ALONG THE NILE, THROUGH EGYPT AND 



THE SUDAN 



By Frederick Simpich 



Author of "The Story of the Ruhr," "The Geography of Our Foreign Trade," "Along Our Stde of 



the Mexican Border," "Every-Day Life in Afghanistan," "The Rise of the New 



Arab Nation," etc., in the National Geographic Magazine 



EVER since the plague of frogs, 

 since Pharaoh's hosts were swal- 

 lowed by the sea, since Cleo- 

 patra's romance and snake-bite, Egypt 

 has been in the eyes of the world. 



"Nothing in this strange land is com- 

 monplace," Lord Milner has told us ; and 

 Napoleon, in his first talk with the Gov- 

 ernor of St. Helena, declared Egypt to 

 be "the most important country in the 

 world." For sixty centuries she has been 

 invaded and occupied, ruled and mis- 

 ruled, and ruined and rebuilt by assorted 

 enemies of alien race, religion, and 

 speech. Now, under a brand-new king 

 of her very own, she begins a new era in 

 her eventful, tumultuous history. 



No land is older in sin and civilization 

 than is Egypt ;* few men are more mixed 

 in race and religion than the modern 

 dwellers along the Nile ; and no region 

 anywhere offers more puzzling problems 

 or curious contrasts in politics, econom- 

 ics, and national ambitions than does 

 modern Egypt. 



She was civilized and knew the culture 

 of fine arts and science when hairy cave- 

 men were yet clubbing their prey and 

 eating it raw on that island where classic 

 Oxford now stands ; yet to-day nine- 

 tenths of her people are illiterate ; many 

 are blind from disease, and probably half 

 of the real Egyptians are mere day la- 

 borers, for the wealth of Egypt is mostly 

 in alien hands ; half of the native farm- 

 ers, or a million and a half families, own 

 no land at all. Still, in this "Proverbial 

 Land of Paradox" the people along the 

 Nile, thanks to British aid, are better 

 off fhan they have been in generations. 



The fact that the population doubled 

 in the 42 years of British rule is signifi- 

 cant. A wonderfully developed irrigation 



* See, in the National Geographic Magazine 

 for September, 1913, "Reconstructing Egypt's 

 History," by Wallace N. Stearns ; "The Resur- 

 rection of Ancient Egypt," by James Baikie, 

 and "The Sacred Ibis Cemetery and Jackal 

 Catacombs at Abydos," by Camden M. Cobern. 



system and a vast network of communi- 

 cations, both so necessary to agriculture 

 in a rainless land, are hers. 



In the last seven years land has trebled 

 in value ; rich farmers have grown richer ; 

 Nile traffic has increased fourfold ; into 

 the dusty desert horizon new tracks of 

 steel have penetrated ; and away up on 

 the Blue Nile another great dam is being 

 built to impound water for irrigating a 

 yet vaster cotton-growing area. 



EGYPT WAXED FAT DURING THE WAR 



Egypt, more than any other land then 

 under British protection, waxed fat off 

 the World War. It is said that England 

 paid out over a billion dollars in Egypt 

 for foodstuffs, camels, mules, and sup- 

 plies for the use of her armies in the 

 Middle East. 



With this access of wealth and the 

 break-up of the Moslem East that fol- 

 lowed the war, independent Egypt has 

 now gained enormously in political and 

 religious importance. Historic old Le- 

 vantine ties are broken, too, and new 

 channels of trade and immigration are 

 opened. Caliphs have been upset and 

 kings set up ; new frontiers, new repub- 

 lics, and new geography stretch in be- 

 wildering disarray from the Suez to the 

 Caspian. And, from the wild, fanatic 

 Senussis of the Sahara to the untamed 

 Afghan in Kabul, restless Moslem hordes 

 brood and look on— doubtfully. 



Gone forever is the "changeless, 

 dreamy East" of a decade ago ! Growl- 

 ing motor-trucks have crowded crawling 

 camels from historic caravan trails ; 

 desert Arabs who used to read the future 

 in the stars now read it in the passing- 

 planes of bold airmen blazing a sky trail 

 from Rome to Tokyo, or London to 

 Sydney. 



A through train, "The Milk and 

 Honey Express," runs from Cairo to 

 Jerusalem, save for a break at the Suez 

 Canal, when the passengers walk across 



379 



