My Winter On The Nile, Charles Dudley Warner, c. 1876, 1904

My Winter On The Nile, Charles Dudley Warner, c. 1876, 1904.

I found this gem at a small discount book store in Portland, Oregon, for $6.00.  

 "Old style" book; the original. Real heft. 496 pages.

How I would love to mention it in passing to Colleen. Long story. And we move on.

Thirty-eight chapters.

Preface, as it were:

I've read the first several chapters, then got side-tracked and moved to something else. This book is absolutely chock full of Muslim / Mideast trivia. 

Chapter 38: Ismailia. Beautiful. M. de Lesseps. The lotus, seems to have disappeared from Egypt along with the papyrus. 

Lotus.

Lethean properties, p. 472. 

"Lethean" properties vary significantly by context but generally relate to forgetfulness, memory loss, or oblivion. This can manifest as the river Lethe in Greek mythology causing forgetfulness, the Star Trek species' fatal telepathic attacks that can cause amnesia, or even a digital currency designed for untraceable and private transactions.

Erymanthe, page 476. 

"Erymanthe" is likely referring to the Erymanthian boar, a mythical creature from Greek mythology that Heracles had to capture as his second labor. The name also appears in the title of a woodcut by Carlègle depicting this boar as part of the "Works of Hercules" series. 

I actually became a bit tearful at the end of the book. This book was a passion of love for Charles Dudley Warner.  

*****************************
Chapter XIII
Sights and Scenes of the River

flabellum of the pharaoh: p. 168 -- a fan.

the towns they fly by on the Nile:
Abooteeg,
Raáineh, 
Gow -- old Antæopolis; location where Horus defeated Typhon; Gow doesn't exist; most likely  Qaw el-Kebir,
Tahtah
Gebel Sheykh Hereédee

 

Night;
past Soohag, the capita of the province of Girgeh
the White Monastery and the Red Convent
"... and, coming round a bend, as we always are coming rounda. bend, and bringing the wind ahead ..."

"... As if to crows all weathers into wenty-four hours, it clears off cold in the night; annd in the morning whe we are opposte the pretty town of Ekhmeem, atemperature of 51° makes it rather frsh for the me who line the banks working the shadoof, with no covering but beech-cloths." Shadoofs: a pole with a bucket and counterweight used especially in Egypt for raising water.

So, you get the ida.

 

 *****************************
Chapter XIV
Midwinter In Egypt

Time: precession of the equinoxes -- one day of the life of the uiverse; and this day equals 43,200 of our years. Google this / chatbot: quite interesting.

Discussion of "time" in Egypt. 

 *****************************
Chapter XV
Among The Ruins Of Thebes

Homer and Thebes.

Seven-gated Thebes: Greece.

Hundred-gated Thebes: Egypt.

Homer: "hundred-gates Thebes."

Wow, wow, wow. The author now describes Luxor, Karnak, etc.

Thebes in Greece was much, much older than Thebes in Egypt. The latter was named by the Greeks; a city by a different name would have sounded like "Thebes" in spoken Greek. 

*****************************
Chapter XVI
History In Stone