Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/406

 386 Cairene Folklore.

night, until at last the treasure-seekers gave up their fruit- less labours in despair,

The belief in the enchanted character of the ancient monuments of the country, and of the ground on which they stand, is illustrated by some stories I have heard from natives of Karnak at Thebes. It is believed that a golden boat, manned by golden sailors, floats every night on the sacred lake of the ancient temple. In this legendary boat we have a tradition of the gilded vessel of Amon-Ra, in which the image of the god was ferried over the waters of the sacred lake on the days of festival, and which still sur- vives in the boat which is carried in procession every year through the streets of Luxor at the festival of the Moham- medan saint Abu '1-Haggag, who has taken the place of Amon-Ra. Once I was told a man passing by the sacred lake of Karnak saw the boat moored to the shore, and seized the peg to which its rope was fastened, as well as the wooden mallet used for driving the peg into the ground, which happened to be lying beside it. Immediately after he had done so the boat disappeared from view. But he found that both the peg and the mallet were of gold, the sale of which made him a rich man. He is still alive, and in consequence of his discovery is one of the wealthiest fellahin in the village.

At an earlier period the captain of a Nile-boat which was filled with a cargo of lentils, was stopping at the bank below the temple of Karnak, when he was accosted by a beggar, who asked for an ardeb (5'44 bushels) of lentils. The request was refused, and the beggar then asked for half an ardeb, then for a quarter of an ardeb^ and finally for a kaila (3"63 gallons) ; but the captain of the boat was too niggardly to give him anything. At last, however, wearied by his importunity, he told the beggar he might take the leavings of the cargo in the hold of the boat. When the beggar had collected them he gave the captain a paper, and told him to go to the Bab el-'Abd, or " Gate of the