A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 163, 10 July 1907, Page 6

A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

(By A_d-3i_ DORKENGTON, Author of "Along the Castlereagh," " Gbadrea of the Gully," etc, etc.) [Copyright Reserved.] XL EGYPT AND THE F__u_____N__j fIDE GI_MPSE. It is the fashion among travellers w_« visit-Egypt to buy up all the guide boofc information dealing with the dead Pha- ■ raohs and serve it up again with erabeU iishments in the shape of travel notes. At Suez we got our first taste of the desert and the Holy Land, as viewed from the deck of an ocean liner. Tha hand of man has pushed back the wilderness from Suez. His electric globes and motor installations illuminate tha ancient track of trie Israelites, and he ' has converted many sand heaps inta ' marine esplanade and dancing pavilions; ' Here, the eye travels east and west across the wide Gulf to catch some trace of herbage or wooded headlan_ There is none. The scimitar-shaped: bay recalls many of the sand-shrouded inlets wit—in the Gulf of Carpentaria." '■ ''■ A clump of dingy, sand-blighted paling, mark the hallowed spot where Mosis drew water from the earth when tha "'< weary feet of his followers touched the ' opposite bank. The sea hawks': drowse and cry above in the morning stillness as though chanting a requiem over tha centuries buried beneath. . v

The Gulf of Suez is with vessels of all nationalities waitinc 'to pass through tbe Canal. There are" bigbeamed German tramps and Dago, luggers, heading for the. Levant. Crowds of Egyptian fruit boats hover round'; tia incoming mail boats waiting for the doctor's report ere they launch themseltes over the vessel's rails.

The medical inspection at Suez, is' a stupid farce. No one can explain "why Australian ships are held up for inspection. Suez itself is a town of no particular morals, neither is it , renowned for its sanitary conditions. It would be ';: impossible for passing vessels to introv duce any fresh disease within iti plague-stricken boundaries. Tbe afflicted Fellaheen and the.sofei smitten Arab wander at large exhibiting, their evil maladies to the passing Aus-'. ,traliah. If one-tenth of the time spent'; in examining ships were dedicated to* the eleaning-up of the native, quarters... of the town much real service would ba rendered to civilisation. .. '

The Canal itself and the approaches I thereto are master-strokes in the way , of. desert-cutting and engineering. To the inexperienced eye this narrow glittering • stretch of water is a perfect dividend-earner and a joy for. ever "to its shareholders. \

Yet it maintains an army of unseen workers. Every foot of the Canal is ever shifting, banks have to be. watdied: by flying gangs .of dredgers and navvies. The eternal sandrift problem and) the worry of its shifting bed.'turns'tha; average Canal official bald long" befbra his thirtieth, year. • ' ■-'-' The outlook while passing through tha Canal is not lovely. Here;,a_d : there-an official has eriected a cottage between thedrifts, and the wand from the desert piles, uj mountains of sand and fine sb.ell-d_sfc'6vexs his devoted little garden. .'

There is nothing on earth so penetrating as this line; shell-dust, driven across, a steamer's deck by the north-west "monsoon. It finds its way into your cabin and trunks; it binds up your hair, and fills your ears with parts of the Afican interior. From the moment we entered the Otnal a continuous sneezing was heard all over the ship.

It took us 15 hours to pass through! the narrow waterway. The dawn showed us the Bitter Lakes and more glittering sand wastes. About every .thirty minutes the desert wakes up and blinds you on principle. The sun rises hereabouts in a perfect stream of fire thai turns the sea into a vast plain of opal with currents o£ wine-red running towards a shoreline. ' . -

A lonely Moor, swathed from brow tfl'- . heel in white garments, prances on —— pony through the red drifts towards tha ' Canal head. Other sheeted forms steai \ across the deserfs rim; an ass bearing al veiled Egyptian woman, commands tho middle distance, a troop of camels hurry- ' y ing Ishmaliawards, crimson the morning air with their hoof-driven dust. The east is brick-red, but in the .matter of colons there are many prophet-

We called at Port Said. Sew Ze_landers and Australians complain bitterly; of the fiendish way the black dust ia flung aboard. A thousand Pellaheens tea_ np and down narrow planks, waving their baskets of coal-grit against the wind. Tha decks are ankle deep in Black and black: * mud, and the saloon passenger emerges from his cabin with coal in his hair and dust in his voice. Everyone admits thai they did things better in ancient China. It is safe to say that no self-respecting Chinese port would allow such, an abominable system, ot coaling to exist. '•

We are told that Port Said is not so filthy as it used to be. Tbe news mada lis feel glad; we did not stay long enongH to inquire what had became of the garb" age.

A railway from Port Said runs through' the dust to Cairo, but the time allowed by P. and O. and Orient steamers does not permit of a visit to Khartoum or tha Lower Nile.

For those who are fond of the dead centuries, Egypt is a place to visit. Tbera are enough dead kings strewn about tha Nile Valley to fill Australia's churchyards. To be sure, there is colour in Egypt* enough purple and amber to glut tha artistic eye. There is tradition old as t_S world itself, and a river, whose name was a rhyme-word among the Goths and tha early Romans.

The New Zealander and Australian ar«( not so impressed by the tombs and tho pyramids as the travelling Englishman. We met parties of Cook's tourists near Memphis, who entered the ancient sepulchre with bared heads and subdued voices.

This semi-worship of the age-blown Pharaohs and monstrous obelisks of stone is often childlike in its reverence. Gazing into dark corridors in quest of The Sacred Remains is not so invigorating as buckjumping or even burgling. And one would rather meet the Vandal who chopped off the Sphinx's nose than the sepulchreite sneezing over the dust of Rameses 11.

The street Egyptian is a more aggressive citizen than the Hindu or Ceylonese. He bawls after you as you pass, jeers at the cut of your coat, and the manner of your walk. Also he demands backsheesh, and he will follow you down eight streets insulting the memory of your dead parents. We heard one fellow, a black-toothed hotel-runner, ask a party of Australians if they felt better now that they were out of gaol. There is a great scarcity of blue metal in Cairo. To be coatinued.