A LETTER FROM ABROAD.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10682, 27 June 1913, Page 6

A LETTER FROM ABROAD.

Mr"B. P. Lethbridge writes under date, May 14th:— j After leaving Colombo, the weather was dreadfully hot, and one cculd do nothing "but sit still and drink, perspire, eat, drink and perspire more. At Colombo we buried one passenger, then two more passengers and one stoker between Colombo and Suez, and as three is the average number of deaths we are beginning to feel those of |us who are left; and there are still a few, as the captain tells me we have between 1200 and 1300 on board. We are in the Mediterranean now and a beautifully cool breeze is blowing, and everyone enjoying it. When we got to Suez about 70 of the passengers had a special train waiting for us, secured by wireless through T. Cook and Son, and about 9 30 a.m. we started for Cairo and the Pyramids. The firstjjpart of the journey was along the edge of the Canal and.quite as we could see the ships tied up for others to pass them. There were also several plots of irrigated country, but not much in extent, and we soon left these behind and came to the sand with just an occasional date palm and a small bit of worked ground. One of the passengers remarked jnst here that 30 years ago , this was nothing but a howling wilderness (he was a town man) I must say I thought it still a wilderness, and a very dirty one at that, aa our carriage soon got full of sand and was rather hot and uncomfortable. After about V/> hours' travelling we came to the "battle ground of Tel el Kebir, and the train drew up to let us have a look through the cemetery, where those killed in the battle were buried. The cemetery is very well taken care of and full of most beautiful flowers, principally oleanders, red and white. One noticed each side of the train very large herds of goats with women herding them; also sheep and cattle, all looking very well. The sheep are a pectiliar breed, more like Tunis than any other breed 1 have ever seen. The cattle seem to have a big strain of Jersey although now and then one noticed the buffalo showing up. After leaving Tel el Kebir half an hour behind us we came into the real irrigated country of the valley of the Nile. "Wouldn't like to say what extent, but we must have seen thousands and thousands of acres of it, and such country and crops! One can't help being struck with the contrast in methods, the very latest and most scientific farming in the way of irrigation and the most ancient way of working and saving the crops. The whole place was under intense cultivation and as muoh as four crops a year are taken from the same land. Here, as in Ceylon, the old wooden plough is used and one sees either two bullocks, a bullock and an ass or a camel and a bullock hitched to a plough. No reins are used; the animals seem to know what their drivers say to them, The old way of lifting water seems to be general—long poles hinged in centre with weight at one end and buckets at other. The native pulls the bucket down till it reaches and tills with water, and then the weight lifts it, and it is emptied into the small irrigation channels, mora like drains *!i?tn anything else. There you will see a bullock, a camel or a donkey worrying a water wheel and lifting a small ((nimtifcy of water in this way. These only .supply the small channels, of conrsa ; the main ones are vory large and have boats in hundreds ou them, —the old style of boat, you bet, with a big single cross?sail. The wheat was very ripe in the fields, -and if it had been mine, I should have liked to have had the reaper and binder in it long ago, but in this climate it doesn't matter much ; no fear of rain, and besides they don't use reapers and binders; the}' pull the stuff up. You would notice what looked like a load of sheaves in the middle of the road and would wonder what it was stacked there for on nothing, when all at once it would begin to stagger and shake and you would see there was a camel struggling to get up, which it always [managed to do, and so the corn would be camelled to the threshing floor, which is in the

| cornei of the paddock, aud the grain |is still trodden out by bullocks. A | ou a sort of sledge and 1 drives'the bullocks round and round, J then the straw is shaken out and the I corn is winnowed |by men*turning it I over and tossing it into the air, so ! that the wind may blow the chaff I out. Rather oli-fashioned, isn't it, I but labour is cheap and the plots or | fields very small. Cotton also is I cultivated to a great extent along | the line and is just being planted ] now. One also notices onions, § carrots, and all other vegetables, I witli a fair amout of rice. Lucerne lis also grown in patches-—this, I I fancy, is^just t for the animals work- | ing in the fields. They seem to be I tethered aud allowed to eat ascertain | amount quite bare —a most economical way of using fodder. It is very picturesque to see the stungs of camels"all over the country. They use the earth thrown out from the irrigation channels for roads and don't seem to need any gravel. There seems to be any depth of rich black soil, as one can see when they are digging out new irrigation channels. We have about 2>£ through this country when word goes through the "train that wa are near Cairo and everyone is pleased as we are getting hungry. On the train arriving at the station cars are in readiness to take us to Shepheard's Hotel, where an excellent lunch is served, and an opportunity to have a wash availed of. This is a magnificent hotel, all marble floor and tremendous halls and dining 100 m. One can buy anything here as all the halls are surrounded with shops. After lunch the cars again, and off we ?tart for the Pyramids and the Sphinx. The drive takes about 20 minutes—very dusty and hot, but still through irrigated country to within about a quarter mile of the Pyramids, when the dear old sand starts again. Here are camels, asses and Arabs or Egyptians, all making a deuce of a noise and wanting you to take them as. guides or ride their camels. Some .mount camel 3 and tome donkeys, and off we go for the quarter-mile to the Pyramids. lam not going to say anything about these or the Sphinx, except that the latter's complexion is getting the *worse for wear, and I am sure some 'fof the ladies on the boat r.onld have supplied the poor old lady with an artificial cna. But she has been there a long time and you i know complexions will fade unless you can put them on every mora- i ing. Here, of course, we have our photos taken on camels, which is \ the correct thing to do, so ire are ■ ..- (Continued on Page 7.) '