The World and Its People Part 6

The delta, or mouth, of the Nile has an expanse of about one hundred and fifty miles on the Mediterranean.

At the delta the Nile spreads out into numerous streams to enter the sea.

The length of the Nile is about three thousand three hundred miles, if we measure its wandering course from its exit at the lake to its entrance at the sea.

It is a remarkable fact that from the point where the last tributary enters the Nile, a distance of some fifteen hundred miles from the sea, no other waters are received to increase its volume; yet, in spite of this, the stream is able to withstand the scorching sun and burning sands of the Nubian Desert.

Little wonder, then, that the ancient Egyptians held the river sacred.

To its influence they owed not only life, health, and strength, but their prosperity and wealth, as well.

Year after year they watched its annual overflow, rejoicing in this blessing of the waters.

At Khartoom the overflow begins in April. Lower Egypt does not become affected by the overflow of the waters till the latter part of June.

Here the inundation does not attain its full height for about three months. The waters remain stationary for about twelve days, and then very gradually begin to subside.

The cultivation of the soil of entire Egypt is wholly dependent upon its inundation by the waters of the Nile. Its failure would mean drought and a total destruction of the crops, since Egypt is, practically, a rainless country.

Should there be a continuous wind from the south, then Egypt would be blessed by a year of prosperity. Should there be a continuous wind from the north, it would mean disaster to the country.

During a good inundation, the rise in the waters varies from forty feet, about the Tropic of Capricorn, to thirty-six feet at Thebes. Near the delta it is but four feet.

If, at Cairo, the waters rise to only eighteen or twenty feet, there is a scarcity of water. Should it rise to even twenty-four feet, there is still a deficiency. From twenty-five to twenty-seven feet is counted good for the welfare of the crops. More of an overflow would cause a flood. This would not only be productive, most likely, of plague and fever, but loss of crops and famine would follow in their wake.

During the months of inundation the whole valley is under water. Here and there the villages rise like islands from the surface of the waters.

Just as the Dutch protect their lands from the inroads of the sea, the Egyptians protect their villages from the inroads of this annual flood by means of d.y.k.es.

Of late years the overflow of the Nile has been greater than for many previous centuries.

We can trace the rise and fall of the waters of the main stream of the Lower Nile to the influence of the periodical rains in the mountains of Abyssinia and in the Lake Nyanza region.

In the equatorial regions it rains more or less throughout the year. The most abundant fall of rain takes place during the equinoxes, as the sun makes its apparent revolution about the earth during her yearly journey in s.p.a.ce.

Could we stand upon the banks of the Nile, we should find them swarming with birds. With interest and pleasure we should watch the movements of the various water or reed birds as they seek their food.

We should listen to the discordant cries of the various birds of prey hovering over its waters. For here we should find not only such birds as the goose, pelican, and ibis, but the vulture and cormorant as well.

Standing on the banks of this most ancient of rivers, we should try to picture some of the scenes of past ages. Visions of Pharaoh and his daughter and the infant Moses would come to us.

Gazing into the depths of the soft waters, pure and sweet, we should be brought back to the present, as, with delight, we should find them teeming with many varieties of the finny tribes that sport beneath the surface. Searching along its banks, we might hope to find traces of the lotus, or Egyptian water lily, that once grew wild in such abundance, but now is rarely seen. It would be almost as arduous a task as hunting for a four-leaved clover, I fear.

It is generally believed that the plant was brought to Egypt from India.

It must have been carried there in the very earliest days of the history of the people. The Egyptians regarded it as the emblem of the Nile. It was to them a sacred plant, a symbol of the creation of the world from the waters.

It was the custom to cultivate it in tanks. At the Egyptian feasts the guests wreathed their heads with its flowers, which resemble superb pink tulips.

At an Egyptian funeral each guest was presented with one of the flowers.

It was the custom, too, to have the blossoms sculptured upon the tombs.

The lotus has had a very marked influence upon architecture. We find its leaves and buds appearing in the cla.s.sic columns. In every phase of antique carving we find its flower most frequently chosen to embellish the work.

The lotus has been imported into j.a.pan, and the people seem to have been more inspired in their art work by it than by anything else to be found in the field of nature.

When the petals of the lotus blossom fall, they leave behind a seed cup three inches in diameter. These seed cups contain immense seeds, of such shape that the ancient Greek and Latin writers used to speak of them as "Egyptian beans." They were eaten in large quant.i.ties by the people of the valley of the Nile. The Egyptians sometimes made a kind of bread of these seeds.

The question may come to our minds why the problem of the source of the Nile, which had busied the thoughts of students for centuries, should have been so recently solved. Indeed, it does seem remarkable that the source of a river, at whose mouth one of the earliest and most civilized nations of the globe had established a home, should have remained veiled in darkness.

The great want of success in discovering the sources of the Nile was due, no doubt, to the great length of the river and the difficulty of access to the regions through which it took its course. The peculiarities of climate, too, and the danger from the ignorance, barbarism, and superst.i.tion of the native tribes, no doubt had their influence in r.e.t.a.r.ding the exploration of the Nile.

Then, it has been discovered, during the course of the exploration, that a river may bear as many names as there are different tribes in the country which it drains.

Each tribe speaks a different dialect. Often these tribes are hostile in their relations with one another. Sometimes tribes, if not hostile, hold no intercourse, or have no means of communication with others.

Each tribe, in its own tongue, gives to the princ.i.p.al stream a name signifying _the river_. These differently sounding names were for a long time very misleading and very puzzling to the explorers, as they endeavored to trace a river in its wanderings.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NIGER, THE RIVER OF THE WEST.

The Niger is the great river of Western Africa. Its name, according to one of the early explorers, is but a contraction from one of the many names given to it by native tribes. The translation of any one of these would be simply "The River."

It was not until the close of the first quarter of this century that the mystery of the Niger was revealed.

Many conflicting reports had been made with regard to the river. In every instance it was found that tributaries of the river had been traced instead of the main stream.

Some explorers had reported it as flowing westward; others had reported it as flowing eastward. In each case a tributary of the river had been followed in its course, and thus the exploring parties had been misled.

Richard Lander and his brother John, in their search for the Niger, found one river, the Joliba, which ran towards the east.

This they resolved to follow to its mouth, wherever that might prove to be. Floating downstream, they came to another large stream flowing into it from the opposite direction. Thus they solved the mystery of the conflicting accounts.

As the Lander brothers floated down the stream formed by the union of these two, they soon found themselves in the Bight of Benin. No one had ever dreamed that a great river, like the Niger, could empty itself into it.

The Niger, it was discovered, after it reaches the low alluvial region of the coast, spreads out through a broad delta. It then enters the ocean by several mouths. These mouths are several leagues apart, but none of them are of any great size.

The great headwater of the Niger takes its rise in Mount Loma. This peak is in the elevated section designated as the Kong Mountains upon the map. It stands sixteen hundred feet above sea level, in a barren, desolate region, without a tree or a shrub to break the monotony of the scene.

The stream flows northeast to Timbuctoo. There it takes a bend to the east and flows for a distance of two hundred and fifty miles in this direction. From here on to the delta it takes first a southerly, then a southeasterly course, till it separates into the many streams at its mouth. Accurately speaking, the river enters the Gulf of Guinea between the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra.

Along its course, like the other great rivers of Africa, it is known by various names, given to it by different tribes of natives.

The accounts of the character of the river vary somewhat. It has, however, been pretty thoroughly explored throughout the last three hundred and fifty miles of its course.

If we could follow the river through this section to Timbuctoo, we should find that it traversed a tract of very fertile country. The soil is productive. Rice, maize, and various vegetables are found in abundance for the use of man, while fine pasturage is afforded for cattle.