“Into the Land of Egypt”

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12485, 20 October 1938, Page 3

“Into the Land of Egypt”

ADVENTL'UKj>NjrHE DESERT (33) , mrifiiiiic I found myself iravne in i train from Alexandria the ini .orlMfClcn. watt of Ss ypt * ~ j j-ain that pounds along 1 Tlav at a steady twenty miles ° UC hour over a track laid on sand, Sd Sable to bo washed out once a a “ the rams tall. >' e f tMnk i was the only European . tr ain Mv fellow passengers, °hr were numerous, showed a parSaUty for the floors rather Ilian for !i ‘«Lts of thei rcompartments. station we took „ m ore of them, some carryf n “ E Vooflct. crates lull of Indignant Sfkcys and philosophic hens, others Sh heir white teeth in green and Irole stems of sugar-cane. PU f became hot. amt I resisted the temptation to let down the shutters S Which all Egyptian railway carriages are fitted. I was in a strange country, ami I Wished to see as much of it as I Imild even though it happened to be as dull as this relentless desert proved to he A fine khaki dust, as fine ■i talc, found its way even into my naMipt of sandv iches. Pa Now ancl again, however, the tedium of the journey was relieved by a glimpse of the sea, lying hard and blue like a sapphire in the hot light. It is only afterwards, when you return home and look at the map, that you feel you have travelled. While you are travelling, theie are so many things to do that you have no time to think that your journey js at all remarkable. But I do remember thinking, as 1 sat in this train, covered with desert dust that I should look at the map with a good deal of amusement when I got back to England. Last week I had been travelling beside the Gulf of Suez to Sinai. And now I was in an entirely different part of Egypt, going to an even more remote place; I was going to the Oasis of Siwa. ' If you asked me why I was going to such a place, I should have to confess that I was so surprised to find that I could go there In a reasonable time that I felt it would be a pity not to do so. I had always imagined that in order to go to Siwa it was necessary to hire camels, tents and guns, and set off with a crowd of attendants on a journey of several weeks. And this, in fact, was so until the War, and until the improvement in motor-car springs made it possible to drive cars across the desert. The idea of going to Siwa came to me in bed one night at Suez, while I was reading the life of Alexander the Great, That astonishing youngman, who in the short space of 33 years changed the face of the world, made a journey to Siwa in the year 331 8.C.. and this has given a peculiar and romantic interest to that remote oasis.

In Alexander’s time there was at Siwa one of the most famous Oracles in the ancient world —the Oracle o£ Jupiter Ammon. I have read somewhere that the Athenians thought so highly of this Oracle that they kept a galley always ready to sail across the sea with questions for the Egyptian god to answer. It should not be difficult for those who believe in trance mediums to understand the importance of Oracles in ancient civilisation. There Avas a time when hardly any political or coJonial venture Avas attempted in an-

cieut Greece without the approval w Delphi, where a matron of fifty, jessed as a young girl, went into a lance, and uttered words which were ln t° cryptic form hy an astute <na well-informed priesthood. the Oracle of Siwa seems to have , een one of those strange, animated ]ini S akout which we know very tie,, whose movements were interred by the priests. ' JNo one knows why Alexander was anxi , o . Us consult this Oracle, think that, being a romantic ke went there out of an ; ° th . ers think that U was eonrf ß move to gain the 1 of an institution so highly 'liouilit 0I to Ms natiTe laml . han o f^ eV ® r ’ ke laa de a long and exorflpi'l 30uru 6y across the desert in nn “ oad on Jnpiter Ammon and him go( i set ©yes on divinr, au e^a 'tmed. him as his own der an S i° n ' delighted Alexanthat eve p’ co in collector knows interview Alexander's rams> S L bears his Portrait with two of Ammon ?Vhln T in f from llis curl y hairabout q- 1 ° egaa to make inquiries of 1 discovered a number t lh eresuag things. the Liwf 513 ’ which lies far out in of the tLv desert, within 30 miles Gained' , “ frontier of Tripoli, retimes until “ ysler y from Roman En Slishman yeai ’ 1792 ’ when, an discovered ed rowue re " Eump? an tkat u tirae nntil the War, to Siwa could be

H v MORTON (Author of “In the Steps of the Master,” <?in the Steps of St. Paul,’'’ “In Search of England/’ etc., etc.)

I Avas prepared for an hotel with no curtains on the winjdows and sheets hearing the foot-print of the bed’s last occupant.

Instead, I entered a little hotel which might have, come -from the South of France. Although there seemed to be no other guests in it, a man in a Avhite jacket stood behind an American bar.

I How was it possible that such a place could exist away out in the western desert? I was told that rich Greeks from Alexandria came there to bathe- in the summer time. ■ As I was wandering round the empty lounge later that night, I learned that the British Air Force is also no stranger to the place. I discovered on a table, among the unreadable technical literature which is distributed free to hotels, the following curious exiles: “A Window in Thrums,” by J. M. Barrie (“From Ethel, Aug. 2, 1 1918” on the fly-leaf), “The Countess Dubarry” (R.A.F., Jerusalem), “Self Help,’ by Samuel Smiles; “The Judgment, of the Sword,’ by Maud Diver (Station Recreational Library, R.A.F., Uxbridge).

What a queer, lost company to discover on tbe edge of the Libyan desert!

counted on the-■-’fingers- '.of both hands. The oasis was closely guarded by the fanatical Scuussi, and no Christians were safe there. During the War‘-the power of the Seuussi was broken, and Siwa becanje, as it is to-day, a peaceful portion of the Western Desert Province of Egypt.

Although I could find no one who had ever been to Siwa, the admirable Frontiers Administration made inquiries, and told me that I could reach it by car. and that they would send a military escort with me in the form of a desert patrol ear. I was told to take the daily train from Alexandria to a remote little desert outpost about 200 miles to the west, a place called Mersa Matruh. At this place, I was' informed, it would be possible to start on a 200-mile motor-car journey across the desert to Siwa. And that was why I sat all day in the little train that pounded its w'ay to the west from morning until night. 'All through the hot afternoon the train shed portions of its inhabitants at desolate desert villages, whose houses were made of old kerosene tins.

The whole population stood on the station to greet the travellers. And the home-comers stepped from the train to the sand bearing the strangest loot from the great city. Some wrestled with gigantic packages, which might have contained anything from a bicycle to a new wife. Others walked sadly down the platform, carrying a bunch of carrots or even a few lettuce leaves. As dusk fell, the train gradually emptied, and I seemed to be travelling alone in a moonless night of stars. I could smell the sea at one window. The cool air was blowing in over hundreds of miles of Mediterranean.

Eventually the engine gave a longpathetic whistle, and Ave arrived at the end of the railway line —and ’Merse Matruh. I could see nothing in the dark. A military car, driven by a dark Sudanese, Avas waiting for me. We shot across a sandy track, and came to a lonely building standing among sandhills. I could hear the sea quite close.