were read in Coptic was translated, viva voce, into Arabic by a youth in a surplice, who stood against the screen facing the congregation. We arrived amid much barking of dogs, and were received by our host in a large empty hall surrounded by a divan. The main difference is that Thomas Cook had only recently started trips to Egypt so in 1873 there were very few tourists whereas now there are hoards of tour parties at the main sights.

The kings, on the contrary, covered every foot of their last palaces with scenes from the life to come. Keeping this mountain always before us, we now follow the windings of the second valley, which is even more narrow, parched, and glaring than the first. He has four: a short walk, like the rolling of a small boat in a chopping sea; a long walk, which dislocates every bone in your body; a trot that reduces you to imbecility; and a gallop that is sudden death.Speaking of Memphis she states: That Menes six or seven thousand years ago should have turned the course of the Nile to create a site for his new city. So far as its present condition enables us to judge, this building contained only eight rooms; namely three, one above the other, in each of the lodges, and two over the gateway.

Not many donkey owners tout for custom now but that has been replaced by a scrabble of Taxi, Calouche and Felucca owners. Learning about dahabeeyas and their methods for traversing the river was quite interesting as well as the social distinction between the European and native peoples. Her early novels were well received, but it was Barbara's History (1864), a novel of bigamy, that solidly established her reputation as a novelist.

All this again implies additional accommodation, and accounts, I venture to think, for any number of extra halls and chambers.