volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Nile in Flood. 155
waters. In many of the villages which, we passed I
saw whole families perched on planks which rested in
the forked branches of the dum palms, and they
appeared to be quite comfortable. At night time the stars
of the wonderful Egyptian sky were reflected so vividly
in the still waters out towards the hills, that there
seemed to be two heavens of stars, one overhead and
one on the ground.
We tied up for the night at Girga, and the Rev.
Chauncey Murch, who was going to Akhmim to ordain
a native teacher, took me into the town to make the
acquaintance of some wealthy Copts who possessed a
good collection of Coptic manuscripts. We arrived at
Asyut on Sunday afternoon, and I rode out on a donkey
with one of Hicks' s old officers who had escaped the
onslaught of the Mahdi's troops in 1883, to see some
early tombs in the hills which had recently been discovered
by the natives. We saw some very good
painted wooden coffins of the twelfth dynasty, which
I subsequently acquired. The journey by train from
Asyut to Cairo was in those days perfectly detestable,
as many will remember. Eleven hours were allowed
for the journey of 210 miles, and the train stopped for
five minutes at each of the sixty stations between
Asyut and Cairo. I left Asyut at 9 p.m., but did not
reach Cairo until the following evening, because our
engine broke down several times, and because we were
held up at one place for eight hours whilst they repaired
the damage caused to the railway-bed by the inundation.
Whilst in Cairo I enjoyed the hospitality of General
Sir Francis and Lady GrenfeU at Mustafa Pash§, Fahmi.
Having made arrangements with Brugsch Bey, Conservateur
of the Egyptian Museum at Gizah, for the
sealing and despatch of the cases which were on their
way down the river, I went to Alexandria on the 22nd.
General Sir WilUam Butler, who was then in command
at Alexandria, sent his secretary, Mr. Magro,
to bring me to his house, and showed me much kindness,
and gave me letters to friends of his in Berut and
Damascus.