[شوقي بدري]

هذا الجزء من الكتاب عبارة عن صورة وتعذر تنزيله كنص:

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[align=left]mons comes from the Bey, who an hour before was so
immersed
in his newspaper. Rather reluctantly I follow the
messenger, for the building is a long way from the Customhouse
and thc formalities are not yet all over.
The Bey offers me a chair and asks where I come from and
what my plans are. To my counter-question, what he really
wants, he answers smilingly that he only wanted to inquire
about me. I inform him somewhat crossly that I am thinking
of catching the midday train. c c What a hurry these Europeans
are always in ! " he says in Arabic to his servant, sighs
and orders some fresh coffee.
I run back to my boxes. Everything is being sealed up.
A deposit must be left and the money will be handed back to
nie when I cross the Egyptian frontier at Wadi Halfa. By
chance I ask another oacial about the Customs office at
Halfa and arn informed that there are indeed Customs
guards there but no officials. In other words, I shall never
get my deposit back.
After a lot of running to and fro, they decide to make a
list of my boxes with the value of each. At the Sudan frontier
there will then be duty to pay only on the opened boxes.
But the effendi is nowhere to be found. They look for him
everywhere and finally a servant brings the news that he is
sitting in the canteen having his lunch. Crude, as we
Europeans are apt to be, I disturb him in the middle of a
philosophical discussion and actually get him to follow me.
Everything is now in order, the deposit paid, my boxes and
trunks loaded on a trolley, and we make a dash for the
train. There is no time to lose. I get the tickets quickly
and hand in my luggage. Covered in perspiration I rush
on to the platform, only to see the last carriage of my train
disappearing! The next goes at 3 p.m. and does not arrive
in Cairo till nearly 6.30. It will then be too late to obtain
the visa for the Sudan. That means the loss of four days,
since the steamer only sails to Wadi Halfa twice a week.
It is maddening! But after all one can spend these days
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pleasantly in Egypt too. I reach Cairo that evening. The
usual tumult reigns at the station. At dinner in the hotel I
make the acquaintance of an Egyptian, formerly Professor of
Philosophy at an Italian university. He speaks twelve
languages, among them Swedish. In reply to my question,
how he came to learn that language, he entertains me with
the following story. When he was a student at Cairo he
suffered extreme poverty. He happened upon an advertisement
asking for someone who could speak and write Swedish
enough to translate a book into it from Arabic. He made up
his mind and applied, although he did not know a word of
the language. He received some money on account and
began really to learn it. According to his version of the
story, he did the job to the satisfaction of his employer.
On the way to Trieste I had got a mild attack of influenza,
which had become worse in the cold, damp weather at sea.
As I cannot expect a rapid recovery in the dust of Cairo, I
proceed at once to Assuan, whose climate is warm and free
from dust. The train crosses fertile country. Everything is
now green-it is the beginning of January-and the corn is
standing a span high. What a rich land ! I want to try
out my cinematograph camera at Assuan and imagine that I
shall have an opportunity; the old Baedeker mentions a
Bedouin village as one of the sights of the place. The Bisharin,
for those are the people in question, are industrious
and intelligent and enjoy a world-wide reputation as camelbreeders.
Racing camels are their speciality. I hire a
donkey and go without delay to their camp, which lies
outside the town. We are soon there. But what a disappointment!
These are Baedeker-Bisharin, who do not
work but simply live on the tourists. And how they live I
am soon to discover. I try to take some photos. Children
and old people crowd round me, but the girls, some of
whom are very pretty, flee to their tents. Accustomed to
meet with a distaste for photography among Mohammedans,
I at first put down their flight to religious motives. But I am
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wide of the mark. The old people come to bargain with me
over the baksheesll! They have a special tariff. To photograph
a pretty girl costs twenty piastres! I inquire if they
also dance, as I had seen interesting dances among the
Bisharin near Atbara when I was therc. Oh yes, a dance
costs L5 sterling ! I can do without such expensive pleasures
and try maliciously to get near to a family idyll. My
victims had noticed that I always came up to six or ten paces
from them. I now change my lens and screw in my largest
long-distance one (55 cm. focal distance). I prowl round
the tents, photograph the curious arrangement which enables
drinking water to be kept fresh and then draw closer to the
people, who are watching me intently. When I am thirty
steps away, the camera clicks, and before they are aware of
what is happening I have secured a series of pictures. I
deny myself the pleasure of filming. I ride to the dam and
take several photos of that gigantic feat of modern engineering.
After sunset I return with a cool north wind. The drop in
temperature is a very unpleasant surprise. By day the
thermometer on January I 2th stands at over 86' F., at g p.m.
it is only 54' and at five in the morning not more than 43'.
Yet the climate is wonderful, the air pure and sunny. My
catarrh is cured.
I must now go on to Wadi Halfa. I appear at the station,
as the time-table directs, at twelve o'clock. The effendi at
the platform gates tells me, with a friendly smile, that the
train is unfortunately a little late and will not be in for an
hour and a half. I stroll to the Nile, take a bathe and at
1.30 reappear at the station, to learn that it may require
another half-hour. At last, three and a half hours late, the
little train comes panting and puffing along and in twenty
minutes non-stop does the seven and a half miles of my
journey. Happily the steamer has waited. My luggage is
stowed away quickly and amid a great hullabaloo, and the
steamer sails smoothly on its way. Night falls. The full
moon is reflected in the shimmering water and floods the
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