Desert, and I fear that when we bring them in much sickness will break out. The heat there is very great, and although there is plenty of air, it brings with it sometimes clouds of sand which is unpleasant. We are now busy in cleaning, disinfecting, and whitewashing all our barracks and hospitals, to be ready for the return of the troops, which, if all things go on favourably, will take place about the end of this month. The Nile is now rising and is a splendid river from a quarter to half a mile in breadth, running from about 4 to 5 miles an hour, turned of a chocolate colour, and heavily charged with alluvium from the Abyssinian Mountains, of great fertilising value. One may fairly consider the Nile as the most important and thoroughly useful river in the world. For, besides its capabilities for navigation, the existence of the entire country is absolutely dependent upon it for irrigation and fertilisation, and without it the whole country would become a vast desert without a single inhabitant upon it. The old land of Goshen, for instance, upon which the late campaign took place, and where the battle of Tel-el- Kebir * was fought, has mostly relapsed into desert owing to discontinued irrigation. The books you gave me about Egypt are highly prized — Harda and Homo Sum. I have since got another — The Egyptian Princess, well worth your reading. The author, Ebers, is a good authority upon Egyptian matters, a good archaeologist. The heat continues very great and will so last, I am told, until the middle of October, by which time I suppose I shall have pretty well melted away. And now good-bye, my dear Minnie; let me know of all your goings on.
Cairo, August 27, 1883. —... The cholera is leaving us, but still clings to one of our battalions and one of the hospitals, and though the cases are isolated ones yet they prevent me bringing the troops back to barracks as soon as I should wish. I suppose I must exercise a little patience. There was a great function
here to-day in starting a pilgrimage for Mecca, an annual affair to celebrate which the whole city turns out, and the Khedive and all the Ministers are present, together with all the troops that can be got together. The assemblage of the people was an uncommonly pretty sight, the colour of the dresses is so varied and so very picturesque. The origin of the ceremony is of very ancient date, when the favourite wife of one of the Caliphs was desirous of going on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and a large and richly ornamented howdah was constructed beneath which she travelled, concealed from the vulgar gaze, on the back of a camel. The pilgrimage lasted nearly four weeks. Ever since her death a howdah similar to the one then used is paraded in great state and sent annually to Mecca; with it goes a new carpet to be placed at the Prophet's tomb, the old one it replaces being torn up into small pieces and distributed amongst the Faithful. The collection of camels. Dervishes, standard-bearers, and tom-toms is not easy to describe; but it was a pretty sight, a curious one — and intensely silly. I cannot make out what the Government intends doing with regard to keeping the troops out here. They will commit an act of indescribable folly if they withdraw them from Cairo, or even sensibly reduce them in numbers. The Egyptian Government requires support and the commercial community requires to feel secure, and this I am confident the English troops alone can give, and if they are withdrawn, mistrust, intrigues, and disaffection will soon become rife. My new A.D.C. arrived out here all right. I am very glad to have him. He is agreeable, intelligent, and a capital soldier, and will do very well.... — Yours ever affectionately, Fredk. Stephenson.
To his Brother
Cairo, October 8, 1883.
My dear William, —... I passed last Saturday one of the pleasantest and most interesting days I have
1883] VISITS PYRAMIDS OF SAKHARA 301