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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1907)
if : .... 7T n:JmM""Hj' ' Frank G Carpenter Tells of ' . . . ; . jfi'T I Nubia, the Golden, Now a Long, Narrow " k I ' . '.' I Fertile Strip in cf Desert I TftEV CPTAMS JS Jl G-EKfTAAT PV&O SPEAKS BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. FOR the past two days I have been steaming up the Nile, above Egypt, through one of the oldest lands of the globe. I have been traveling through the country which belonged to Noah's grandson, Cush, and which, in later days, was known to the Greeks and Romans as Ethiopa. The Egyptians called it Nubia, from their word noub, which means gold, and it is known that a large part of the gold of ancient times Carrie from it. There are miners working It today.' It has been recently parceled out by the government to three English syn dicates, with capitals ranging from a quarter of a million dollars to one million and a half dollars, and one of these com panies, known as the Soudan Goldfteid, Limited, has already sunk three shafts in the ancient working's of Om Nabardi and is now building a railroad to connect them with the, government line which crosses the desert from Wady Haifa to Abu Hamid. Ancfent Nubia. Anicent Nubia had a considerable popu lation, and it was noted for its riches and power. It was something of a country at about the time the pyramids were built and in the most prosperous days of old Egypt ft had large towns and magnificent temples dedicated to the worship of the Egyptian gods. On my way here I passed Abu Slmbel, a great temple on the banks of the Nile, which was cut -out of the rocks by Rameses II, the Pharaoh who oppressed the Egyptians and would not let them go; and a little further down the river lies the Temple of the Lions, where that same old king himself was wor shiped as a god. Nnbla was tributary to the Pharoahs Until 1100 B. C. It then, became inde pendent, and later still its armies over ran Egypt and conquered it. As other nations came into the lower part of the Nile valley they sent armies against the Nubians, only to be driven back, and at the time the Romans entered Egypt the country was ruled by a succession of queens named Candace, one of whom made war upon Rome. Shortly after Christ, the people adopted Christianity, and later, when the Mohammedans took possession of Egypt and the Upper Nile valley, they were converted to Moham medanism. They are still followers of the prophet, and they formed some of the boldest soldiers of the Mahdl In his recent war against the forces of Egypt and England. A land with such a history ought to be a rich one. The Nuhla of today Is about as barren as any country on earth. With the exception of a narrow strip along the Nine, it is altogether desert. It begins in the sands of Libya and goes for several hundred miles eastward to the Red Sea, and It, is only In a few places that the soil has enough moisture to furnish a scanty pasturage for camels and sheep. The bulk of the desert population is made up of BIsharin Bedouins, who live In tents of matting and move about with their fiockp from place to place. Each tribe has a certain number of wells, and their water is the principal part of its visible wealth. During -the past few years the English officials of the Soudan have lo cated these wells, and they have now In formation as to their depth and the qual ity and flow of the water. The govern ment has also sunk some wells and has found water at about 100 feet. The Nubia of today Is a part of the Upper Nile Valley. If you will imagine a cultivated strip, about a quarter of a mile wide, winding its way like a snake from north to south as far as from New York City to Detroit, and embracing both sides of a river as large as the Missis sippi, you may have some Idea of this country. You must not think that the cultivated strip has any regularity of width. In some places the desert comes close to the river and In others the stream is walled with black, rocky hills, which rise, almost straight up, a thousand feet above it. Farther on may be yellow sand, spotted with black rocks which show signs of volcanic origin, and farther still a low bend In the river where the water can be conducted out over tne sands and make a cultivated patch three miles In width. In no place can you get out of sight of the desert. There are always rocks and sand on the other side of the green, and generally only a thin strip of green, with the bleak, bare desert reach ing out beyond the horizon. Irrigation in Nubia. The Valley of the Nile here is narrow to an extreme. The river has cut Its way' through the rocks, and is so walled with hills that its waters have to bo lifted in order to flow over any level place what soever. This is done chiefly by sakeyehs, of which there are something like 4000 on the Nubian Nile. The great wheels, mov ing In cogs, can be seen, here and there, high up on the banks, with their strings of buckets hanging to them. As the buck ets descend each dips into tne water and carries to the top a few quarts. In some places men raise the water In baskets or buckets, and in others they carry it up by hand and water little patches 20 or 30 feet wide, where the river slopes at such an angle that this can be done. Every low place in the river is used, and, as the Nile fails, the sand banks and islands are planted. "Wherever there lsatrip of cultivated land a village of huts, made of mud and stones, has grown up, and such villages spot the banks for hundreds of miles. At times there will be no green except be tween them and the river, and one won ders how men can be born and live and die there. Nevertheless there are more than 100.000 people to whom this region is the center of the earth. I understand that this Nile strip Is very fertile. The government officials tell me that It raises excellent cotton, and that a movement la under way to open up cot ton plantations wherever there is a big enough block of land for the purpose. At present the chief crops are wheat, barley and millet, and the chief fruit is dates. The date trees thrive, and the fruit is sweeter and larger than that grown far ther down the Nile Valley. One sees date palms almost everywhere along the banks. The government looks upon them as a source of revenue, and taxes them at the rate of 10 cents per tree. On a Government Steamer. The Ibis, on which I have been travel ing, is one of the little steamers of the Soudan government which goes twice a week from Shellai, Just above the As souan dam, to Wady ilalfa, where the railroad across the desert begins. The ship is a sternwheeler, much like those on our rivers. It la about 20 feet wide; 150 feet long and It draws only six inches. We make about six miles per hour, and our pilot, a dark-faced, short-bearded Nu bian in turban and gown, winds his way from one side of the river to the other as we go on up the stream. We fly the Egyptian and Soudanese flags, but the- steamer belongs to the government of Soudan, and that means It Is English. The captain, however. Is a German, and the rest of the crew are Nubians, most of whom are as black as your hat. The captain speaks German, French, English and Arabic He at tends to everything connected with the steamer, even to the meals, seeing that the passengers are properly served. Our waiters are black-faced Nubians, in long white gowns, belted at the waist by sashes of bright red. They wear white turbans, and their feet are either bare or clad In red slippers. I find the steamer comfortable and the company agreeable. Tne boat has two decks. On the lower one are 30 cabins and the dining-room, where our meals are served table d'hote. Over the upper an awning is stretched, so that we can sit out and watch the scenery as we go up the river. Our party consists of several commer cial travelers, who are bound for the Soudan and Central Africa to. sell or buy goods; two missionaries who are going up the Sobat River; a capitalist, largely Interested Jn land development enter prises about Khartoum, and of people THE STTNDAT OREGOXIAX. PORTLAND. NOVEMBER 3. 1907. who are on their way to the Blue Nile to hunt big game. Among the latter are a German Baron and his wife and several British army officers from India, who are spending their leave In this way. Most of our party appears In evening clothes at dinner, although we are far away In the wilds of Nubia, with nothing but desert on each side. Our meals are served in courses, with a half dozen changes of plates, knives and forks, and we have napkins. How On Suffers in the Desert of Nubia. Indeed,' it may interest you to know just how one suffers out here in the Desert of Nubia. I will give you the bill of fare for one day. At 7 this morning, while I was yet In bed, my black boy ap peared and handed me a cup of hot tea, with two sweet crackers on each side of the saucer. At 8 o'clock the bell rang for breakfast in the dining-room. The meal was as follows: Fried fish, fresn from the Nile; bacon and eggs, bread and butter and jam, with tea or coffee to order. At 1 o'clock came luncheon, consisting of rice, giblets, chicken, mut ton chops and fruit, with bread and bat ter and cheese. Coffee, of course. At 8 o'clock we had dinner, and the menu was as follows: First, an excellent soup, then boiled fish just out of the Nile, fol lowed ..by a compot of pigeons, roast lamb and mint sauce, with potatoes and string beans. Then there was a course" of tomato salad, and after that a pudding and fruit. All this was eaten about as far above the Mediterranean Sea as Omaha is above New Orleans, and the meals were served well. The charge tor the food alone is $2 per day, and the fare without food for the two days' trip is 325. I do not find travel in Africa at all cheap. " If one travels along the Nile he must expect to spend 310 or 315 a day, the cost increasing as he goes up the river. My trip from Shellai to Khartoum and back by rail and steamer, not very much longer than from New York to Chicago, will be 3115, or about 6 cents per mile, and I shall doubtless have to pay at Khartoum a hotel rate of at least 35 per day. Almost every good hotel in Egypt charges that much, and the ex tras are proportionately high. If one attempts to travel economically he must expect many discomforts. On this boat first-class passengers only are carried. We have some second and third class passengers, but they live not on the steamer, but on a low barge, which we tow along by our side. This barge has a flat deck of rough boards, covered by a roof. The people upon It carry their own bedding and lay it down on the boards. They must supply their own food, and, as 'the servants of the first-class passen gers and natives, who are none too clean, go in that way, the .company Is not overly desirable. Besides it Is very cold after dark, and those who sleep on the decks have the desert breezes blowing over them all night long. It is codier here than In Egypt, although we are nearer the equator. I have a woolen blanket on my bed, and on top of that a heavy trav eling rug, and still am none too warm. In the early morning I wear an overcoat when on deck, although at noon It Is so hot out of the breeze that I would fain take off my flesh and sit in my bones. The Plague of the Flies. Sailing up the Nubian Nile we are al most free from flies, such as are found by the millions in Egypt, but Nubia has a little fly of its own which Is almost un bearable. This Is known as the Nlmetta, a small midge, which appears in count less myriads during the Winter season. Its bite causes a slight fever, and the natives sometimes wear bunches of smol dering grass twisted about their heads to keep It away. As to the flies of Egypt, they are prob ably the descendants of those which the Lord sent in to afflict Pharoah when he woald not let the children-of Israel go. They look not unlike the common fly of our country, but are more bold and hun gry. Their feet stick to one as though they were glued, and they will not move until brushed off. Their favorite feeding place seems to be on one's eyes, and the Egyptian peasants have become so used to them that they let them feed at will. This Is especially so of the children, a common sight being a child with its eyes so fringed with flies that It seems to have double eyelashes. The flies cover the meat in the markets, they roost on the buffaloes, camels and donkeys, and they attack the tourist to such an extent that the selling of fly brushes has become an Egyptian industry. The brushes are tassel-like affairs with long strings similar to the hairs of a horse's tail. Every one knows that flies carry dis ease, . and many of the troubles ofthe Egyptians of today are due to them. This is especially so of ophthalmia. There are blind people everywhere, and one-eyed men . and women are common. Diseases of the eye are so universal that one of the charitable features of Lower Egypt is a company of traveling eye doctors. These men are supported by a rich Eng lishman, who has given a fund for the purpose. The doctors go from village to village, carrying their tents with them. As they enter a town the word goes out that the poor will be treated without charge, and crowds come to their tents to have their eyes examined and cured. They remain In one town for a month or Bandit Moors' Ideal Raisouli Who Combines Traits That Tribesmen Worship. are many strange stories In the "Arabian Knights," but I doubt if any one of them Is half so strange as the stories of the prince of the blood royal whom the Times dubbed "the brigand Raisouli." No teller of stories In the Sok could imagine anything so wonderful nay, not even the career of El Menhebbl, son of the keeper of cows, is half so fascinating or half bo Improbable. Mulal Hummet may smile, as the head lines of the newspaper articles con cerning hlra are translated by his scribe. But I doubt If his enemies would enjoy that smile even while they know him outlawed and with a price upor, his handsome head because Mulal Hummet has been outlawed be fore, and he did not forget friend or enemy. His kallfa, In a moment of temporary oblivion of the past, be trayed his master, and his bones lie In a shallow grave above the Sok another of his officials, All, has taken service under the new governor; but he shivers In the sun betimes, for he remembers much, and Mulal Hummet forgets nothing. Much talk Is being made of his treachery In taking Kald Maclean; but he Is in Morocco, where men meet treachery with treachery; and that la what Mulal Humme.t Imagines himself to have done. The Sultan sent Kald Sir Harry Maclean to him with a par don and an Invitation to Fez, there to be reconciled to his ruler and kinsman". But Mulal Hummet's nephew had been to Fez,, and brought news in addition to this. True, he was to be pardoned, and to be reconciled to the Sultan; but he was Immediately afterward to be cast Into prison, and there would be small chance of ever seeing, the light again. Mere gossip, as like as not, and In any case Sir Harry would not have been party to it, but, with this In his mind, he lured the kald to his fastness In the hills and took him prisoner. Sir Harry was a winning card In the game; he had played it before, and knew. Only those who have lived in Moroc co can believe the incredible duplicity that permeates all political dealings. According to the Sultan's tenets, this plan, if It be true, was a perfectly le gitimate one. According to Raisoull's mind, his is a perfectly legitimate move also. In Morocco a man's word has no value, his bond does not bind longer than he so wishes it. The deal ings between Raisouli and his lord would make the most shameless Eng lishman blush, but neither Raisouli nor the Emperor see anything to be ashamed of In them. Once the rebel was safe within the crennellated walls of Fez he would re bel no more. Abdel-el-Azlz would see to that. Now that Raisouli has In his hands the Sultan's most valued friend and adviser, "Only God knoweth," as the Moors say. But Raisouli will not go to Fez. He has been in prison before. When so, and during this time the poor are at tended to without money and without price. I am told the institution -does great good. The port of Shellai, where I took the steamer for Wady Haifa, Is just opposite the Island of Fhllae, and during my stay there I rowed over and took photographs of the ruined temples as they have been more or less affected by the backing up of the water from the Assouan dam. Now that the dam is to be built 15 feet higher, the most of the temples will be drowned when the reservoir Is full, and the-probability Is that they will soon pass away. When the dam was first proposed a great outcry came from the savants and ar cheologlsts of the world on account of the Injury that It would do to Philae. but the material results have been so valuable to Egypt that the dam is to be raised re gardless of the preservation of these an cient ruins. Something like 3100,000 was spent In fortifying the old structures dur ing the building of the dam, and it is the Moors sit talking in the Sok they often recall that fact. He would never have Come out had he been other than himself. Such men as Raisouli are not common in Morocco. He is of royal blood, handsome, young (he is not yet 40, I think), splendidly resourceful, and courageous, a fervent and ortho dox Mohammedan, and possessing an Im pressive and magnetic personality Ir resistible to the Moorish mind. In him are combined two things the Moor loves religion and romance. They do not forget thai if his turn came he is entitled by birth to sit under the para sol and rule Morocco. His has been a long game with my lord the Sultan or, let us say, rather, with those who govern him for in his heart the Sultan has, I understand, a great admiration for his Irrepressible kinsman. It began many years ago when Raisouli was Kail of A'Brleze. opposite the Akbar Hamra. The ma hala, the Sultan's army, camped before it, .and did great wrong on his people. They outraged the women, looted the houses, stole the cattle,, killed the sheep and stole all other things they could lay hands on, finally atrociously mur dering an uncle of Raisoull's not far from his dwelling. In vain' did the Kald petition the government against his army those who advised the Sul tan probably saw to It that no voice ever reached him from A'Brleze;" Rai souli cried out into void and no ansfwer ever came. This was humiliation Incredible to the haughty Moorish Prince. , He had a right to be heard was he riot royal himself? And his people were dear to him their sufferings drove him mad. Perhaps the bitterness of death was already over in this man's mind when all the Injustices he had endured at length became intolerable, and he went out In rebellion against his lord, was outlawed, and took to the heather with a price on his head; and instantly was a hero In the eyes of the Moors, and almost a saint. Was he not fighting for the people, for justice against op pressions and the tax-gatherer with his exorbitant demands, for wrongs to women arid men; and against a lord who dealt in forbidden arts, who bought carriages that went by magic, djinn that spoke from great trumpets, who made Images of his household by the assistance of Satan, and who wrung great sums from the country to waste them on Nazrlnl, who taught him evil, on dancing women, and strange music that no man could understand made by devils In a great box? Raisouli was orthodox; he, at least, would have no dealings with Satan the Stoned. Raisouli had the air and port of some ancient Roman Prince, and he has also the keen wit, the Intellect of the an cient Roman, together with his tacitur nity and reticence. Had fortune placed him on the throne, he would have ruled to the entire satisfaction of his nation, and been a dignified. Impressive and Just sovereign. He is, in fact, the probable that twice this amount would suffice to take up the temples which are now there and carry them to the main land, or even transport them to Cairo, where all the world might see. Nubia in 190 7. The Island of Philae Is situated on the edge of lower Nubia, In the center of the Nile. Just above the first cataract, and It Is reached by ferryboat from Shellai-or from Assouan and the dam. The Island is about 1500 feet long and 600 feet wide; It Is almost covered with temples built by the Ptolemies and others two or three centuries before Christ. The chief deity of Philae was the god dess, Isls; but Osiris, Hathor and the gods of the cataracts were also worshiped there. Under the Roman Emperors the temples were enlarged, but whon Egypt was converted to Christianity the hermits and other fanatics made their way into Nubia and took possession of it. They turned some of the temples into Chris Moorish ideal, and that, is why he is alive at this day to further trouble the Sultan's advisers. He set his brains to work, and thought out a plan whereby he could command the Sultan's attention to his wrongs, and those of his people, and found it. He descended on the moun tain one night, and carried away an American citizen. He took one whom he blamed for all. Then he no longer pleaded; he made demands. He was to be pardoned; the Governor of Fez, his enemy, was to be dismissed from his office, and he, Raisouli, set in his place. His house and village were to be rebuilt, and a large sum of money gent wherewith to compensate the ruined villagers, and restore them to a means of livelihood. Every one of these demands was acceded to, and Raisouli, the rebel, the "brigand," became once more Mulal Hummet, Governor of Fes. He was very good to his people. He brought them back to A'Brleze, and placed them again In their homes, with fresh sheep and cattle. The dead he could not bring back, but their graves were honored, 1 and he governed Fez and Tangier wisely though with some intolerance. He made the whole dis trict so safe that two Irishwomen and a child camped for months in the heart of the country, with no guard beyond their servants. Their lives, money and valuables were at the mercy of any passing traveler, for they left the camp days at a time, with only the cook in charge, and they never lost a farthing's worth. That could not happen In many places In the world; but It did happen In Morocco; and I was one of those women, and the child is my little daughter. He was a stem and impla cable Judge;, with a hatred of wrong doing that gained him much unpopu larity among the legations. Raisouli had no friends In the legation in any case he is the enemy of all foreigners, beitig a Moor of the Moors. Indeed, he has only one friend who is a Naza rlnl, and him the Moors admire almost as one of themselves a mighty hunter, whom they nickname "Nlmrod." So when a thief was beaten to death be fore the gate of the German legation he was pronounced a brute, and when the anjera plotted to murder a young Frenchman In the Sok he was held accountable, though the anjera are his enemies, and went the length, not long ago, of kidnapping his mother and making him ransom her handsomely. But the Moors approve of him. He Is all that Is necessary in a man and a ruler. It would be well to remember that In subsequent dealings with him. Last year he went out to "pacify" Ar zlla. Arzila had risen In rebellion we were told in Fez, because the Sultan had given It to the American bashadow so wild does rumor fly in Morocco. When Raisouli quelled the trouble he asked that the city might be added to his Governorship; and those who sit at the Sultan's ear told him not to grant that request because of the lega tions. There was too much, quiet and good order to quite please some of the legations, and once more Raisouli was a rebel with a price on his had. I have told you the story as It Is told in the Sok. Raisouli met guile with tian churches and their mutilations of the splendid carvings put up in the honor of the gods of old Egypt can be plainly seen. The ruins today are well worth a visit. Some of the structures have a forest of columns about them, and the Kiosk, which Is known as Pharoah's bed. Is one of the most beautiful of the Egyptian temples. The stones of which Philae la built are of great size. They probably came from the Assouan quarries, or It may be from the granite rocks In the desert about. That region is almost all granite. I rode for ubout 30 miles on donkey-baok over it, making my way through the desert in and out of granite boulders, worn smooth by the sand storms of thousands of years. The rooks are of all shapes and are so piled up, one on another, as to make one think that the gods had used them as building material. Here one stands high over those surrounding It as though on a pedestal; there others are massed like fortifications, and again they rise In towers. In the Assouan Quarries. During my stay there I visited the As souan quarries, the great stone yards from which the obelisks were taken and from which came the mighty statues of Ram eses and the stone blocks of the greatest of the Theban temples. The quarries to day are much the same as they wers when the Egyptians left thorn two or three thousand years ago. One can see the marks of their wedges on the rocks ar.d the markings of the old stonecutters are plain. In one place there is an obe lisk half finished lying on its side, just a3 the masons of the Pharoahs left It ages ago. When the stones were gotten out for the Assouan dam the Italian workmen used many of the blocks which the an cient Egyptian mechanics had begun to cut; and indeed that great granite struc ture was made In partnership by two sets of mechanics who were born thousands of years apart. Wady, Haifa, September SO. guile, and took the Sultan's ambassa dor prisoner. "Only God knows the truth" Raisouli knows -o fear. West minster Gazette. This Telescope World's Greatest. One by one this country Is equipping Itself with a group of the greatest ob servatories in the world. On the summit of Mount Wilson, a peak in Southern California, Is1 a solar observatory which will outclass any other designed for that purpose. It is' under the patronage of the Carne gie Institute at Washington. The Inten tion Is to spend at least 3300,000 upon its equipment. Mount Wilson was selected as the site because the atmosphere there was clear and tranquil for a greater num ber of days than at any other place tested. One of the most Important subjects of research will be the apparent decrease in heat radiation from the sun in the last few years. Another problem will be that undertaken by Professor E. E. Bernard, who is not satisfied with the theory of the nebular origin, and who will try to deter mine how much faith can be put In the nebular hypothesis. The popular notion is that the astrono mer points his telescope directly at the sun and fires his vision point blank across the charsm of millions of miles. Instead the errant sun rays are la-ioed jy a coelestat, a great circular mirror driven by clockwork In such a manner that It throws its light into another mirror above, and this in turn sends the long, concen trated beam far into the interior of the telescope house. The two mirrors move In automatic ad justment to each other, so that the solar beams may be shot Into the building, no matter In what portion of the sky the sun may be situated. At the further end of the building the reflected sunbeam strikes a concave mirror, which cc.t.;hes the light, and, flashing it back toward the opening whence it first entered, focuses' it into a perfect image of the sun. The greatest reflecting telescope in the world is to be the climax of the equip ment of this observatory. A huge lens, five feet in diameter, eight inches thick and weighing a full tor, is being perfect ed at the Mount Wilson laboratory in Pasadena To such exact nicety must its surface be ground and polished that it will require three years to complete It re"ady for mounting. The glass in the rough costs 31 a pound. With great patience and the highest me chanical skill it is being fitted for its momentous work. When completed it will be transported by an auto truck up the narrow trail to the observatory, and there will be mount ed under a rotating dome 15 feet In diam eter. With this monster eye it will be possible to penetrate farther into the depths of space than by any Instrument ever before designed by man. Hope. Charlotte Observer. De hogs kin grunt Fer about two monf. But den deyil grunt no more. De coon kin roam Till we fetch him home En skin him at de door. O slmmon ripe. I'll light my pipe tV!d beer drapa on my chin. We will have our pay En'll sea our day Wh.en we gits de cotton In! '4