INTERIOR OF A MOSLEM HOUSE.

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vants brought coffee for us to drink. There were heavy cushions at the back of the divans, and these are arranged so that they can be moved. around just as one may desire in order to make himself comfortable. The Orientals sit cross-legged on these divans, and not after our style; and if you invite them to occupy an arm-chair they will quite likely double up into it, and put their feet beneath them. It is torture for them to sit as we do, just as it is torture for us to sit in the Oriental way.

"The ordinary mode of sitting on one of these divans is to get into a corner, or rather to make one by piling two of the cushions together across the divan. If an Oriental gentleman receives you, it is quite likely you will find him sitting as we have described, with his feet gathered under him, and his shoes lying where he can easily step into them in case he wishes to rise. In this position he will sit for hours perfectly contented, or, what is quite as

likely, he will fall back on the divan and go to sleep. The divans are occupied pretty much all the time, as they are used to sit upon during the day, and form sleeping-couches by night. As they are rarely less than three feet wide, are well stuffed, and covered with cloth resembling chintz, they are not to be despised, and form excellent substitutes for beds.

"There was a handsome lamp in the hall-way of the house, and the Doctor told us it was much like the lamps that are used for decorating the mosques. It hung under a wooden frame in the shape of a six-pointed star. The ornamentation upon the outside of the body of the lamp

was in curious patterns of arabesque design; the light was given by a series of little cups hanging on the outside, and not by the lamp itself.

Each cup was partly filled with oil, and a tiny wick floated on its surface, and gave out a small blaze of light. It reminded us of the floating wicks for burning in a sick-room at home, and we readily understood why there were so many of them. A single flame would not have been enough to light the hall-way, and it was only by employing a great many that the proper illumination could be secured.

"On leaving the house we went to the bazaars, which were crowded with people, partly because it was market-day, when so many country people, men and women, came to town, and partly because of the large party of strangers that had landed from the steamboat, and were sure to be in the bazaars before continuing their journey.

"We bought some fans of ostrich feathers, which were offered for about half of what they would cost in Cairo. Sioot is one of the startingpoints of the caravan routes to the regions where ostriches abound, and it is only natural that these things should be cheaper here than farther down the river. We also bought some cups and saucers, and a few pipe-bowls, made of a fine clay peculiar to the neighborhood of Sioot, and highly prized throughout Egypt. Of course we were obliged to bargain a long time to save ourselves from being cheated. It is of no use to tell these people you are in a hurry, and must have the lowest price at once; they cannot understand you, and will lose the chance of selling their goods rather than change their mode of dealing.

"Leaving Sioot we found ourselves in a region where the river winds considerably. The wind blowing from the north does not choose to follow all the bends of the Nile. A boat sailing up the stream will have a fair wind one hour and an adverse one the next, and when she finds both wind and current against her she must wait for a change in the breeze, or send the crew out with the tow-line. Towing up stream is slow work, but it is better than no progress at all. Ten or fifteen miles a day may be made by it, and sometimes as many as twenty miles, and if the passengers have a fondness for hunting they can indulge it very easily. Sometimes a walk of a few miles will cover a whole day's journey of the dahabeah while she is working around a bend, and even the steamer is not averse to gaining distance while her passengers are on shore.

"Towing is the hardest part of the occupation of the crew of a Nile boat. They are harnessed like horses, and attached to a rope which is taken to the bank. The captain remains on board to steer the craft, and if the sailors are remiss in their work he shouts to them in a voice the reverse of pleasing; and while it is a laborious task for the men it is a severe trial to the passengers, this dragging along at a snail's pace, and

AN ABUNDANCE OF PIGEONS.

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listening to the imprecations of the captain, which grate harshly on the ear, even though they are uttered in an unknown tongue.

"We wound along the river, sometimes close to the cliffs that form

the eastern bank, and sometimes

in the midst of a fertile plain, with the desert at a distance. We passed several villages, and the conductor told us their names; but as they were all pretty much alike, we did not think it worth while to write them down. An interesting feature of the villages was the great number of pigeonhouses, some of them standing by themselves, and others built on the tops of dwellings. The pigeons are kept in great flocks. Sometimes they are owned in common by a whole village, while at others they are the private property of individuals. The guano from the pigeon-houses is carefully saved for enriching the melon patches; and, where the house is the common property of the village, the key is kept by the sheik or chief. Some of the houses are like square towers, with a great many holes where the birds enter, and the inside of the walls is full of niches, where the pigeons make their nests. Others are of a circular shape, and have protuberances on the top like chimneys, which are filled with holes for admitting the pigeons, but too small for the hawks and other birds of prey that pursue them.

PIGEON-HOUSES.

"The pigeons get their living in the fields around the village, and

sometimes they do a great deal of damage. When the grain begins to ripen the people erect booths in the midst of the fields, where men are stationed to frighten away the birds. They are armed with slings, with which they can throw stones to a considerable distance, and they keep up the alarm by blowing horns and making other noises. That the ancient Egyptians had the same practices we learn from the paintings in the tombs, where men are represented standing on platforms and using the sling to frighten away the thieving birds.

THE ORIENTAL PIGEON.

ner.

A WATCHMAN'S BOOTH.

"The abundance of pigeons in this part of Egypt is shown by the frequency with which the bird appears on our table. We have broiled pigeon for breakfast, cold pigeon for lunch, and roast pigeon for dinWe do not have cold pigeon for supper, and probably this can be accounted for by the fact that we do not have any supper at all. They give us a cup of tea and a piece of dry cake in the evening, and it is quite possible that if anybody asked for pigeon he would be accommodated; but nobody seems to want it.

"We met some funny-looking rafts a few miles above Sioot, and

ANTIQUITY OF THE INFLATED LIFE-PRESERVER.

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wondered what they could be. They did not appear to be made of logs, or barrels, or anything of the sort, and yet they were floating along, and each carried two or three men. What do you suppose they were?

"Doctor Bronson said they were made up of large jars for holding water, and were principally from a town called Ballas. The jars are arranged in rows, with the mouth uppermost, and when enough of them have been put together to forin a raft, they are enclosed in a frame of poles and reeds; then they are ready to float down the river to Cairo, where they are sold. The jar is made of a porous clay that lets the water filter slowly through it. Every few hours the men in charge of the raft must bail out their conveyance, which they do by means of a sponge or bunch of reeds lowered into each jar. Unless they do this the raft would soon take in water enough to sink it, and not only would the jars be lost, but the men would run the risk of being drowned into the bargain. "It seemed so funny to make up a raft in this way, but the Doctor informed us that the idea was a very

old one. He said it was in practice among the ancient Assyrians, as there were pictures on the walls of their temples of men rowing rafts made of inflated skins, which were preferred to jars on account of their obviating the necessity of frequent bailing.

"We thought of the scriptural phrase, and asked, 'Is there anything new under the sun?'

AN ANCIENT LIFE-PRESERVER.

"There are fewer new things than you might suppose,' was the Doctor's reply. Perhaps you think the inflated life-preserver is a modern invention, but it isn't. The Assyrians had it centuries ago; and we learn from their sculptures that their warriors used to swim across rivers on the skins of goats that were filled with air, just as we fill the life-preservers that we buy in New York or London. I believe that a patent was granted to the modern inventor, but the Assyrian was thousands of years ahead of him.'

"One of us suggested that perhaps the modern inventor was honest, and thought he really had made an entirely new thing.

"That is quite likely,' the Doctor answered. Many a man has applied for a patent on something that he had honestly invented; he thought it out himself, and kept it from the knowledge of everybody