Egypt — The Nile — Alexandria

Friday, Jan. 4. 1856. — This is Egypt! — the land which, next to Palestine, fills the noblest niche in history. It contains greater wonders, both in its story and in its relics, than Babylon, or Greece, or Rome. It has a history twice as long, and quite as romantic, as that of the “Eternal City;” and the ruins on tie banks of the Tiber are a mere handful of stones in comparison with the ruins of “old Nile.”

Rome is the type of force, — mere force, no more, — Egypt of genius, — fertile and gigantic in all its plans and works. In Rome everything is a copy, — her arts, her poetry, her oratory, — are all copied, either from Greece, or from the farther East. In Egypt all is original. Numerous nations are her debtors; she is debtor to none.

She rises up at once a tull-growTi nation, without infancy or unripened youth. She comes in as heir to the wisdom and science of antediluvian ages. The discoveries of the men before the flood are preserved in her; and Ham, with his son Mizraim, transplants from the plain of Shinar to the valley of the Nile all the stores of ancient art and genius.

In Egypt all is great; — her temples, her palaces, her pyramids, her obelisks, her statues, her tombs. With nothing about her vast by nature, save her river, she has reared for herself monuments of greatness to which earth shews no equal. For what is the Coliseum or the Parthenon to the temples of Dakkeh, Kalabshi, Ibsamboul, or Karnak?

The region through which the Nile flows is the driest in the world. For nearly 4000 miles to the west, spread the sand-plains of Africa; — for nearly as far to the east, the similar deserts of Arabia and Persia. So that Egypt is a narrow strip of land reclaimed from utter barrenness by the waters of the Nile. The surface of this strip is round or convex, with a cut or furrow in the middle, through which the river flows; — so that its waters, when they overflow, cannot get back to their channel because of this natural embankment; thus making the provision for the watering of the land yet more perfect and wonderful. Egypt owes her whole existence to the Nile; and here w-as the great link between her and the God out of whose hand all the rivers of earth are poured. Her own hand, she might say, had given her the grandeur of her temples and pyramids; — but who had given her the river? — that wondrous stream whose course is one of four thousand two hundred miles, during one thousand of which it receives no tributary waters, — fit river for a nation that owed nothing to any other kingdom of earth! Ilence the sin which God charges against her was that of calHng this river her ov;n! Nebuchadnezzar’s sin wrls a boasting of Babylon as his own (Dan. iv. 30). But Pharaoh’s sin was greater. “Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egy-pt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.” (Ezek. xxix. 3-12.)

Yet for more than a thousand miles her river was truly hers, — in the sense of belonging to no other nation. Both banks of the mnje.stic stream were hers. Few countries have either mountains or rivers which they can call wholly their own. The Rhine, to whom does it belong? To Switzerland, or to Germany? The PjTennees, who calls them mine? France or Spain? Britain certainly can say of her hills, they are my oa’hon every side; and of her streams, they are mine, from the first drop trickling down the cliff to the full current that pours itself into the ocean. So of at least a thousand miles of the Nile could Egyt say, it is mine; and had she said it in a becoming spirit, not boastiugly, no sin would have been hers. But she looked on each side of her broad stream and saw no joint-owner, no rival upon earth, — and forgetting who had given her its waters and who had made them, she was lifted up in her pride; — for what nation could tell of a river like hers? “On we passed to Alexandria (thus I wrote home at the time), where Apollos was born, and where long before the birth of Christ the Old Testament was translated into Greek. But all here is Egyptian (or I might say Mahommedan) darkness. Britain makes use of Alexandria for her commerce, but sends no message of grace to her multitudes.... Next to Palestine, Egyt is the most marvellous country in the world. The Bible is full of it. It was the seat of vile idolatry, yet God did more to shake it out of its wickedness than He did to any other Gentile land. From the time of Abraham down to the day when God’s own Son was here, how many blessed feet have trodden it. Strange that Egypt should be the nurse of Christ, the refuge for his infancy against the wrath of Herod. ‘He came to his own and his own received him not.” (John i. 11.) Even as a child it cast him out and ’ would have none of him.’ But a Gentile kingdom received him. A Gentile king gave him shelter. On the banks of a Gentile river, this tender plant grew up. What honour was thus given to Egypt! And for this there is yet to be a blessing in the latter day. For though for ages the ‘basest of kingdom;’ (Ezek. xxix. 15), it is yet to be lifted up and blest, — in that day when ’ the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be EgqDt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.’ (Isa. xix. 25.) So I thought as the eye rested on its varied desolations. We have so associated Egypt with darkness and idolatry, that we have forgotten the good things related of it, and the riches of grace yet to be manifested towards it in that day when the glory of Jehovah shall burst forth like dayspring for a benighted world.”

I need not speak of the old obelisk, misnamed “Cleopatra’s Needle,” on which is written the history of other days long before the age of “Egypt’s widow;” nor of the curious old square limestone-blocks in its neighbourhood, over which the wave washes, and on which the sea- weed grows or rots; nor of Pompey’s Pillar; nor of Alexandria in general. All these are well known. The most interesting object which I saw, though I did not examine it till my return in April, was the ruin, or rather the large enclosure of ruins, lately dug up by the Pasha, about an hour’s ride from the town, bej’ond the catacombs, close by the sea, and not far from the “battle-field” where Abercrombie fell. It is called “Coesar’s Camp,” — I know not why; for it is not a camp, in the proper sense of the term, but a regularly fortified suburb of the city. The ruins of some six or seven towers are lisible. The foundations of villas are clearly marked with large hewn stones; the remains of finely tesselated floors appear here and there. Altogether it is the place of greatest interest in this neighbourhood. In the town, too, are the remains of the foundations of the famous Library. At least some of the ruins recently dug up in erecting some new buildings are supposed to be the relics of the ancient Library. They lie scattered about in the shape of polished stones, broken shafts of pillars, and ornamented capitals. All round the town are immense mounds of broken pottery.

These may be said to extend for miles, and are curious

as shewing the vast quantity of such materials formerly

in use. Perhaps they are in part remains of the small

brick cylinders commonly employed in building walls,

or at least the upper parts of the walls. Not only in

Egypt, but in Jerusalem and the towns of Syria, this is

frequent. It gives lightness to the walls themselves

and airiness to those parts which they inclose. But

certainly at Alexandria the amount of these fragments

is almost unaccountable. Yet we must keep in mind

that Lower Egypt has no quarries. Its building-stones

are from the far south, and in the Delta it is out of clay

or mud that the materials for building are obtained.

Hence in the ruins here you have just two kinds of

del)ris, — large stone-blocks and earthen fragments, —

with nothing between, in the shape of small stones, &c.,

as you have in Palestine. Brick-making must have

always occupied a very large amount of native labour;

and out of this the toils and miseries of Israel, in the

day of their bondage, arose. (Exod. i. 1 4.)

Alexandria has now existed about two thousand two hundred years, and has seen many a change both in its circumstances and in its governors, from Alexander the Great to Said Pasha, its present miserable ruler, who by his cruelties has made himself vile in the eyes of his own sulijects; so that to this day we see still in fulfilment the ancient word of prophecy, “The Egyptians will I give over into the hands of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them.” (Isa. xix. 4.) The

English of course lie dare not touch, as he could not afford to lose the <£*! 50,000 a-year that flows directly into his coffers through their East India traffic. But the natives are made to smart, and especially the poor Bedaween of the Desert. They happened lately to provoke his anger, and troops were sent to subdue them. But who can track the paths of these sons of the rock and sand? “What army could find its way into their retreats, or hope either to capture or to conquer them? You might as well chase the wild goat or the eagle. Accordingly the Pasha came to terms with them, made fair promises, and persuaded them to lay down their arms. No sooner is this done than they are in chains! On they are driven, linked to each other, — scorched, starved, weary, thirsty, — till they reach Alexandria. There some are placed before the cannon’s mouth and blown to pieces, — others sent to i:»rison, there to starve and rot, the living and the dead together. The rest are kept for the hardest work that the Pasha can find for them; and more than once we saw them passing to their weary toil in chains, through the streets. It was sad to see these free sons of Arabia, — thus torn from their tents and sands, and brought to pine in fetters, and die at length over-wrought and broken-hearted. Just the other day, too, one of the slaves of the same Pasha, in handing him a cup of coffee, spilt a drop upon his robe. In a moment the Pasha drew his scimitar and cut him down, leaving the carpet sprinlded riiAPtOS. 23

with blood and brains. Poor Egypt! when shall thy bondage cease and the day of thy deliverance dawn?

But there are golden fetters for Egypt as well as iron. Alexandria is a great merchant-city for all nations; and here the thirst for gold prevails. To “buy and sell and get gain” (Jas. iv. ] 3) — this is Egyptian life.

Yet here learning once flourished; and the 700,000 volumes of the Alexandrian Library tell how vigorously it did so. Here, too, the Evangelist Mark preached the gospel, and here Apollos taught. Here Origen led the way, and Dionysius followed him, in perverting Scripture by a vain philosophy, finding figures and fancies in every verse. Here Athanasms held fast the belief in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Here, too, the unhappy Jews were persecuted, and 40,000 of them put to death to gratify the hatred of the “patriarch Cyril” — a man who in after ages was called a “father” and a “saint!”*

One evening Mr Brown and myself got hold of a small boat or cobble, in which was a father with his little boy. We made them row us round the island of Old Pharos, where Ptolemy Philadelphus, in B. c. 283, built the famous light-house, which was once reckoned

* In Egypt, as clsowbcre, the Jew was to have “trembling of heart;’’ — aijil hence in the latter day, when on the eve of final restoration, it is written of them, “They shall tremble as a bird, out of Egypt” (IIos. xi. 11), — that is, they shall fly as a frighted l)ird, when escaping from the cage, to its own native skies and woods. This is when the Lord “sets his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people.. from Egypt.” (Isa. xi. 11).

among the seven wonders of the world. The night was calm but chill; and a cloudy sky, throwing shade over the sea, made the scene look bleak and sad. The small waves slowly breaking over the rocks in front of the light-house, and then finding their way past us to the peninsula on which it is built, threw up a dull and heavy sound, — not like the joyous “music of the waves.” Yet the sea was quiet, and did not confirm Homer’s epithet of stormy, which in describing Pharos he applies to it. Nor did we find it a day’s sail from Egypt as that olii poet affirms; — it took us less than an hour to go and return. It is no more a light-house, but a poor worn-out fort, yet in former ages it lighted many an “ancient mariner” to the harbour of the princely city, the second Tyre or Carthage. Its beacon-light is gone, and its white marble exchanged for yellow masonry and plastered ruins.*

On different occasions we saw several Arab funerals, on their way to the burying-ground, which is quite out of the town, near Pompey’s Pillar. They use no coffin in the East; but the body, wrapped in its shroud, is placed in a sort of cradle, set on poles, and so carried on men’s shoulders. The cradle is covered with a pall, if I may call it so, of red and yellow cloth. The mourners in one case were about twenty in number, in others less; wearing their ordinary dress, and moving briskly along at a considerable pace, singing lustily the Moslem creed, “God is great,”

“Albo lapide mirifice stnicta.” — Pliny or Strabo, I am not sui-e which.

During our walks we saw something of the nature and produce of this fertile land. Palms, prickly pears, oranges, acacias, tamarisks, — all bore witness to the heat of the climate as well as to the richness of the soil. Though perhaps it is only the orange that blossoms and bears fruit at the same time, yet every month in EgyjDt has its flowers and fruits, all the year round.

Some ripening, ready some to fall,

Some blossomed, some to bloom.
Like gorgeous hangings on the wall

Of some rich princely room.

We marked with some interest the various signs above the shops, both in the great square and in the bazaar, some English, some French, some Italian, some Greek, some Arabic, — fit representatives of the various nations of which the city is composed. We were pleased to notice some turtle-doves flying about on some of the houses; but were rather discomposed at first by the howling of dogs at night. Yet what town, or fort, or village, or encampment in Egypt, Syria, or the desert, is free from this nuisance? It brought to mind more than one passage of Scripture. “Against Israel shall not a dog move its tongue.” (Exod. xi. 7.) Often did we wish it had been so with us! “Dogs have compassed me.” (Psa. xxii. 16.) Every traveller, passing by or through an Arab village, knows what this is, and knows also that a stone or stick soon makes them fly. “They return at evening, they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.” (Psa. lix. 6.) How exact the picture! “Without are dogs “(Rev. xxii. 1 5.) “Who ever saw a dog, in the East, -witliin a house or tent? If not always without the walls of the city, they are always outside the dwellings, — a wandering race of prowlers whom no man owns, whom no man feeds, and for whom no man cares; yet each has his own quarter of the city, beyond which he dare not intrude, save at the risk of being torn in pieces by the dogs of that quarter into which he has intruded. One of God’s sore judgments on the land was this, “the dogs to tear,” (Jer. xv. 3), and how often did we see the dog tearing the dead carcase of the camel!

In passing through the bazaars we marked the different processes of eastern manufacture. Here were massive silver rings and chains, roughly cut and quite unpolished, yet of true metal, — exposed for sale on a small wooden table, by a poor Arab woman. Here was a coffee-pounding shop, — for in the East cofiee is not ground but pounded. Three half-naked boys, with pestles as long as themselves, smrounded an immense mortar which could have held any two of them, and thumped away, with alternate strokes, till they had reduced the well-burnt beans to a fine black powder. Yet even out of such a mortar as this, and under such a pestle, the fool of which Solomon spealcs would emerge with his folly all about him, — “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat, with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.” (Prov. xxvii. 11] Here, again, was a vermicelli merchant, busy both va making and selling his article. He stands before a large circular plate of copper, very slightly convex, and some three or four feet in diameter, under which is a small fire of charcoal. He then wipes the plate with a sort of towel, which seemed to have some olive-oil on it, which prevents the stuff from sticking to the plate. Then he takes a tin jug or dredging-box, filled with a thin gruellike sul)stance of flour and water, and pierced in its bottom with small holes; — this he moves round the plate at a height of perhaps a foot or less, till the whole surface is covered with what appears to be fine white wire from the droppings of the box. As the heat of the plate not only prevents the falling drops from nmning together, but bakes them at once, the whole process is done in a single minute, and the layer removed and laid aside in a coil, to make room for another.

Various other eastern processes we used to mark, — curious and primitive, but they are too many to be noted.

One little shop I visited more than once. It is so little that more than two persons can hardly find sitting room in it. Its shelves are loaded with bibles and tracts, in some ten or twelve difierent languages, — Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Italian, &c. A slight curtain is drawn across its entrance; and within sits the unwearied missionary, Mr Brown, several hours each day, waiting to catch the passing Jew, or Arab, or Greek; for though his mission is specially to Israel, yet no nation is overlooked by him. You draw aside the curtain and you find him dealing out his precious wares or sitting side by side with some inquirer, shewing him out of the Scrip-

28 BAY OF ACOUKIll.

tures that Jesus is the Christ. Quietly does his work go on in that obscure shop, day by day, — the stream of the busy merchant- world running by, and few, few to cheer him in his toil of patient love. Issuing from his shop, and locking its green door behind him, he accosts the passers by. He meets a Greek perhaps and offers him a Greek tract; but it is the merchandise of earth that the man is in quest of, and though he receives the tract civilly, he shews no interest in eternal truth. Or it is a Mahommedan that he falls in with; — and he, when a tract is offered, asks, “what is it about.” When told, “it is about religion,” he takes it, but intimates plainly enough that there is no truth and no religion save in the Koran. Or he comes upon a Jew and asks him about the Messiah promised to the fathers. “Oh, you mean the man that was hanged,” he replies, and turns away in scorn.

Yet no seed ftills into the ground in vain, even in this unfruitful world. The lonely sower of the seed has his day of joy in store.

One forenoon I was standing on the beach, looking out upon the green sea with its “many twinkling “*

* Keble gives us “the many-twinkling smile of ocean” as the translation of the well-knovv-n passage in the Prometheus of jEschylus, But the epithet is not his own. Graj’ had long before made use of the word, though, with auothei- reference, —

“To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet” — Progress of Poesy f and, thirty years before Gray, Thomson had written, — ...” The many twinkling leaves Of aspen tall.” — Seasons: Spring.

waves. The wind wliioli had been blowing from the west for several days had just gone round to the east, and to the right, at the point of the Bay of Aboukir, the whole horizon seemed suddenly fringed with white clouds rising out of the sea. They were native boats in full sail, making for Alexandria. I stood watching them, and as they came nearer tried to count them, but in vain. I counted upwards of a hundred and then lost my number. It was as noble a sight as I had seen. Two hundred white lateen sails, filled with the fresh east wind and gleaming to the noon! They appeared to form one continuous line, several miles in length, and rushed gallantly before the breeze as if contending for victory in the race, or hastening, like eagles, to their prey. They had been windbound at Rosetta, and were now sot free.. When we were in Alexandria the Latin convent was busy with its hells. A fine set of these had just been put up; and a grand festival was held in their honour. We heard more than enough of them. They seemed to be rung hour after hour, as if in triumj)h over their rival sects. The bells were sweet enough in tone, and made themselves heard at long-enough distances. But what does all this do for the thousands of the city? The “vesper bell “sounds finely in poetry, but what is there in it to lead a human spirit out of the worldliness in which this city lies, or to say to one of its citizens,” Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God V They do not summon men to hear the gospel which Mark once preached on these shores.

80 Egypt’s need.

AVorldliness and philosophy corrupted Alexandria’s earlier faith, till Christianity under Origen or Cyril became little better than the heathenism which it had supplanted, and nothing but the ancient truth which Mark made known, and which thousands received from his teaching, will find its way through the indifference, the tmbelief, the covetousness, the superstition with which such eastern cities are fenced round. Alexandria needs a Mark and it needs an Apollos too. Would that there were such now in it, to bear witness of a world to come, — such a witness as would lead men to seek tieasure ill an everlasting city.