Egypt and its monuments . in bygone days, the Lady ofPhilae, the land began to change in character, to be fullof a new and barbaric meaning. In recent years I havepaid many visits to northern Africa, but only to Tunisiaand Algeria, countries that are wilder-looking, andmuch wilder-seeming, than Egypt. Now, as I ap-proached Assuan, I seemed at last to be also approach-ing the real, the intense Africa that I had known in theSahara, the enigmatic siren, savage and strange andwonderful, whom the typical Ouled Nail, crowned withgold, and tufted with ostrich plumes, painted with kohl,tattooed, and p
Egypt and its monuments . in bygone days, the Lady ofPhilae, the land began to change in character, to be fullof a new and barbaric meaning. In recent years I havepaid many visits to northern Africa, but only to Tunisiaand Algeria, countries that are wilder-looking, andmuch wilder-seeming, than Egypt. Now, as I ap-proached Assuan, I seemed at last to be also approach-ing the real, the intense Africa that I had known in theSahara, the enigmatic siren, savage and strange andwonderful, whom the typical Ouled Nail, crowned withgold, and tufted with ostrich plumes, painted with kohl,tattooed, and perfumed, hung with golden coins andamulets, and framed in plaits of coarse, false hair, rep-resents indifferently to the eyes of the traveling at last I saw the sands that I love creeping downto the banks of the Nile. And they brought with themthat wonderful air which belongs only to them—theair that dwells among the dunes in the solitary places^that is like the cool touch of Liberty upon the face of a 2 12. PHIL.^ man, that makes the brown child of the nomad as Hthe,tireless, and fierce-spirited as a young panther, and setsflames in the eyes of the Arab horse, and gives speedof the wind to the Sloughi. The true lover of thedesert can never rid his soul of its passion for thesands, and now my heart leaped as I stole into theirpure embraces, as I saw to right and left amber curvesand sheeny recesses, shining ridges and bloomy clean delicacy of those sands that, in long andelowinsf hills, stretched out from Nubia to meet me,who could ever describe them? Who could ever de-scribe their soft and enticing shapes, their exquisitegradations of color, the little shadows in their hollows,the fiery beauty of their crests, the patterns the coolwinds make upon them? It is an enchanted royaitmeof the sands through which one approaches Isis. Isis and engineers! We English people have effectedthat curious introduction, and we greaUy pride our-selves upon it. We have p
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