Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/544

 440 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. changeless in its forms, and a new Egypt brought within the influence of the restless and ever-progressive European world. The chief industry dating from the oldest times is that of pottery, the raw material for which is always supplied in abundance by the mud of the Nile and surrounding wadies. Along the banks of the main stream whole houses are met built entirely of earthenware, which here so often replaces the ordinary brickwork.* The so-called bardaks, or water-jars, produced in large quantities especially at Xeneh in Upper Egypt, are noteworthy both for the variety and elegance of their forms and for their serviceable character. Many are charged with a delicate and durable perfume, while all are made more or less permeable to water. They thus act partly as filters, partly as coolers, keeping the fluid fresh even in the hottest weather by the process of evaporation. The transport of these vessels to Cairo is effected in an ingenious and inexpensive way. Large numbers joined loosely together with their mouths downwards form perfectly buoyant rafts of convenient shape, which by the aid of two or three boatmen are safely floated down the Nile to the head of the delta. The industries introduced by the Arabs are the same as those that have been developed in all other Mussulman lands — saddlery, carpet-weaving, leather-work, copper-work, damascening, gold and silver work. The iron and hardware trades are unimportant, and all utensils and implements of all sorts made of this metal are imported from Europe. Egypt has no iron mines, and in early times the only iron ores known to her were those of meteoric origin. The very expression " celestial substance," employed to designate iron, seems to show that the ancient Egyptians represented the firmament as a metallic vault, some fragments of which occasionally broke away and fell on the surface of the earth, f Trade — Railways and Telegraphs. In the direction of the surrounding deserts, the valley of the Nile is still restricted in its commercial relations to the periodical despatch of caravans, which do not return for some months, and occasionally even for a whole yesLr, from the interior of the continent. But the main stream itself is navigated by steam as well as sailing vessels, while the inhabited districts are traversed in all directions by the locomotive. By steam most of the pilgrims now make the journey to the port of Mecca and back.+ In proportion to its superficial extent, but not to the density of its population, the Nile delta is one of those regions in which the railway system has been most fully developed. Besides this means of communication, over 600 miles of canals, exclusive of the two great branches of the Nile, are open to navigation throughout the year, and during the inundations the navigable arteries are at least three times longer. • • G. Rohlfti, " Drei Morale in der Libyschen "Wuste." t Fr. Lenormant, '• Premitros Civilisations." X Egyptian steamers on the Nile, 40 ; Egyptian steamern on the Red Sea and Mediterranean, 16 ; total of the commercial fleet, 1,500 vessels ; boats and other river craft, 10,300.