At one place, the only one point where we stopped in the day time, I
went ashore to see what was called a sacred tree. A young Christian
Egyptian of about sixteen years, whose acquaintance I made here told me
that the sacred tree had great healing power, and sick people would come
and ask its help, and when cured would drive a nail into the tree as a
memorial. The tree showed a great number of nails of all patterns, and
it must not be forgotten that nails here are even scarcer than money. It
is a live tree and nothing nice to look at, it rises from the ground
about four feet straight and then lays over horizontally for about
thirty feet, after which it turns up and throws out branches. The trunk
is about one foot through and the bark is similar to that of our large
thorn tree. Returning to the fleet I saw a young man lying in the dust
on the side of the road, with his mouth open, his tongue out and his
eyes, in fact his whole face a mass of flies, a horrible sight. A little
girl bent over him, pointed to the sick and looked at me. My young
Christian bade me come away saying it was a case of leprosy. My friend
showed me a mosque and a bazaar. Coming out of the bazaar I noticed
three men acting very queerly, walking around in front of a mud hut,
talking dolefully or murmuring and constantly looking to the ground, and
was told that there was a death in the family. My guide saw me back to
the fleet and on the road asked me for a book, and I gave him one. His
people lived in the place. The fertile strips along the river here are
much narrower than in Lower Egypt, sometimes one-eighth of a mile wide
sometimes only about two hundred feet, but to judge from the crops as
well as the cattle and the food the latter find, the soil must be
better.

I should say the river is from a third of a mile to half a mile wide on
the average from Assiout to Assouan, and very shallow, as the steamer,
which drew about five feet of water, got aground often. We reached
Assouan at 10 a. m. on the 21st, not without regret at having had to
pass such famous places as Thebes and Luxor. We camped quite close to
Thebes and there were guides waiting with candles to show us over the
place but we had no time to spare and so were not permitted to wander
about.

We landed two miles below the city at Assouan the lower end of the track
of the seven mile railway to Shellal passing behind Assouan. This
railway is built to portage over the first cataract. Oppo