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Roda Island and Moses 287
Prince of the Faithful, to the Nile of Egypt. If thou flow
of thine own accord, flow not ; but if it be God, the One,
the Mighty, who causeth thee to flow, we implore God,
the One, the Mighty, to make thee flow.' 'Amr did as
he was commanded, and the Nile, we are told, rose sixteen
cubits in the following night.
" The evening before the cutting of the dam, the Nile
about Roda becomes very gay and animated. Boats of
all kinds and sizes bring visitors to witness the ceremony,
and a great state barge, carrying cannon, and ornamented
with lanterns and decorations, sails with much pomp from
Bulak, and moors to the island opposite the entrance of
the canal. The land is as fully peopled as the water ; crowds
gather on the mainland near Masr El-'Atika, and on the
island, and tents are pitched for their shelter and refreshment.
A Cairo crowd easily amuses itself; coffee and
pipes will generally content it, and the mere prospect of
something going to be done is enough to make it very
happy. All that night nobody sleeps. If he wished to,
the constant firing of guns from the big barge, the beating
of drums on the other boats, the discharge of rockets and
general babel of noises would render the desire abortive.
But no one harbours so foolish a wish ; the mere sight
of the Nile that night is a scene out of fairyland. Boats
gaily decked and covered with coloured lamps pass to and
fro, their crews merrily dinning away at the tar and dara-
bukka \ every now and then a rocket flies up against the
quiet stars, and the whole air is alive with sounds and sights
of gaiety and innocent frolic. It is like Venice in the old
carnival time, only the voices and dresses are changed,
and we cannot help feeling that, like the carnival, this
ceremony belongs to an older state of things and an older
religion. As we gaze upon the crowd we feel dimly that
the priest of Isis ought to be there.
" Early next morning the workmen are busy cutting away
the dam, till only the thickness of a foot is left. Soon after
sunrise the ofiicials begin to appear ; the Governor of Cairo
rides up, the Kady reads a turgid document, a boat bearing