440 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. 



changeless in its forms, and a new Egypt brought within the influence of the 

 restless and ever-progressive European world. The chief industry dating from the 

 oldest times is that of pottery, the raw material for which is always supplied in 

 abundance by the mud of the Nile and surrounding wadies. Along the banks of 

 the main stream whole houses are met built entirely of earthenware, which here so 

 often replaces the ordinary brickwork.* 



The so-called bardaks, or water-jars, produced in large quantities especially at 

 Keneh in Upper Egypt, are noteworthy both for the variety and elegance of their 

 forms and for their serviceable character. Many are charged with a delicate and 

 durable perfume, while all are made more or less permeable to water. They thus 

 act partly as filters, partly as coolers, keeping the fluid fresh even in the hottest 

 weather by the process of evaporation. The transport of these vessels to Cairo is 

 effected in an ingenious and inexpensive way. Large numbers joined loosely 

 together with their mouths downwards form perfectly buoyant rafts of convenient 

 shape, which by the aid of two or three boatmen are safely floated down the Nile 

 to the head of the delta. 



The industries introduced by the Arabs are the same as those that have been 

 developed in all other Mussulman lands — saddlery, carpet-weaving, leather-work, 

 copper-work, damascening, gold and silver work. The iron and hardware trades 

 are unimportant, and all utensils and implements of all sorts made of this metal 

 are imported from Europe. Egypt has no iron mines, and in early times the 

 only iron ores known to her were those of meteoric origin. The very expression 

 " celestial substance," employed to designate iron, seems to show that the ancient 

 Egyptians represented the firmament as a metallic vault, some fragments of which 

 occasionally broke away and fell on the surface of the earth, t 



Trade — Railways and Telegraphs. 



In the direction of the surrounding deserts, the valley of the Nile is still 

 restricted in its commercial relations to the periodical despatch of caravans, which 

 do not return for some months, and occasionally even for a whole year, from the 

 interior of the continent. But the main stream itself is navigated by steam as 

 well as sailing vessels, while the inhabited districts are traversed in all directions 

 by the locomotive. By steam most of the pilgrims now make the journey to the 

 port of Mecca and back.+ 



In proportion to its superficial extent, but not to the density of its population, 

 the Nile delta is one of those regions in which the railway system has been most 

 fullj^ developed. Besides this means of communication, over 600 miles of canals, 

 exclusive of the two great branches of the Nile, are open to navigation throughout 

 the year, and during the inundations the navigable arteries are at least three 

 times longer. 



* G. Rohlfs, " Drei Monate in der Libyscheii Wuste." 

 t Fr. Lenormant, '* Premières Civilisations." 



i Egyptian steamers on the Nile, 40 ; Egyptian steamers on the Red Sea and Mediterranean, 16 ; 

 total of the commercial fleet, 1,500 vessels ; boats and other river craft, 10,300. 



