Highroads of Geography Part 2

6. CHILDREN OF EGYPT.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {An Egyptian woman}]

1. In the picture you see two of the women of Egypt. One of them is standing at the edge of the river. She is filling her pitcher with water. The other woman is carrying a lamb in her arms.

2. The people of Egypt have changed but little since the days of Moses.

The men have brown faces, white teeth, and bright black eyes. Most of them wear beards and shave their heads.

3. The women wear long dark cloaks. If they are well-to-do they cover their faces with a veil. They think it wrong to let their faces be seen by any men except their husbands.

4. I think Kate would like to hear something about the children. Those who have rich fathers wear beautiful clothes, and have a very happy time. Poor children wear few clothes, and are nearly always covered with dust.

5. Many of the boys go to school, and are taught just as you are. They read the same kind of books that you read.

6. The children of Egypt always obey their parents, and are never rude to them. I think they have very good manners.

7. All the people of Egypt love singing. Their voices are soft and sweet. The boatmen on the Nile sing as they row. The fruit-sellers sing as they cry their wares in the streets.

8. Many of the boys in the chief city of Egypt are donkey drivers. In Egypt donkeys are far more used for riding than horses. The donkeys are beautiful little animals, and they trot along very quickly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A boy with two donkeys}]

9. Each donkey has a boy to run after it with a stick, and to shout at it to make it go. The donkey boys are very jolly little fellows. They always smile, however far they have to run.

10. Most donkey boys wear a white or blue gown, and have a red cap, or fez, on the head. If a donkey boy sees an Englishman coming, he runs to him and says, "My donkey is called John Bull." If he sees an American coming, he says that his donkey's name is Yankee Doodle.

11. Sometimes the donkey boy will ask the rider,--

"Very good donkey?"

If the rider says "Yes," he will then ask,--

"Very good donkey boy?"

"Yes."

12. "Very good saddle too?"

"Yes."

"_Then me have very good present!_"

13. Now let me tell you something that will surprise you. The people of Egypt in the old, old days thought that their cats were G.o.ds.

14. They prayed to them and built temples to them. When the family cat died, all the people in the house shaved their eyebrows to show how sorry they were.--Best love to you all. FATHER.

7. THROUGH THE Ca.n.a.l.

1. MY DEAR CHILDREN,--I have just sailed through a very wonderful ca.n.a.l.

It joins two great seas together, and is now part of the way to India.

2. By means of this ca.n.a.l we can sail from England to India in three weeks. Before it was made the voyage took three months or more.

3. The ca.n.a.l was made more than forty years ago by a Frenchman. He dug a great ditch, and joined together a number of lakes. By doing so he made a waterway from sea to sea. This waterway is about a hundred miles long.

4. I joined my ship at the town which stands at the north end of the ca.n.a.l. There is nothing to see in the town except the lighthouse and the shops. On the sea wall there is a statue of the Frenchman who made the ca.n.a.l.

5. As we lay off the town we could see many little boats darting to and fro. The boatmen were dressed in all the colours of the rainbow--red, blue, green, and orange. In one boat there were men and women playing and singing songs.

6. By the side of our ship men were swimming in the water. I threw a piece of silver into the water. One of the men dived, and caught it before it reached the bottom.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Side of a ship, with men swimming below}]

7. On the other side of the ship there were great barges full of coal.

Hundreds of men and women carried this coal to the ship in little baskets upon their heads. They walked up and down a plank, and all the time they made an awful noise which they called singing.

8. When all the coal was on board, the ship began to steam slowly along the narrow ca.n.a.l. No ship is allowed to sail more than four miles an hour, lest the "wash" should break down the banks.

9. Soon we pa.s.sed out of the narrow ca.n.a.l into one of the lakes. Our road was marked by buoys. Away to right and to left of us stretched the sandy desert.

10. In the afternoon we pa.s.sed a station, where I saw a number of camels laden with boxes of goods. They were going to travel across the sands for many days.

11. The sun went down in a sky of purple and gold. Then a large electric light shone forth from our bows. It threw a broad band of white light on the water and on the banks of the ca.n.a.l. Where the light touched the sands it seemed to turn them into silver.

12. In less than twenty-four hours we reached the town at the south end of the ca.n.a.l. A boat came out from the sh.o.r.e, and this letter is going back with it.--Love to you all. FATHER.

8. AMONGST THE ARABS.--I.

1. MY DEAR CHILDREN,--I am now sailing along the Red Sea. The weather is very hot. All over the ship electric fans are hard at work. In spite of them I cannot keep cool.

2. Away on the left, or port, side of the ship I see high hills. They are red in colour, and seem to be baked by the hot sun. Even through my spy-gla.s.s I cannot see a speck of green on them. All is red and bare.

3. Beyond the hills lies the land of Arabia. It is a hot, dry land, in which years sometimes pa.s.s without a shower of rain. There is hardly ever a cloud in the sky, and there is no dew at night.

4. Much of the land is covered with sand. Little or nothing will grow.

You know that we call a sandy waste of this kind a _desert_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Desert oasis}]