The Goderich Signal-Star, 1966-12-22, Page 21ra.
C
a
.Go�der Sigtal•St x, Thur
, 1900
How Do You Separate Egyptians From Egotisticcsl King
HOW do you sepai;atethepeople
of gypt from the ancient his•
tory of the e4otistical Phar.
ao h .s
whose pyramids 'and statues
remain one of .the wonders of
the world? '
We succeeded In taking a look
at rural, Egypt in the Nile YalleY,
as it looks today Writes Lowell.
E. Jessen in the Turlock (Cal.) •
Journa1T4, '
We 'found that., while there are
some evidences of modern agri.
cultural technology,' rural Egypt
by and large remains essentially
the same as it was during the
Middle Ages, and in some resp
pects as it was a•llrbusand years
before Christ. But we couldn't
really separate the pepple from
• their historical past.
. Departing our ship at. Aleaan.
• dria, we Boarded 'a train for a
morning run to Cairo. The'pas.
senger cars looked about the
,same age ae those on the S. P.
But underway we began tobounce
and jerk, to lose our balance
and occasionally to. be raised
two inches off the seat by the
thump and jar of cars as they
skimmed over the roughestroad.
bed we've ever* known.
Fascinating Folk
But to tourists, the working
people on the farms of Egypt
proved more fascinating than the
rattling cars were distracting.
At the first little village we
saw a hundred familiar adobe
desert houses, with flat tops.
At least half of them had a little
round superstructure „with -holes
in it, like a bird .house. In a
few moments we spotted a large
flock of pigeons. The farther
away from Alexandria we sped
the larger the pigeon houses.
• But it wasn't till vie reached
Cairo and the next day, Luxor,
that we saw meh carrying pi.
geons in wire dazes On their
heads, en route ' to market.
'Twas then it dawned on us that
there is- little refrigeration in
Young
Bowlers
Egypt, se the buyers of live bucket full.. In one case there
birds are assured of fresh meat were two such lefts, the man
when they kill their own pigeons, on the lower level raising the
ethe waterabout feet,and a
Also, as.we drew nearer ._. five rnan
river Nile, wenoted the bottom with a similar bucket • raising it
lands were ,levelled for irriga. another five feet to the ditch.
tion, with familiar "lands" like Often , oxen, and especially the
we have in Turlook. .Numerous water buffalo, are used to pump
field trios•cotton,, regular crops either - from the canal, or from
and milo maize, some barely, a shallow well, Along the line
a pretty large acreage of taro, thatIan for more than 300 miles
an occasional date palm orchard. we saw only one tractor in the
grew prolifically. The harvests Yield -plowing, and only one elec.
looked good, but nearly all of txic irrigation pump.
them were done laboriously by ,
hand . Hand picking of cotton.
Hared cutting of corn and barley,
with each handful laid carefully
fn a row. Men, women and child.
ren in about equal numbers work•
ed in the fields, with as many
as 100 people in a cotton field.
The crops were planted yin
smaller acreages and smaller
patches than we are accustomed
to, but the level rich lands stret.
ched as far as the eye could see.
Ancient Canals •
Half a mile to one side --a
dozen large poles rose well above
the horizon. They appeared to be
supported by a smaller pole, each
set being 50 feet apart. Growth
on what later proved to be a
canal bank prevented us from see.
ing .sturdy sail boats, which carry.
produce to market' and return
heavily laden, sometimes *with
gravel, sand and cement. The
small ships graphically illustrate
one of the prime facts of life.
those canals are large, deep
and 'old.. They have been used for
centuries.
Villages .are scattered three
to five miles .apart along the
railroad, and' an oil surfaced
highway parallels the railroad.
In one small t yn we saw sew
eral hundred chool children
lined up for ro call. Just a
couple blocks away. youngsters
of school age were helping their
parents, or herding the family
cow, -pig, sheep ..or, goats ._Upon..
'liquify we ecoid-that-Egypt",lies
compulsory education for six
years, and that schools are run 4
• on half day sessions.
Drying__.Dates
• . As we neared a date palm
The • Pyramids
Arriving in Cairo with a couple
of hours to wait for the train
to Luxor, we hied off to the
pyramids. For some reason the
shutter bugs and tourists didn't
seem° to get the same thrill they,
did eleven years ago, or even
three years ago. They rode the
ca,Mels from the Mena House
(Where President Roosevelt stay
ed during one of his World War
II conferences with Chruchill and
Stalin) past the great Cheops
and down to the Sphinx. If
anything, the camel drivers were
louder than ever in their pleas
for large tips. Perhaps. it was
the distraction of the camel
drivers and a hundred other Arab
people selling all kinds of trink•
ets that added a commercial
flavor to seeing one of the world's
seven wonders.
We had little sleep riding to
' Luxor that night, for the jostling
of the train made it impossible.
So we looked out the window to
marvel at the Nile in moonlight.
Toward morning we were startled
to see two bodies of water right
close to each side of our car.
It didn't seem reasonable that
the- train would be running up
the, middle of the wide , wide
• The high scores` Dec. 17 were:
• 'Brian Rumig with 207, Bob Mc.
quire with 207, andLeeRyanwith
205..
The high'averages.are bantam
girls,, Janet Hyde with 114, ban.
tam boys, John Fisher and Brian
Petrie with 90, junior girls,
Laura Mero with 159 and the
aunior boys, Kevin Rumig with
181.
Some people received . prizes
for Christmas for high scores,
hidden scores, and ,for selling
chocolate covered almonds.
1 The family twosome will be
held Dec. 27.
orchard we saw a kind of cor. •
ral with fences made of corn
stalks tied closely together. In
side the individual areas dates
were drying on large canvas
spreads. And in the trees men
and boys wore large belt like
straps by which they braced them.
selves by looping the belt round
the tree, while picking and trim.
When the canal was close to
our train we saw two men turn.
ing, a long barrel like pump
lifting water six inches to a foot
above the canal level. When the .
lift was •higher, men often put
a counter balance on a pole,
and raised irrigation water by the •
•
-6-6•Azgy
egt-04
Everywhere, Christmas carols
ring out telling the joys of the season .. .
we add our„best wishes.
DON' MacRAE
JEWELLER & WATCHMAKER
The Square
•\ ,, //ji
•
Nile:. Checking, we learned that
after crops are harvested the
farm land is flooded ° in pre.
a,
nextctra.
crop. a
era onfor th
i. e
ditional use of Nile water since
h. story began.
Change of Plans
Arriving in Luxor, the guides
learned that more than200Amer.
lean tourists were ahead of us
at the Valley of the Kings, so our
plans were switched, taking the
trip to Karnak and • the Luxor
temple in the Morning and the
Valley .of the Kings in the after.
noon. In c°bntrast to the pyramids,
Karnak still holds a thrill for
everybody. These ruins have been
uncovered in recent years, re-
vealing a Great Court, a Great
Hypostyle Hall, two small halls
. and court, the Sanctuary, and the
Great Festal Hall. Portions of
the old temple were under con•
§truction when work ceased,
which permitted us to see how the
level of the earth round the
walls was raised • to bring more
huge stones as the walls rose
higher. Also, how the two great
obelisks were put intoplacea.fter
being transported, from Aswan,
75 miles upstream. One obelisk
is more than 300 feet high, is
one piece of solid granite that
weighs more than 600 tons.
Even in ancient times the Great
Hypostyle Hall was known as one
of the "wonders of 'the world.
An impressive ' number of its
original 134 sandstone columns
remain, showing how two roofs
of stone were laid so that the
chamber of air between would
make the temple cooler. Two in-
complete columns show how the
rocks were laid atop each other,
solidly positioned,- and after the
roofs were added, workmen trim.
the night
of the
Savior's birth.
His blessings
be upon all of von.
BEN CHISHOLM
YOUR IMPERIAL ESSO AGENT
0
Entertain Your Holiday Visitors
TAKE THEM OUT
TO DINE AT THE
CLUB GRILL
Med the columns and carveddec«
orations. These -columns are 69
feet high.
Sar. d Lake
Sacred .
Beside the court is the Sa.
cred Lake, built like a huge
swimming pool 3,800 years ago.
It `still holds water, and was
used for religious rituals.
In the Valley of the Kings
We visited the tomb of Tutank.
hamon to learn the story of how
Howard Carter, and Englishman,
discovered King Tut's burial
place, i n 1922, and how, as he
opened the various treasure
stores and coffins he evidently
breathed some of the poisonous
dusts and gases probably placed
there at the time of burial, and
died shortly thereafter. While
this is conjecture, it does add
semblance of authenticity to the
old story that 'whoe..er discov.
tombs ill
the
w
opensm
rand
ors
soon din.
•
Alang� the walls of _. the tomb
of Amenophis II, which was de.
signed to foil the grave.robbing
Rotnans, was a complete invea.
tory of all the things placed
in the tomb` so that the king
would have a rich after life,
Also, this toinb has particularly
bright colors in the original paint.
ings. Murals on the walls, and
other artwork cast a spell over
long.ago visitors, including Her.
odotus, Caesar andAnthony. Nap.
oleon set his engineers to study
the science of Egyptology, but the
key to modern understanding of
ancient writings was when
Champollion successfullydeciph.
ered the hieroglyphics in 1822.
Riding back on the train fO
Vain” : we again watched the
people, _ In cities, in small rural
towns, along- the country roads
they walked. Thousands and
thousands of them., Some rode
camels, Others donkeys. There
were few ,and often no automoR-'
biles, for they are restricted
pretty much to government use,
and taxi drivers. Oddly, nowomen
rode donkeys or horses. -They
always walked, More men than
boys rode donkeys. By andlarge,
the people of Egypt are afoot.
. We pondered the reason for
so many unfinished rooms atop
one and two -tory adobe Nous.
es. In most gases windows and
doors were absent. Quite often
e in'
clotheslines fiap�Nld. `B�t ,the
e
e night ht awls. Roof. s
s t
ih 8
de x
catch h ,. t "ccs , i. g freak the soil
we
ot
. house.
g�.0
e�`ula ed
and -the/ h
t
on two reasons for the apparent
unfinished portions.One, sleep!
ing outdoors to enjoy,the eeoler
air, and two by 'sleeping 15 ifret
ormore above the ground, the,
sleepers are above the Ceiling,
of flight for most mosquitoes
Also, we concluded that Egyp
is changing,
r >r
LwmLrnQ,
The story of Christmas un-
folds again, bringing glad-
ness and sweet peace to inany
hearts. Our wish is that you
and yours be so blessed.
With fond hopes that all
your holiday dreams come tr e, we
send you our best wishes for a Merry Christmas.
Management and Staff of
GERRARD'S
WEST STREET
LAUNDROMAT
Our Dry Cleaning Facilities will be closed on Dece%ber
Z5, 26, 27. Laundry facilities will be open 24 hours as usual;
We Can Accommodate Up To 32 People
r:: fSf%fv
Joyous
err
tame
ti
The glowing light
of the wondrous star
shone down upQ,n a humble
stable at Bethlehem, revealing
to the Wise Men,'and to all, the
Hope and Promise of the world. We
wish for you, on this Christmas Day,
hearts happy and joyous as the Wise Men's.
Bright
and happy
wishes are
coming your way.
May your
hearts be happy
and your Christmas
merry.
GODERICH MANUFACTURING
We join these carolers in wishing you
a very Merry Christmas and the
happiest of holidays. To this we add a
special thank you to all our loyal
customers for their faithful patronage.
olto
LODGE' FURNITURE
OMPA,NY LIMITED
fib
qodzi24 Coc&
•
DIVISION otGODERICH MANUFACTURING (SALES),LIMITED