Show LETTER FROM EGYPT presuming that news from these parts will prove welcome to the columns of your valuable journal I 1 will herein describe some of the futures features of modern egypt cairo is a large and interesting town containing a strange medley of truly modern luxuries comfort and grandeur and primitive oriental and nubian customs and tropical tro P plants all over here complete with the warm sun the full ideal of the orient I 1 am sitting under an immense wigwam made of reeds or canes each eighteen inches or more in circumference and furnished with tables chairs hs for smoking while waiters to serve coffee also stand about here near by is the bridge of kaar el nil spanning the nile N ile it is open now so that boats may pass up and down the river iver K thus causing a crush among the would be passengers both human and animal it is hard to describe the appearance of this crowd which comprises peddlers ped lers dancing men singing women and wd musicians and likewise scores of camels camele standing and squatting about making wonderful belch ings and thunder like noises when drawing up water from their first or reception stomach and sending it back into another to mix it with food undergoing the process of digestion besides the plaintive braying of hundreds of donkeys adds strange melody to the yelping of water sellers and the guttural wrangling of vendors and buyers of the various goods the country all around is green and pleasant the only exception worthy of note is eight or ten miles fro from inhere here there is to be fou nd the real glittering and not yellow sand of the sahara desert from this spot for hundreds and hundreds of miles it is all sand and heat a real desert not like that which we in the west term a desert but a positive land of desolation on the edge of the desert here are the pyramids of these standing on the top of the greatest I 1 counted fourteen scattered about in addition to several sphinxes one only of the latter seems to be of real interest it is variously called choops Shoo foo etc or simply el haram hamm the Pyra pyramid inid it is q quite alte as interests Inte interesting resti ng as it is ex penal pensive ve and difficult to explore I 1 will not describe it this has already been done by so many that I 1 will only refer to a few authors whose works are easy of access to the ordinary reader richard A proctor dr seles piazza smythe john baylor taylor maspero george reynolds joseph barfoot and robert smith the only positively incorrect item that I 1 have noticed in the statements of any of the above is that the pyramids contain no hieroglyphics beyond two insignificant ones bearing tahe the name 0 of choops and his bro brother whereas in fact on one of the immense blocks forming half of f the arch of the northern passage is is a large and beautiful inscription almost square having eleven columns of characters possibly by assuming that this has lately been uncovered for many rocks appear to have been lately displaced we could account for the discrepancy referred to I 1 did not copy the inscription as it will probably be done by others more capable and interested es and given to the world soon L little by little we shall probably have the history and know the full object intended to be perpetuated in this wonder the ascent is exceedingly difficult among the thousands of signatures and monograms mono grams I 1 saw aa P 0 VV 1862 69 11 perhaps being that of the prince of wales it has often been said that egypt is the gift of the nile it is hard to understand this but I 1 will explain it as I 1 would have liked many a time to have had it explained to me presumably 1000 miles or more upstream up stream heavy rains fall in their season gradually first increasingly crea singly the river swells with muddy waters egypt is a vast plain or river bed if the nile were allowed to overflow as it ordinarily would the modern built villages would crumble and the inhabitants drown therefore immense dikes or bulwarks bulwa of earth are am thrown up all along the nile higher than the river ever rises at high water time all and even the remotest vil ages a contingent of men and boys to keep watch along the river so as to guard against any breach that may occur in in the wan or levee and women to cook for them if any part of this wall shows signs of giving way a shout about of alarm goes along along the whole line hundreds of men rush with camels and asses bearing rocks even the women carrying to repair it baskets of earth on their heads while other gangs cast u up another embankment kment behind A break break of this sort means death to the whole district during the rise of the nile all the water that it is possible to draw off is let into large reservoirs canals and cisterns then the plowing ih bana ans and the slime deposited by the river is collected and scattered on the land instead of manure it is wonderfully rich ri ch a and nd the only y fertilizer fertilize r used here then the higher tanks of reserve water are tapped therein and let into small channels and irrigating ditches later on when this is used the lower reservoirs are resorted to and last of all to draw up the lowest waters in the cisterns pools hollows etc the following devices are used A small ditch leads the water underground 10 a huge wooden wheel up i which are tied earthen jars or wooden boxes this wheel is made to turn by wooden pegs or cogs tied firmly or nailed to an upright revolving axle tree As the wheel turns the he pots dip up tip the water and cast it out six or seven feet higher this for a level country will carry the water for many miles sometimes for what in utah would be called a one horse ranch the water is carried by men or ra mules tiles in goats hides the fellahin are the agriculture ests their villages are built of adobe and cows dung mixed any one of these towns looks precisely like the old indian settlements in new mexico such as fernando fernaddo de taos isleta pueblo colorado zuni and the indian settlements near utah the only difference in ap appearance nee is in in favor vor 0 of the e indian villages vi es the windows are merely holes in the wall which if desired to be closed are blocked with rock and some rags the cow dung is worked into a mortar with old straw and other matter and patted ted into cakes that axe are slapped on to the walls and roof when dry they scale off and form firewood similar to prairie ral ri e chips the people live eat J and drink in a primitive manner i 1 nave not seen even one hunchback and only two cr cripples lea in all egypt probably Pro probably batly this is tue due to their houses being mostly in the country exclusively only the ground floor there is no BO first storey and ladders are of necessity almost unknown thus infants and young children never become deformed by a fall as is the case among the more civilized on the other hand three or more out of ten are partly blind from ophthalmic or cataract of the eye dim sighted or dreadfully sore eyed as I 1 have noticed in the west indies mexico and south america among those I 1 inhabitants who sleep on the ground and drink muddy water this remark applies likewise to old timers in this country or in t those hose I 1 have mentioned who althou although h foreigners have conformed to t the re native mode of life of the real cause however I 1 may be ignorant the best dressed ladies ride on awes asses here white ones are considered the choicest sometimes horses are used but these are not as If fashionable the ladles ladies dress in silk cover their faces and ride astraddle like men but they draw their feet up under the dress and for this purpose the stirrups are placed high up at the donkeys sides A driver runs on foot behind ani an i perchance a negro eunuch to guard the person sometimes too a little servant mald maid follows camels are also used much but only for excursions etc enclosed you will find a small fragment of mummy wrapping wrap wrapping pint it is very delicate and fri friable abre I 1 dug among the many graves between the pyramids and found that and some fragments of bones funereal images etc coins and various objects are likewise to be discovered I 1 secured some that I 1 will forward to utah as aa soon as I 1 find out the most convenient way of transmitting them though they are of no great archaeological value perhaps the coins are roman and greek proving the graves to be not older than or B C I 1 leave soda rodn for my field to meet brothers and hintze C U L CAIRO egypt february 5 1889 |