A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

118 RIVER SCENERY.
eternal sands of the Desert slumbering at their
feet and stretching far behind them into illimit-
able distance. Then rose the crescent moon
how unlike the moon of the West, the cold, pale,
silvery moon sung by our poets ! In
—
these
latitudes it appears to stand out from the sky
like a lamp of pale gold suspended in the blue
ether ;—no wonder that Mahomet should have
chosen so beautiful an image for the rallying
signal of his followers !—too pure and lovely a
symbol by far for a faith so erring and corrupt.
The wind deserted us in the course of the
night, and we were compelled to remain tied to
the shore for some hours, as the current of the
Nile was so strong where we were, that to
attempt rowing against it would have been to
have exhausted our crew to very little purpose,
and our contract only compels the Reis to track
during the daytime. At daylight, however, we
were under weigh again with a fresh breeze
(which was followed up by a breeze of another
nature, of which more anon), the pyramids of
Ghizeh far behind us, those of Sakkara in view,
and beyond them that unsightly pile, the False
Pyramid ; while the immediate banks of the
broad river were fringed with palm groves and
Arab huts—wretched habitations formed out of