The Critic in the Orient Part 11

The southern statue is in the best preservation, but the northern one is of greatest interest because for ages it was believed to give forth musical notes when the first rays of the rising sun fell on its lips.

The Greeks called it the Statue of Memnon, and invented the fable that Memnon, who was slain at Troy by Achilles, appeared on the Nile as a stone image and every morning greeted his mother (Eos) with a song. So many good observers vouched for these musical notes at sunrise that the phenomenon must be accepted as an historical fact. The Romans invented the legend that when these sounds occurred the G.o.d was angry. Hence the emperor, Septimius Severus, apparently to propitiate the G.o.d, made some restorations in the upper portion of the statue, whereupon the mysterious musical sounds ceased. Some modern experts in physics have deduced the theory that this statue, carved from hard, resonant stone, really gave forth sounds when warmed up by the early sun after the heavy dews of night. Similar sounds have been observed elsewhere, due to the splitting off of very small particles of stone by sudden expansion.

Whatever the cause of these mysterious sounds, the speaking statue has served as an inspiration to many poets.

SAILING DOWN THE NILE ON A SMALL STEAMER

Few pleasure trips are more enjoyable than a steamer ride down the Nile from Luxor to Cairo. My plans did not permit an extensive Nile trip, so I went up the Nile by rail and came down by the Amenartas, one of Cook's small boats. For one who has the leisure the best scheme is to take one of Cook's express boats and make the round trip to a.s.souan from Cairo.

The Egypt and the Arabia are two luxurious steamers specially arranged for the comfort of tourists.

The Nile at Luxor is about a half-mile wide at extreme low water in December, although the marks on the bank show that it spreads over several miles of flat land when the heavy rains come in June and July.

It is as muddy as the Missouri or the San Joaquin, but the natives drink this water, refusing to have it filtered. They claim, and probably with reason, that this Nile water is very nutritious. The Egyptian fellah or peasant seldom enjoys a hot meal. He chews parched Indian corn and sugar cane, and eats a curious bread made of coa.r.s.e flour and water. Despite this monotonous diet the native is a model of physical vigor, with teeth which are as white and perfect as those of a Pueblo Indian.

All around Luxor are evidences of the tremendous force of the Nile waters when in flood. At various headlands near the city the banks of the Nile have been stoned up with solid walls, so that these may receive the full sweep of the flood waters. The great dam at a.s.souan, perhaps the finest bit of engineering work in the world, holds up the main current of the Nile and prevents the destructive floods which in the old days frequently swept away all the soil of the fellah's little farm. This dam has now been increased twelve feet in height, so that no water pours over the top.

The farmers in Egypt irrigate in the same way as the ryots of India.

They lay off a field into small rectangular patches, with a ridge around each to keep the irrigation water in it. These rectangles make the fields look like huge checker-boards. Plowing is done exactly as in the time of Cleopatra. A forked stick, often not shod with iron, serves as a plow, to which are frequently harnessed a camel and a bullock by a heavy, unwieldy yoke. When these two unequally yoked animals move across the field, agriculture in the Orient is seen at its best. Unlike the j.a.panese, the Egyptian women do not work in the fields. Their labors seem to be limited to carrying water in large jars on their heads and to washing clothes in the dirty Nile water. The most common sight along the river is that of two women, with their single cotton garment gathered up above their knees, filling the water jars or rinsing out clothes in water that is thick and yellow with dirt.

The steamer Amenartas started down the river at two in the afternoon.

The current was strong and the little steamer easily made fifteen miles an hour. Now began a series of exquisite views of river life, which changed every minute and saved the voyage from monotony. The first thing that impresses the stranger who is new to Egypt is the number and variety of the shadoufs for bringing the Nile water to the fields.

These consist of three platforms, each equipped with two upright posts of date palm trunks, with a crossbar. From this crossbar depends a well sweep, with a heavy weight at one end and a tin or wooden bucket at the other. One man at the level of the river scoops up a bucket of water and lifts it to the height or his head, pouring it into a small basin of earth. The second man fills his bucket from this basin and in turn delivers it to the third man, who is about six feet above him. The third man raises the water to the height of his head and pours it into a ditch which carries it upon the land. The heavy weights on the shadouf help to raise the water, but the labor of lifting this water all day is strenuous. The shadouf men work with only small loin cloths, and occasionally one of these fellows in a sheltered hole toils stark naked.

Despite the fact that their work is as heavy as any done in Egypt, they receive the wretched pittance of two piasters or ten cents a day, out of which they must spend two and one-half cents a day for food. The shadouf is as old as history, and the methods in use for raising this Nile water are the same to-day that they were in the earliest dawn of recorded history.

As in India, there is a great dearth of farmhouses in these rich lands.

The peasants are herded in squalid villages, the mud huts jammed close together, and the whole place overrun with goats, donkeys, pigs, chickens and pigeons. The houses are the crudest huts, with no window and no roof.

Life in these villages along the Nile is as primitive as it is among the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. Although their religion admonishes them to wash before prayers, these peasants appear to pay little heed to such rites. Men, women and children are extremely dirty, and it is unusual to find anyone with good eyes. Inflammation of the eyelids is the most common complaint and this disease is aggravated by the fact that the natives make no effort to drive away the flies that fasten upon the sore eyes of their little children. This is due to the common superst.i.tion that it brings ill luck to brush off flies. At every small station where the steamer stopped to land native pa.s.sengers and freight a score of villagers would be lined up, each afflicted with some eye complaint, and all swarming with small black flies.

At only a few towns along the Nile from Luxor to Cairo were there any houses which looked like comfortable homes. The great majority of the houses were of sun-dried brick, and these were often in a ruinous condition. Yet with their framework of graceful date palms, these squalid villages would delight the eye of an artist. For nearly the whole distance the west side of the Nile is marked off from the desert by the high Libyan mountains, gleaming white and yellow in the brilliant sunshine. These limestone cliffs were chosen for the tombs of the kings at Thebes, and all along the river one could make out with a gla.s.s frequent tombs carved in the steep sides of these hills. The other side of the river was flat, with low ranges of hills. At sunrise and at sunset the most exquisite colors transformed the country into a veritable fairyland. The sun sank behind bands of purple and amethyst, and his last rays brought out in sharp silhouette the statuesque forms of women water-carriers and long lines of laden camels moving in ghostly silence along the river bank. Very beautiful also were the pictures made by the dahabiehs and other native boats, with their big lateen sails and with the motley gathering of natives in the stern. All these boats have enormous rudders which rise high out of the water and add greatly to the effectiveness of the picture as seen against the sunset glow.

The atmosphere along the Nile is wonderfully clear, the sky is as blue and l.u.s.trous as fine silk, and the wind blows up clouds in fantastic shapes, which add greatly to the beauty of the scenery. All day the little steamer pa.s.ses half-ruined villages, embowered in feathery palms, with camels in the background and an occasional bullock straining at the wheel which lifts the Nile water on the shadouf. All day natives pa.s.sed along the sky line, some on donkeys, others on camels, still others driving in front laden animals, whose forms could scarcely be distinguished amid the thick clouds of dust raised by their heavy feet.

The creak of the shadoufs could be heard before we came abreast of the tireless workers.

Seen from the steamer the glamour of the Orient was over all this poverty-stricken land, but seen near at hand were revealed all the ugly features of dirt, disease, hopeless poverty, unending work that yields only the coa.r.s.est and scantiest food. We pa.s.sed miles on miles of waving fields of sugar cane, with great factories where this cane was worked up into sugar. We pa.s.sed broad fields of cotton, with factories near at hand for converting the product into cloth. Princ.i.p.alities of wheat--great seas of emerald green that stood out against a background of sandy desert--lined the banks at frequent intervals. But all these evidences of the new wealth that scientific irrigation has brought to this ancient valley of the Nile means nothing to the Egyptian peasant.

These great industries are in the hands of native or foreign millionaires, who see to it that the wages of the native workers are kept down to the lowest level.

BEFORE THE PYRAMIDS AND THE SPHINX

Wintry winds in Cairo, which raised clouds of dust and sand, prevented me from seeing the pyramids until after my return from Luxor. Then one still, warm day it was my good fortune to see at their best these oldest monuments of man's work on this earth. Yet impressive as are these great ma.s.ses of stone rising from barren wastes of sand, they did not affect me so powerfully as the ruins of Karnak and the tombs of the Kings of Thebes. Three pyramids were constructed at Gizeh and four other groups at Sakkara, the site of the ancient city of Memphis. That these pyramids were built for the tombs of kings has now been demonstrated beyond question, so that the many elaborate theories of the religious significance of these monuments may be dismissed. The ancient city of Memphis was for centuries the seat of the government of Egypt, and the tombs that may be seen to-day at Sakkara preceded the rock-hewn tombs at Thebes in Upper Egypt. The great antiquity of the tombs at Sakkara makes these of importance, although much of the work is inferior to that at Thebes.

The pictures of the pyramids are misleading. They give the impression that these great ma.s.ses of stone rise near palm groves and that the Sphinx is almost as huge as the pyramid of Cheops which overshadows it.

In reality, the pyramids are set on a sandy plateau, about fifteen feet high, while the Sphinx is practically buried in a hollow to the west of the great pyramid and can only be seen from one direction. When you stand in front of the big pyramid you can form no idea of its size, but you know from the guide book that it is seven hundred and fifty feet long and four hundred and fifty-one feet high. The height of each side is five hundred and sixty-eight feet, while the angle of the sides is fifty-one degrees fifty minutes. These statistics do not make much impression on the mind but, when it is said that this huge pyramid actually covers thirteen acres, the mind begins to grasp the stupendous size of this great ma.s.s of masonry. This pyramid to-day is of dirty brown color, but when finished it was covered with blocks of white limestone.

These were removed by various builders and have served to erect mosques and temples. Had this covering remained intact it would be impossible to climb the pyramid of Cheops. From Cairo and the Nile, as well as from the desert, the pyramids are an impressive sight. Unique in shape and ma.s.sive as the Libyan hills beyond them, they can never be forgotten, for they represent more perfectly than any other remains in Egypt the control by the early kings of unlimited labor and materials.

It used to be the fashion to sneer at the stories told by Herodotus, but the excavations in Egypt during the last thirty years have demonstrated that this old Greek traveler was an accurate observer and that what he saw may be accepted as fact. He was the first to give any detailed description of the pyramids and of the enormous work of building them.

Herodotus visited Egypt about 450 B. C., and he related that one hundred thousand men were employed for three months at one time in building the great pyramid of Cheops. The stone was quarried near the site of the citadel in Cairo, and ten years were consumed in constructing a great road across the desert to Gizeh by which the stone was transported. The remains of this road, formed of ma.s.sive stone blocks, may now be seen near the Sphinx. The construction of the big pyramid alone required twenty years. The story of Herodotus that one hundred thousand men were once employed on this pyramid is plausible, according to Flinders-Petrie, as these months came during the inundation of the Nile, when there was no field work to occupy their time.

The ascent of the pyramid is an easy task for any one in good physical condition and accustomed to gymnastic work. Two Bedouins a.s.sist you from the front while an ancient Sheik is supposed to help push you from the rear. In my case the Bedouins had a very easy job, while the Sheik enjoyed a sinecure. The stones are about a yard high, and the only difficulty of the ascent lies in the straddle which must be made to cover these stones. The ascent is made on the northeast corner of the pyramid, and much help is gained by inequalities in the great slabs of limestone which enable one to get a foothold. Two rests were made on the upward climb, but we came down without any rest, covering the whole trip in about fifteen minutes.

The view from the summit is superb. On two sides, the south and west, sketches the sandy desert, broken only by the groups of pyramids at Abusir, Sakkara and Dashhur, which mark the bounds of the ancient city of Memphis.

The average tourist has more curiosity about the Sphinx than about the pyramids, and here the reality is not disappointing. An impressive figure is this of a rec.u.mbent stone lion one hundred and eighty-seven feet long and sixty-six feet high, with a man's head that is full of power and pride. The nose is gone and the face is badly scarred, but here is the typical Egyptian face, with the fine setting of the eyes and the graceful head.

The journey to the rock tombs of Sakkara and the site of ancient Memphis is tedious, as it includes a ride across the sandy desert of eighty miles. A stop is made at the old house of Mariette, the famous French Egyptologist, who uncovered many of the finest remains in Memphis. Near by is the Step pyramid, the tomb of a king of the fifth dynasty and one of the oldest monuments in Egypt.

Near by are several pyramids and tombs that will repay a visit, as each gives some new idea of the extraordinary care taken by the ancient Egyptians to preserve their dead and to a.s.sure them proper guidance in the land beyond the tomb.

In one chapel are exquisitely carved mural reliefs, many of which still retain their original colors. In these chambers the hot, dry air is like that of the desert. A hundred years seem like a day in this atmosphere, where nothing changes with the changing seasons. Under one's feet is the soft, dry dust stirred up by the feet of many tourists, but rain and sunshine never penetrate this home of the dead, and a century pa.s.ses without leaving a mark on these inscriptions which were chiseled long before the children of Israel made their escape from bondage in Egypt.

It seems incredible that so many momentous things should have occurred while in these still, warm tombs day followed day without change.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LVII

A Typical Street in Old Cairo.

These Buildings Show the Architecture of Cairo, With a Mosque on the Left With Dome and Minaret]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LVIII

An Arab Cafe In One of Cairo's Streets.

The Open Air Cafes, Facing the Sidewalk, Abound In Cairo.

The Smokers and Coffee-Drinkers Pay No Attention to Pa.s.sers-by]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LIX

Women Water Carriers in Turkish Costume.

One of These Women is Uncovered, While the Other Wears the Yashmak or Face Mask.

They Carry Large Water Jars on Their Heads]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LX

The Rameseon at Karnak.

Six Colossal Statues of Rameses II of Which Three Are in Fair Preservation]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXI

The Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak.

The Road From Luxor to Karnak Was Lined With Rec.u.mbent Rams, Called Krio-Sphinxes, Many of Which Still Remain]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXII

An Arab Village on the Nile. This Is a Typical Village, the Houses of Sun-dried Brick, like the California Adobe, and the Whole Shaded By Palms]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXIII

The Colossi of Memnon, near Thebes.

These Gigantic Figures on the West Bank of the Nile May Be Seen for Many Miles. They are Sixty-five Feet High, and Stood Originally in Front of a Temple]