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THE SACRED IBIS. 
picture. The long files of women clad in dark blue robes, bearing 
their heavy water-jars gracefully on their heads, and coming down to 
fill them from the Nile ; strings of laden camels sedately marching in 
the distance ; the turbaned sheikhs leisurely ambling on diminutive 
donkeys on the river's brink ; and a thousand trifles, insignificant in 
themselves, but attractive to the European eye, meet us at every turn. 
But above all, and over all, and through all, — indeed, without which 
Egyptian scenery would lose half its beauty, — the glorious unclouded 
sun of these Southern skies throws a perpetual brilliancy, causing the 
river to gleam like silver, the green meadows to glitter like emeralds, 
the rocks and sand of the desert to glow like molten gold. And 
when evening after evening at sunset the whole heavens were lit up 
with the most gorgeous colours ; or when at night the moon and stars 
stood out from the coal-black sky in that clear atmosphere, and the 
' Southern Cross ' rose above the horizon, no fairer scene could well 
be imagined than that which this majestic old river offered to view : 
and though tame, perhaps, when compared with Northern landscapes, 
there is a peace and a repose suited to a tropical climate ; and a calm- 
ness and mystic stillness, such as best befits the waters of the vener- 
able Nile, ever rolling on towards the sea." 
This is a long quotation; but it has the merit of bringing before the 
reader's eye the principal features of the Nile scenery. 
And it is in such scenery as this that the traveller meets with the 
sacred ibis, the typical bird of Egypt, to which the ancient Egyptians 
paid divine honours — in recognition, doubtless, of his services in destroy- 
ing the locust-hosts ; or because his arrival in Egypt is coincident with 
the rising of the Nile. At times he is seen alone, on the river-bank, or 
stalking along one of the irrigating watercourses; at times he forms one 
of a little company of eight or ten, all eagerly watching for tlie molluscs 
on which, as well as on worms and insects, they subsist. Some species 
live upon fish and aquatic reptiles, which they catch in the following 
manner : — They traverse in a body a muddy pool or shallow lake until 
they come upon a place frequented by a large number of fish. Then 
they move to and fro very quickly, and in a kind of dancing measure, 
until they have well stirred up the muddy bottom, and driven to the 
