A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. By Amelia B. Edwards.
(Len- mans.)—This book is worthy of its subject. Many volumes have been written about the Nile, since Herodotus, first of the million of travellers who have looked on the marvellous river, theorised on its strange phenomena. These have often been amusing, and sometimes instructive. But it would not be easy to find one that could be matched with Miss Edwards's book. She brought to her task of travel the needful preparation of culture. She pursued it with enthusiasm, and she has now recorded its results with a literary skill and taste that leave no- thing to be desired. With the marvellous Egypt of the pasts and with the picturesque Egypt of the present, she is equally at home. The temples on the river-bank can seldom have had so enthusiastic a visitor, and though she does not claim to be an Egyptologist, seldom 'one ao capable of appreciating their interest. It is satisfactory to learn that this enthusiasm and preparation were not without their reward. She found—a piece of good-fortune not vouchsafed, though diligently sought, either to the Empress Engenie or to the Prince of Wales—an untouched tomb at Abou SimbeL The discovery had no great intrinsic importance, though it is not without interest, but it must have been a delight to'the discoverers of no common kind, and it is good to read about. The life and scenery of the Egypt of to-day she describes with might and vividness. Let the reader take this striking picture, as an example :-
"Of tortuous creeks shut in by singular rocks fantastically piled;' of sand-slopes golden to the water's edge; of placid pools low-lying in the midst of lupin-fields and 'tracts of tender barley ; of creeping Sakkiehs, half-hidden among palms, and dropping water as they turn ; of mud dwellings, here clustered together in hollows, there perched separately on heights among the rocks, and perpetuating to this day the form and slope of Egyptian pylons ; of rude boats drawn up in sheltered coves, or going to pieces high and dry upon the sands ; of water-washed boulders of crimson and black and purple granite, on which the wild- fowl cluster at mid-day, and the fisher spreads his nets to dry at sun- set ; of camels, and caravans, and camps on shore ; of cargo-boats and cangias on the river ; of wild figures of half-naked athletes ; of dusky women decked with barbaric ornaments, unveiled, swift-gliding, trailing long robes of deepest gentian-blue ; of ancient crones, and little naked children like live bronzes ; of these, and a hundred other subjects, in infinite variety and combination, there is literally no end." It only remains to add that the illustrations, the binding, and the printing of the volume are all admirable.
Previous page
