STORMS ON THE NILE.

177

had Diodorus Siculus on board of my kandjia that afternoon he would certainly no longer have fancied that the Nile" has no violent surges or tempestuous waves." * However, having caused the Arabs to take in a quantity of large stones for ballast, we felt sufficient confidence to proceed; but it soon appeared that the boatmen were more prudent than we; for several heavy squalls, attended by rain, came on in quick succession; and during one of these my kandjia gave so much to the wind, that the stones began to roll all to one side; and had she not righted in a moment, to the bottom we must have gone, for I had no time to spring out of the cabin. Many boats go down in this way, particularly higher up, where the mountains approach more nearly to the river. I saw the masts of one or two sticking up in the middle of the stream; and an elegant barge belonging to Ahmed Pasha capsized and sunk while we were on the Nile. Yet, in spite of the bad weather, we made several miles before dark, and moored for the night at Shook, opposite to Tabin.

Wednesday, Dec. 12.

CXII. The sky, this morning, like yesterday, was thickly overcast with clouds, but the cold was less severe. We landed at an early hour in search of turtle-doves, which chiefly harbour in the small woods about the villages; and while walking along the banks of the river, Monro shot a small beautiful bird, called

178 THE SIKSAK AND THE CROCODILE.

siksak by the Arabs, concerning which the Egyptian peasants have a curious legend, pretending that when the crocodile, in fine calm sunny days, ascends out of the river to sleep upon some sandy islet, this bird always keeps near, and, if danger approach, takes care to awaken him by his sharp note. They add another particular, which, however fabulous it may be, has prevailed in Egypt from the age of Herodotus down to the present day, and seems to be founded on the physical structure of the bird. The siksak, which is undoubtedly the trochilus of Herodotus *, is armed at the point of each shoulder of the wings with a small sharp horn, like the talons of an eagle, the use of which the Arabs with their usual ingenuity explain as follows:-The crocodile, they say, being at times tormented by a noxious kind of vermin, which creep into his throat, and suck his blood, lies down on the sand, and instinctively opens his mouth. The siksak, impelled by the same instinct, mistaken by the Arabs for friendship, coming up to the crocodile, hops into his mouth and devours the leeches, in pursuit of which he will even descend far into the throat. The crocodile, forgetting the presence of his friend, sometimes closes his mouth and imprisons him; upon which the siksak, which is purposely armed for the occasion, lifts up its wings, and, pricking the tender sides of his throat with its sharp horns,

* “When the crocodile leaves the water, it reclines itself on the mud, and generally towards the west, with its mouth open: the trochilus, entering its throat, destroys the leeches; in acknowledgment for which service, it never does the trochilus injury."- Euterpe, c. 68.

CURIOSITY OF THE ARABS.

179

quickly procures itself a safe return to upper air. Whatever may be thought of this legend, it is very certain that the crocodile is rarely seen unattended by one or more of these birds, which seem to approach him fearlessly, and to stand quite within his reach upon the sand.

CXIII. While Monro was shooting among the date trees of Sagulteh, a village where we stopped to purchase such provisions as were to be found, it was exceedingly amusing to witness the wonder of the Arabs at the dexterity with which he brought down the flying birds. Men, women, and children crowded about us, some asking permission to look through my eye-glass, which they supposed to have some connection with the effect of the fowling-piece; others gazing in wonder at the detonating caps, which they feared to touch, seeing that they aided in some inconceivable way in the work of death. Many of the children, of both sexes, were stark naked; and I saw one fine young maiden running from one house to another, who was nearly in the same state. Upon the bank of the river, in front of the village, a number of women, all young, were seated, selling bread, dates, onions, &c. most of them having children at the breast, evidently their first, as the bosom had not as yet acquired that pendent form, which at a more advanced period of life disfigures the appearance of an Egyptian female. They were nearly all tatooed, some having three or four lines of Arabic, probably sentences from the Koran, imprinted on the chin; others a line of

180 TATTOOING. -FORMS OF THE WOMEN.

small asterisms running on the inside of the right arm, from the elbow to the wrist, which was also adorned with the representation of a rich bracelet ; and several a small blue flower or star stamped upon the left breast. While young, most of these women have handsome bosoms, elegantly formed limbs, small hands and feet, full dark eyes, and, in many instances, pretty faces; but, when once past the flower of their age, their features grow sharp and harsh, and their breasts, like those of the old Hindoo woman represented in Heber's Journal, acquire an incredible length, while all their limbs become spare and sticklike. Indeed, they grow, when old, exceedingly ugly, though the Arabs retain, under almost all circumstances, a look of good-natured simplicity which prevents them from being displeasing: besides, they are still women, and as such, whether old or young, entitled at least to our respect; indeed I never beheld one of these poor creatures bending beneath the united weight of years and poverty, without experiencing the acutest commiseration-useless enough to them, but not to be avoided. Such of the Caireens as have been much in company with Franks, even as domestics, generally contract a violent prejudice against the peasantry, upon whom they affect to look down with extreme contempt: this morning, for example, at Sagulteh, the Hajji, in other respects a humane man, observing that I suffered an Arab to take the fowlingpiece in his hand, exclaimed with a kind of disgust, "Oh, sir, don't allow that beast to touch it." He thought we should all be polluted by the very touch

ILLUSTRATION OF HERODOTUS.

181

of a Fellah. And it is from persons of this description that Europeans ordinarily borrow their preposterous ideas of the Egyptian peasantry.

CXIV. In walking along the western bank of the Nile, a little to the south of Sagulteh, we saw a confirmation of a curious assertion of Herodotus*, which has been groundlessly ridiculed by the critics. He observes that, upon the retiring of the river, the peasants cast the seed upon the mud, and then drove their oxen, sheep, hogs, &c. into the field to tread it in, by which means, without ploughing or harrowing, the grain was sunk sufficiently deep into the earth. A large field over which we passed this morning had undergone this process; having never been ploughed or harrowed, but the wheat, cast upon the soft mud, had been trampled in by various animals, and was now springing up beautifully. The practice, however, is by no means general; and, in fact, could only answer in the soft alluvial deposit close to the banks of the river. Speaking of pigs brings to my recollection two anecdotes: - the Mohammedans consider as unclean all animals which are shot, unless the sportsman, before life is extinct, come up with his game and cut its throat, turning the head towards Mekka, and reciting certain prayers. Aware of this prejudice, I inquired of Suleiman whether he could conscientiously eat what had been killed outright with a

* Euterpe, c. 14.