gazers, watching, with solemn silence and earnestness, the proceedings of their white visitors, who probably laughed as much in an hour as Upper Egypt had done in a year. But evening came, and we were obliged to separate; the "homeward bound" had the stream in their favour, and their many oars soon bore them far away; but we could long catch glimpses of the watchfires on their deck, and hear snatches of their wild Arab song. Two days afterwards, we again caught sight of a familiar flag fluttering over a sandy promontory. By the time it approached, our tent was pitched upon the shore, and carpets and cushions spread for the reception of Lady L. T——— and her party, who found a greeting in that tent as warm as the sunshine that shone over it. The fair traveller spoke with pleasure and enthusiasm of all that they had seen; and I do believe that, with all its drawbacks, Egypt is the most interesting and convenient country that a lady can travel over. After dinner, the group in the tent would have surprised our European friends: four turbaned and bearded men sate round a fair and noble lady, whose graceful-looking and fragrant nargileh puffed and bubbled in harmony with their long chibouques the complexions of the whole party were almost as dark as those of our crews, and even the lady might have passed in a tableau for Cleopatra, but for the ivory white forehead that vindicated its proud claim to Norman blood. As soon as it was 1 Water-pipe, consisting of a glass bell, half filled with water, through which a very light and odoriferous tobacco is purified before it passes into a long, variegated tube, and jewelled mouthpiece. 1 dark, we parted. Again our Arab's parting song was raised, shots of salute were fired, and in a few moments more we could only see the glare of their watchfires far away, reflected on the tall, white sails as they receded down the darkening river. Sometimes we met a raft, formed of earthen vessels manufactured at Keneh, and tied together on a slight raft of palm wood; mugs, jugs, pitchers, and pipkins, formed into a floating island, on which lived its navigators with their wives and children; sometimes a number of bees taking a cruise for change of air and flowery pasture. The Egyptians are very curious in honey; and they say that the greater the variety the bee feeds on, the better is his produce: therefore, they take their hives up and down the river: true to the nomade instinct of their ancestors-the locality is as much a matter of indifference to them as to their murmuring flocks. The instinct with which the bee finds his way back to the boat, floated perhaps miles away since his last excursion, would argue the possession of some extra sense. Sometimes, again, we met a boat crowded with slaves from Abyssinia and Darfûr, on their way to the man-markets at Siout and Cairo: numbers, both boys and girls, are said to drown themselves on every passage, to avoid the brutality of their owners: once arrived at their place of destination and sold, however, their lot is happier, as I have before observed, or rather less wretched, than that of the free Egyptian. While our boat passed by with song and music as if its progress were all one festival, these poor exiled creatures would turn round to gaze after till their faces seemed all teeth. When we anchored for the night near a town, the Turkish governor generally came on board to visit us, accompanied by his janissary and pipe-bearer. We rose as he entered, and made room for him on the divan; then he would lay his hand on his heart, and pray that peace might be upon us; the pipe from our lips was then passed to his, of which he took one whiff; then he returned it with a salute, and his own pipe was furnished by his submissive slave. There was little variety in the conversation: "English very good; very fond of travelling; know great deal; have very good brandy." This last hint was always complied with, Mahmoud assuring the scrupulous Turk that it was made of roses, or of anything else that occurred to him. Sometimes, the curtain of the cabin was to be drawn before he would taste the forbidden draught; and sometimes he carried off the bottle bodily, "for a daughter, or a friend who was sick." There is no denying their taste for brandy, and their passion for maraschino; but we invariably found these authorities extremely courteous, complimentary, and willing to oblige us. Now to our travel once more. CHAPTER XXI. THE NILE UP TO THE FIRST CATARACT. Emblem art thou of Time, memorial Stream! SIR J. HANMER. In a constant yet varying succession of such scenes, we advance hourly toward the South. Brighter suns, and starrier skies, and stranger scenery-wilder, lonelier-more silent-receive us sometimes we travel for hours, and even days through the desert, where nothing but a narrow band of green, that feeds itself from the river exhalations, is visible besides. Then we enter tracts of richly green meadows, flushed with flowers, or wide fields of the blossoming bean that fill the air with their delicious and delicate perfume. Here are gardens of cucumbers, fenced round with twigs and stalks of Indian corn; there, fields of the Indian corn itself, a very forest of yellow grain; there are little farms of lupines, millet, and sweet pea; banks, gold-speckled with melons; and, haply, a crocodile or two basking beneath them on the sands, like dragons guarding the golden fruit of the Hesperides. All this produce and luxuriance is pumped out from the Nile, whose scattered waters are returned with rich usury from the grateful soil that has so unexpectedly received them, in shape of every green thing that the heart of (Egyptian) man or beast can desire. At intervals, all along the river, are to be seen little bowers, or sheds, like those that shelter the swans' nests upon the Thames, and under these the Arab and the buffalo are ceaselessly employed in irrigating the land. There are two species of water-engines, called the Shadoof and the Sakeeah; the former consists of a prop fixed in the earth, on which plays a long lever, with a leather bucket attached to one end, counterpoised at the other with a weight; the pumper lets down his leather bucket into a trench cut from the river, and, assisted by the counterpoise, lifts it up, and empties it into a trench some five or six feet of higher level. Thence it flows along a little canal, branching off into lesser ones among the crops. Sometimes, the level of the land is so high that there are three, or even four pumps and reservoirs, one over the other, each with its reservoir from which the Arab above pumps out. This is the most severe labour in Egypt, yet it is so associated with ideas of home, and perhaps of prosperity, that it is the burden of many of their national songs. The exile and the soldier (terms synonymous in Egypt) use this word as we might do "our hearths:" notwithstanding its poetry, however, no man can endure it for |