FORCE OF HABIT: BARE POLES AND BARE FEET. 295

cleanliness and your own convenience! and bear in mind, that if you go afterwards to Syria, you will not have the same facility afforded you in travelling that you will meet with here. Unless you do as we say, you may then expect to meet with every variety of insult, and in some districts, your life will hardly be safe. Besides, in the interior you will find it very hot, particularly during the prevalence of the "Qh'ramseen" winds; and you will be glad at times to dispense even with shoes and stockings!" And so indeed we were! In Nubia, and occasionally when crossing the Desert, we actually did throw off both! So much are men children of necessity and habit! And, if any stranger had been present to hear the conversation which passed on this occasion, and had afterwards seen us, when we had resided in the country a few short months,-he would scarcely have believed the evidence of his senses; so strangely were we metamorphosed! The result of all this therefore may easily be guessed. Our unfortunate locks, which we had so dearly cherished, and which had partly borne with us the "heat and burden of the day," ever since our departure from Europe, were all but condemned.

The conversation now turned upon the country generally; a subject on which we were deeply interested. The questions discussed were intended for our edification, and every one gave us the benefit of his experience in the most friendly manner. With such excellent advisers, therefore, we were not long determining upon a plan. These gentlemen rendered us such weighty reasons for proceeding to the interior immediately, that we at once resolved to do so: indeed, they were so important that they should never be lost sight of by those who mean to ascend the Nile, as travellers are all liable to be

296

HINTS RESPECTING THE INTERIOR.

deceived in regard to the navigation; and they would do well to remember that it requires about double the time to descend that it does to ascend: notwithstanding the current is in favor of the former.

With us there were three very serious considerations. Having already entered upon the month of March, the river might be expected soon to get very low, a circumstance which would materially impede our progress, if we delayed, in consequence of the variable situation of the shallows and sand islands. During low Nile, the Cataracts are always more formidable ;—and lastly, it was desirable that we should mount, if possible, as high as Sioût the capital of Upper Egypt, Manfaloût, Girgeh, or at all events, some other large town, if not to Ghéneh itself, (which is only half a day's journey from Thebes,) before the Qh'ramseen winds (that is to say, the south-east or hot winds of the Desert) fairly set in. These winds last fifty days, as the term implies, and would blow directly in our teeth moreover, the period of their duration is said to constitute the sickly season; for they regularly bring with them various kinds of endemic, and not unfrequently, epidemic diseases; the obvious consequences of all which would be, risk-ennui-delay :-to attempt to carry sail, would be useless; to row, folly; both the wind and the tide being against us, - the former blowing at intervals a perfect hurricane, elevating dense clouds of sand, and the latter running at the rate of from three to five miles an hour. Under such circumstances, we should have no alternative, but to moor for days together to the banks, among mud and bulrushes, where there is nothing to amuse, and little to instruct: or at some inconsiderable village, where the monotony of the scene is varied only by objects of filth, wretchedness,

THE QH'RAMSEEN WINDS.-PROVISIONS.

297

and disease. Any situation during the prevalence of these winds is bad;-they are such that no person who has not experienced their effects, can form an idea of them and as their grasp is not to be eluded, it is surely of some importance to know that its influence may be diminished, provided there is a possibility of having our wants supplied, and of obtaining a few comforts, such as fresh milk and fruit, especially watermelons, (the most inestimable of luxuries at this time,) and other cooling vegetables, which are so much needed to assuage thirst, and allay the parching fever which all without exception must experience, though not perhaps in the same degree. Enjoyment, at such a season, is out of the question health is the only consideration; and the traveller feels very little disposed to go any where in quest of knowledge; much less to venture within the confines of the Desert to visit or explore the remains of antiquity. Still, however, it is some consolation to reflect, that in a large town, there is always a diversity of objects to be found to amuse the eye, and to divert the attention, although oppressed by a feverish and noxious atmosphere. All this is doubly felt by the newly imported European, who has not had time to get accustomed to the climate, or become sufficiently familiarized with dirt and squalid looks, to divest himself of gloomy thoughts,—the result of an over-excited imagination: and as long as this execrable weather continues, he is haunted day and night, by those sad scourges of the human race-plague, cholera, ophthalmia, and famine, the gaunt and meagre symbols of which he continually beholds at his elbow, and in the visages of all around him.

We were very happy therefore to have met with gentlemen who contemplated a journey to the interior,