Up the Nile, and home again. A handbook for travellers and a travel-book for the library. (1862) (14577335480)

Identifier: upnilehomeagainh00fair (find matches)
Title: Up the Nile, and home again. A handbook for travellers and a travel-book for the library.
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Fairholt, F. W. (Frederick William), 1814-1866
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



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eatedly turned over, and subjected to the processtill they become almost as hard as ship biscuit; thisprevents them from getting musty; and as they areeaten after being soaked in hot water and made intoa pottage with red lentils, the whole thing becomesa sort of pasty mass. It is turned into an immensewooden bowl placed on the deck, round which thecrew sit, each man, captain included, thrusting hishand into the mass, and lifting to his mouth as muchas he can carry. It has been the favourite food ofthe poorer classes in Egypt and Palestine from theearliest time, and is believed to have formed theingredients of the mess of pottage for whichEsau sold his birthright. It is nourishing, but notso much so as beans or wheat. We eat it in Eng-land, but under another name, at a very greatlyincreased price, as a panacea for all kinds of diseases,under the name of Revalenta Arabica. TheEnglish delight in physic, and they may well rejoiceat this, for it has at least one great advantage over PI. VI
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MINTEH TO SIOUT. 129 many other popular cures—it cannot possibly doany harm. It is worth the strangers while before he entersthe dusty streets of the town to linger at the landing-place and look around. A Sheikhs tomb, em-bowered by the branches of an old plane-tree, is apicturesque feature in the scene. The houses withtheir trellissed balconies overhanging the river, thetemporary coffee-shops, sometimes a mere shelter ofreeds, or a tent after the Arab fashion, combine withthe boats, the people, the broad river, and the boldcliffs on the opposite bank, in forming a scene asstriking as any we shall meet on the journey. Likeall Oriental cities, the romance is dispelled when therealities of the place are examined. It is but a great,dusty, dirty town ; the streets merely lanes betweenmud houses. There are some few exceptions, wherethey put on a more ambitious character, and u exalttheir gates with a framework of elaborately sculp-tured stones, as in Cairo. In the older part ofthe town c