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A Thousand Miles up the Nile Preface to the First and Second Editions · The Amelia B. Edwards Library

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  Speaker 1: A THOUSAND MILES UP THE Nile by Amelia B. Edwards.
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  Speaker 1: PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION First published in 1877, this
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  Speaker 1: book has been out of print for several years. I
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  Speaker 1: have therefore very gladly revised it for a new and
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  Speaker 1: cheaper edition. In so revising it, I have corrected some
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  Speaker 1: of the historical notes by the light of later discoveries,
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  Speaker 1: but I have left the narrative untouched. Of the political
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  Speaker 1: changes which have come over the land of Egypt since
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  Speaker 1: that narrative was written, I have taken no note, and
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  Speaker 1: because I in no sense offer myself as a guide
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  Speaker 1: to others, I say nothing of the altered conditions under
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  Speaker 1: which most Nile travelers now perform the trip. All these
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  Speaker 1: things will be more satisfactorily and more practically learned from
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  Speaker 1: the pages of Baedeker and Murray. Amelia B. Edwards, Westbury-on-Trim,
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  Speaker 1: October 1888 Preface to the First Edition Un voyage en
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  Speaker 1: Egypt c'est un parti dans une promenade, un bateau, entre
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  Speaker 1: mes lèvres de ruines. Ampère Ampère has put Egypt in
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  Speaker 1: an epigramme. A donkey ride and a boating trip, interspersed
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  Speaker 1: with ruins, does, in fact, sum up in a single
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  Speaker 1: line the whole experience of the Nile traveller. Apropos of
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  Speaker 1: these three things, the donkeys, the boat, and the ruins,
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  Speaker 1: it may be said that a good English saddle and
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  Speaker 1: a comfortable dahabiya add very considerably to the pleasure of
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  Speaker 1: the journey, and that the more one knows about the
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  Speaker 1: past history of the country, the more one enjoys the ruins.
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  Speaker 1: Of the comparative merits of wooden boats, iron boats, and steamers,
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  Speaker 1: I am not qualified to speak. We, however, saw one
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  Speaker 1: iron dahabiya aground upon a sandbank, where, as we afterwards learned,
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  Speaker 1: it remained for three weeks. We also saw the wrecks
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  Speaker 1: of three steamers between Cairo and the first cataract. It
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  Speaker 1: certainly seemed to us that the old-fashioned wooden dahabiya, flat-bottomed,
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  Speaker 1: drawing little water, light in hand, and easily pulled off
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  Speaker 1: when stuck, was the one vessel best constructed for the
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  Speaker 1: navigation of the Nile. Other considerations, as time and cost, are,
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  Speaker 1: of course, involved in this question. The choice between Dahabiyah
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  Speaker 1: and steamer is like the choice between traveling with post-horses
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  Speaker 1: and traveling by rail. The one is expensive, leisurely, delightful,
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  Speaker 1: the other is cheap, swift, and comparatively comfortless. Those who
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  Speaker 1: are content to snatch but a glimpse of the Nile
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  Speaker 1: will doubtless prefer the steamer. I may add that the
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  Speaker 1: whole cost of the filet, food, dragoman's wages, boat hire, cataract,
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  Speaker 1: everything included except wine, was about ten pounds per day.
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  Speaker 1: With regard to temperature we found it cool, even cold sometimes,
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  Speaker 1: in December and January, mild in February, very warm in
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  Speaker 1: March and April. The climate of Nubia is simply perfect.
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  Speaker 1: It never rains, and once past the limit of the
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  Speaker 1: tropic there is no morning or evening chill upon the air.
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  Speaker 1: Yet even in Nubia, and especially along the forty miles
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  Speaker 1: which divide Abu Simbel from Wadi Halfa, it is cold
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  Speaker 1: when the wind blows strongly from the north. Touching the
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  Speaker 1: title of this book, it may be objected that the
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  Speaker 1: distance from the port of Alexandria to the second cataract
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  Speaker 1: falls short of a thousand miles. It is, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: calculated at nine hundred and sixty-four and one-half miles. But
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  Speaker 1: from the rock of Abu Sir, five miles above Wadi Halfa,
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  Speaker 1: THE TRAVELER LOOKS OVER AN EXTENTIVE COUNTRY FAR EXCEEDING THE
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  Speaker 1: THIRTY OR THIRTY-FIVE MILES NECESSARY TO MAKE UP THE FULL
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  Speaker 1: TALE OF A THOUSAND. WE DISTINCTLY SAW FROM THIS POINT
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  Speaker 1: THE SUMMITS OF MOUNTAINS WHICH LIE ABOUT ONE HUNDRED AND
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  Speaker 1: FORTY-FIVE MILES TO THE SOUTHWARD OF WADI HALFA, AND WHICH
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  Speaker 1: LOOK DOWN UPON THE THIRD CATARACT. PERHAPS I OUGHT TO
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  Speaker 1: SAY SOMETHING IN ANSWER TO THE REPEATED INQUIRIES OF THOSE
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  Speaker 1: WHO LOOKED FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THIS VOLUME A YEAR AGO.
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  Speaker 1: I can, however, only repeat that the writer, instead of
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  Speaker 1: giving one year, has given two years to the work.
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  Speaker 1: To write rapidly about Egypt is impossible. The subject grows
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  Speaker 1: with the book, and with the knowledge one acquires by
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  Speaker 1: the way. It is, moreover, a subject beset with such
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  Speaker 1: obstacles as must impede even the swiftest pen, and to
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  Speaker 1: that swiftest pen I lay no claim. Moreover, the writer,
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  Speaker 1: who seeks to be accurate, has frequently to go for
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  Speaker 1: his facts, if not actually to original sources, which would
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  Speaker 1: be the texts themselves, at all events to translations and
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  Speaker 1: commentaries locked up in costly folios, or dispersed far and
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  Speaker 1: wide among the pages of scientific journals and the transactions
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  Speaker 1: of learned societies. A date, a name, a passing reference
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  Speaker 1: may cost hours of seeking. TO REVISE SO LARGE A
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  Speaker 1: NUMBER OF ILLUSTRATIONS, AND TO DESIGN TAIL-PIECES FROM JOTTINGS TAKEN
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  Speaker 1: HERE AND THERE IN THAT POCKET SKETCH-BOOK WHICH IS THE
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  Speaker 1: SKETCHER'S CONSTANT COMPANION, HAS ALSO CONSUMED NO SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME.
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  Speaker 1: THIS BY WAY OF APOLOGY. MORE PLEASANT IT IS TO
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  Speaker 1: REMEMBER LABOR LIGHTENED THAN TO CONSIDER TIME SPENT, AND I
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  Speaker 1: HAVE YET TO THANK THE FRIENDS WHO HAVE SPARED NO
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  Speaker 1: PAINS TO HELP THIS BOOK ON ITS WAY. to S. Birch, Esquire, L.L.D., etc., etc.,
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  Speaker 1: so justly styled the parent in this country of a
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  Speaker 1: sound school of Egyptian philology, who besides translating the hieratic
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  Speaker 1: and hieroglyphic inscriptions contained in Chapter 18, has also with
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  Speaker 1: infinite kindness seen the whole of that chapter through the press,
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  Speaker 1: to Reginald Stewart Poole, Esquire, to Professor R. Owen, C.B., etc., etc.,
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  Speaker 1: To Sir G. W. Cox I desire to offer my
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  Speaker 1: hearty and grateful acknowledgments. It is surely not least among
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  Speaker 1: the glories of learning that those who adorn it most
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  Speaker 1: and work hardest should ever be readiest to share the
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  Speaker 1: stores of their knowledge. I am anxious to express my
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  Speaker 1: cordial thanks to Mr. G. Pearson, under whose superintendence the
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  Speaker 1: whole of the illustrations have been engraved. To say that
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  Speaker 1: his patience and courtesy have been inexhaustible, and that he
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  Speaker 1: has spared neither time nor cost in the preparation of
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  Speaker 1: the blocks, is but a dry statement of facts, and
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  Speaker 1: conveys no idea of the kind of labor involved. Where
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  Speaker 1: engravings of this kind are executed, not from drawings made
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  Speaker 1: at first hand upon the wood, but from water-color drawings,
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  Speaker 1: which have not only to be reduced in size, but
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  Speaker 1: to be, as it were, translated into black and white,
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  Speaker 1: the difficulty of the work is largely increased. In order
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  Speaker 1: to meet this difficulty, and to ensure accuracy, Mr. Pearson
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  Speaker 1: has not only called in the services of an accomplished draftsman,
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  Speaker 1: but in many instances has even photographed the subjects direct
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  Speaker 1: upon the wood. Of the engraver's work, which speaks for itself,
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  Speaker 1: I will only say that I do not know in
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  Speaker 1: what way it could be bettered. It seems to me
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  Speaker 1: that some of these blocks may stand for examples of
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  Speaker 1: the farthest point to which the art of engraving upon
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  Speaker 1: wood has yet been carried. The principal illustrations have all
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  Speaker 1: been drawn upon the wood by Mr. Percival Skelton. and
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  Speaker 1: no one so fully as myself can appreciate how much
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  Speaker 1: the subjects owe to the delicacy of his pencil and
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  Speaker 1: to the artistic feelings with which he has interpreted the
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  Speaker 1: original drawings. Of the fascination of Egyptian travel and of
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  Speaker 1: the charm of the Nile, of the unexpected and surpassing
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  Speaker 1: beauty of the desert, of the ruins which are the
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  Speaker 1: wonder of the world, I have said enough elsewhere. I must, however,
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  Speaker 1: add that I brought home with me an impression that
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  Speaker 1: things and people are much less changed in Egypt than
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  Speaker 1: we of the present day are wont to suppose. I
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  Speaker 1: believe that the physique and life of the modern fella
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  Speaker 1: is almost identical with the physique and life of that
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  Speaker 1: ancient Egyptian laborer whom we know so well in the
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  Speaker 1: wall paintings of the tombs. Square in the shoulders, slight
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  Speaker 1: but strong in the limbs, full-lipped, brown-skinned, we see him
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  Speaker 1: wearing the same loincloth, plying the same shadouf, plowing with
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  Speaker 1: the same plow, preparing the same food in the same way,
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  Speaker 1: and eating it with his fingers from the same bowl
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  Speaker 1: as did his forefathers of six thousand years ago. The
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  Speaker 1: household life and social ways of even the provincial gentry
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  Speaker 1: are little changed. Water is poured on one's hands before
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  Speaker 1: going to dinner from just such an ewer and into
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  Speaker 1: just such a basin as we see pictured in the
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  Speaker 1: festival scenes at Thebes. Though the lotus blossom is missing,
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  Speaker 1: a bouquet is still given to each guest when he
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  Speaker 1: takes his place at table. The head of the sheep
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  Speaker 1: killed for the banquet is still given to the poor.
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  Speaker 1: Those who are helped to meet or drink touch the
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  Speaker 1: head and breast in acknowledgment as of old. The musicians
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  Speaker 1: still sit at the lower end of the hall. The
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  Speaker 1: singers yet clap their hands in time to their own voices.
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  Speaker 1: The dancing girl still danced, and the buffoon in his
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  Speaker 1: high cap still performs uncouth antics for the entertainment of
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  Speaker 1: the guests. WATER IS BROUGHT TO TABLE IN JARS OF
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  Speaker 1: THE SAME SHAPE MANUFACTURED AT THE SAME TOWN AS IN
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  Speaker 1: THE DAYS OF CHEOPS AND KEFRIN, AND THE MOUTHS OF
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  Speaker 1: THE BOTTLES ARE FILLED IN PRECISELY THE SAME WAY WITH
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  Speaker 1: FRESH LEAVES AND FLOWERS. THE CUCUMBER STUFFED WITH MINCE-MEAT WAS
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  Speaker 1: A FAVORITE DISH IN THOSE TIMES OF OLD, AND I
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  Speaker 1: CAN TESTIFY TO ITS EXISTENCE IN 1874. Little boys in
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  Speaker 1: Nubia yet wear the side-lock that graced the head of
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  Speaker 1: Ramses in his youth, and little girls may be seen
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  Speaker 1: in a garment closely resembling the girdle worn by young
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  Speaker 1: princesses of the time of Thutmose I. A sheikh still
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  Speaker 1: walks with a long staff, a Nubian bell still plates
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  Speaker 1: her tresses in scores of little tails, and the pleasure-boat
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  Speaker 1: of the modern governor or mutter, as well as the
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  Speaker 1: dahabiyah hired by the European traveller, reproduces in all essential
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  Speaker 1: features the painted galleys represented in the tombs of the kings.
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  Speaker 1: In these and in a hundred other instances, all of
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  Speaker 1: which came under my personal observation and have their place
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  Speaker 1: in the following pages, it seemed to me that any
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  Speaker 1: obscurity which yet hangs over the problem of life and
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  Speaker 1: thought in ancient Egypt originates most probably with ourselves. Our
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  Speaker 1: own habits of life and thought are so complex that
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  Speaker 1: they shut us off from the simplicity of that early world.
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  Speaker 1: So it was with the problem of hieroglyphic writing. The
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  Speaker 1: thing was so obvious that no one could find it out.
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  Speaker 1: As long as the world persisted in believing that every
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  Speaker 1: hieroglyph was an abstruse symbol, and every hieroglyphic inscription a
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  Speaker 1: profound philosophical rebus, the mystery of Egyptian literature remained insoluble.
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  Speaker 1: Then at last came Champollion's famous letter to Dossier, showing
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  Speaker 1: that the hieroglyphic signs were mainly alphabetic and syllabic. and
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  Speaker 1: that the language they spelt was only Coptic, after all.
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  Speaker 1: If there were not thousands who still conceived that the
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  Speaker 1: sun and moon were created, and are kept going, for
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  Speaker 1: no other purpose than to lighten the darkness of our
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  Speaker 1: little planet, if only the other day a grave gentleman
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  Speaker 1: had not written a perfectly serious essay to show that
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  Speaker 1: the world is a flat plain, one would scarcely believe
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  Speaker 1: that there could still be people who doubt that ancient
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  Speaker 1: Egyptian is now read and translated as fluently as ancient Greek.
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  Speaker 1: Yet an Englishman whom I met in Egypt, an Englishman
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  Speaker 1: who had long been resident in Cairo, and who was
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  Speaker 1: well acquainted with the great Egyptologists who are attached to
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  Speaker 1: the service of the Khedive, assured me of his profound
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  Speaker 1: disbelief in the discovery of Champollion.' In my opinion,' said he,'
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  Speaker 1: not one of these gentlemen can read a line of hieroglyphics.'
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  Speaker 1: As I then knew nothing of Egyptian, I could say
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  Speaker 1: nothing to controvert his speech. Since that time, however, and
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  Speaker 1: while writing this book, I have been led on step
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  Speaker 1: by step to the study of hieroglyphic writing, and I
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  Speaker 1: now know that Egyptian can be read for the simple
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  Speaker 1: reason that I find myself able to read an Egyptian sentence.
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  Speaker 1: My testimony may not be of much value, but I
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  Speaker 1: give it for the little that it is worth. The
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  Speaker 1: study of Egyptian literature has advanced of late years with
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  Speaker 1: rapid strides. Papyri are found less frequently than they were
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  Speaker 1: some thirty or forty years ago, but the translation of
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  Speaker 1: those contained in the museums of Europe goes on now
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  Speaker 1: more diligently than at any former time. Religious books, variants
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  Speaker 1: of the ritual, moral essays, maxims, private letters, hymns, epic poems,
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  Speaker 1: historical chronicles, accounts, deeds of sale, medical, magical, and astronomical treatises,
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  Speaker 1: geographical records, travels, and even romances and tales are brought
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  Speaker 1: to light, photographed, facsimile'd in chromolithography, printed in hieroglyphic type,
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  Speaker 1: and translated in forms suited both to the learned and
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  Speaker 1: to the general reader. Not all this literature is written, however,
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  Speaker 1: on papyrus. The greater proportion of it is carved in stone.
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  Speaker 1: Some is painted on wood, written on linen, leather, potsherds,
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  Speaker 1: and other substances. So the old mystery of Egypt, which
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  Speaker 1: was her literature, has vanished. THE KEY TO THE HYROGLIFTS
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  Speaker 1: IS THE MASTER KEY THAT OPENS EVERY DOOR. EACH YEAR
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  Speaker 1: THAT NOW PASSES OVER OUR HEADS SEES SOME OLD PROBLEM SOLVED.
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  Speaker 1: EACH DAY BRINGS SOME LONG-BURIED TRUTH TO LIGHT. SOME THIRTEEN
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  Speaker 1: YEARS AGO A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN ARTIST PAINTED A VERY BEAUTIFUL
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  Speaker 1: PICTURE CALLED THE SECRET OF THE SPHINX. IN ITS WIDEST
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  Speaker 1: SENSE THE SECRET OF THE SPHINX WOULD MEAN, I SUPPOSE,
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  Speaker 1: THE WHOLE UNINTERPRETED AND UNDISCOVERED PAST OF EGYPT. In its
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  Speaker 1: narrower sense, the secret of the Sphinx was, till quite lately,
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  Speaker 1: the hidden significance of the human-headed lion, which is one
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  Speaker 1: of the typical subjects of Egyptian art. Thirteen years is
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  Speaker 1: a short time to look back upon, yet great things
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  Speaker 1: have been done in Egypt and in Egyptology since then. Edfu,
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  Speaker 1: with its extraordinary wealth of inscriptions, has been laid bare.
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  Speaker 1: The whole contents of the Bulak Museum have been recovered
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  Speaker 1: from the darkness of the tombs, The very mystery of
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  Speaker 1: the Sphinx has been disclosed, and even within the last
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  Speaker 1: eighteen months, Monsieur Chabas announces that he has discovered the
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  Speaker 1: date of the pyramid of Mycerinus, so for the first
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  Speaker 1: time establishing the chronology of ancient Egypt upon an ascertained foundation.
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  Speaker 1: Thus the work goes on, students in their libraries, excavators
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  Speaker 1: under Egyptian skies, toiling along different paths towards a common goal.
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  Speaker 1: The picture means more today than it meant thirteen years ago,
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  Speaker 1: means more even than the artist intended. The Sphinx has
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  Speaker 1: no secret now, save for the ignorant. In this picture
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  Speaker 1: we see a brown, half-naked, toil-worn fella laying his ear
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  Speaker 1: to the stone lips of a colossal Sphinx, buried to
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  Speaker 1: the neck in sand. Some instinct of the old Egyptian
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  Speaker 1: blood tells him that the creature is godlike. HE IS
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  Speaker 1: CONSCIOUS OF A GREAT MYSTERY LYING FAR BACK IN THE PAST.
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  Speaker 1: HE HAS, PERHAPS, A DIM, CONFUSED NOTION THAT THE BIG
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  Speaker 1: HEAD KNOWS IT ALL, WHATEVER IT MAY BE. HE HAS
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  Speaker 1: NEVER HEARD OF THE MORNING SONG OF MEMNON, BUT HE
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  Speaker 1: FANCIES SOMEHOW THAT THOSE CLOSED LIPS MIGHT SPEAK IF QUESTIONED.
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  Speaker 1: FELLA AND SPHYNX ARE ALONE TOGETHER IN THE DESERT. IT
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  Speaker 1: IS NIGHT AND THE STARS ARE SHINING. HAS HE CHOSEN
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  Speaker 1: THE RIGHT HOUR? WHAT DOES HE SEEK TO KNOW? What
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  Speaker 1: does he hope to hear? Mr. Vetter has permitted me
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  Speaker 1: to enrich this book with an engraving from his picture.
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  Speaker 1: It tells its own tale, or rather, it tells as
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  Speaker 1: much of its own tale as the artist chooses. Each
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  Speaker 1: must interpret for himself the secret of the Sphinx.