s here. The most useful coin--corresponding to our
shilling, the French franc, and the Italian lira--is rather like an
overgrown shilling to look at and equal to five piastres or a halfpenny
more than a shilling.

Now we have only to buy some cigarettes for me and some Turkish Delight
for--well, for us both! Then we can go on to our train. Cigarettes and
Turkish Delight are the two things no one ever fails to buy at Port
Said, for here you get them good and cheap.

It will take us four hours to reach Cairo by rail, and we shan't see
anything of the country, as it is dark. And what a country it is!

You will never get used to it, for it is run on lines of its own. The
part of it lying between the legs of the imaginary Eiffel Tower, in
other words, between the mouths of the Nile, is called the Delta, from
the Greek letter [Greek: Delta], which shape it is. Except in this delta
rain never falls, that is to say, not to speak of. Up in Assouan, one of
the larger towns, which we shall visit, they say, for instance, "Rain?
Let me see--oh yes, we did have a shower, two years ago it was, on such
and such a day at four in the afternoon. Pretty smart shower too; the
roofs of the mud houses got squashy and slipped down on the inhabitants.
Quite funny, wasn't it?"

It seems funny to us that anyone could remember the hour of one
particular shower two years ago! With us if there is no rain for a few
weeks the farmers begin to cry out that their crops are ruined. What a
glorious land Egypt must be to live in when there is no chance of any
excursion being spoiled by the weather!

"But how in the world does anything manage to grow?"

I thought you would ask that. Egypt has a system of its own. Once every
year this gigantic river, which cleaves the land into two parts, rises
and overflows all its banks; it submerges the low-lying flat land near
it and carries all over it a rich fertilising mud. The land is
thoroughly soaked, and when the Nile slowly retires, sinking back into
its channel, the crops are planted in the spongy earth.

For many ages no one knew why this happened, and indeed no one troubled
to ask; the ancient Egyptians thought the Nile was a god, and that this
wonderful overflow was a miracle of beneficence performed for their
benefit. Then Europeans began to penetrate into the heart of Africa and
the mystery was solved. The Nile rises far up in the vast continent
where there are mighty lakes lying in among the hills.