By Mursi Saad El-Din I have just returned from what can be termed a journey of discovery, having enjoyed a Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan. The reason behind that venture was the arrival of my Canadian granddaughter to Egypt to spend two weeks with us. We thought that such a cruise would be the best way to introduce her to both the monuments of her late father's civilisation and to the contemporary life of a large part of Egypt that she may not otherwise see. To my mind, of course, a cruise on the Nile recalls the British travellers to Egypt who used to rent a Dahabiya from the port of Bulaq and travel up the river to Aswan and beyond. Ours, however, was a less languorous, leisurely cruise: we had to make do with the stretch of the Nile between Luxor and Aswan, with stops en route in Edfu, Esna and Kum Ombo. But then our version of the Dahabiya was a luxurious boat that goes by the name of Nile Beauty -- hardly an original name in view of the many other cruise ships named after the river. I could not help reflecting that, since ancient times, the Egyptians have worshipped the Nile. They guarded the river with love and affection, and it was taboo to soil the Nile, which in Ancient Egypt was called Hapi. A latter- day version of these strictures --- if this is not too fanciful a connection to be making -- can be seen in the instructions used by environmentalists against polluting the river. Enjoying the unique weather and the pleasant ambiance on board, I could not help but reminisce about three women travellers in particular: Florence Nightingale and her book Letters from Egypt, Lucie Duff Gordon and her book Letters from Egypt, and Amelia Edwards and her book A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. Apart from their vivid descriptions of the ancient monuments, these three women travellers were taken by the river and had a great deal to say about it. In writing about the Nile, Florence Nightingale, I note, refers to the river as "he". For her part, Lucie Duff Gordon has many flights of lyricism about "the noble old stream" which strikes her as "as young.... as ever", and she remarks that she understands how Egyptians have worshipped the Nile. Amelia Edwards was a writer with many novels to her name. She fell in love with Ancient Egypt and was instrumental, in the late 19th century, in the creation of the "Egyptological Society" and the "Egypt Exploration Society", which financed the excavation work of the famous Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie. She also helped establish a chair of Egyptology at University College, London. She again had a great deal to say about the Nile, which she describes memorably as "molten gold". There are, of course, many other European travellers on the Nile -- not least Gustave Flaubert -- but it is these women writers and their perceptions that have stayed with me most. During our cruise I tried to relive the experience of those travellers. What helped me do this was the Rais or captain of the boat, a Saidi dressed in the gallabia style typical of Upper Egyptians, who handled the boat like a naval admiral. He knows every turn of the Nile and every trick to control it. Watching him, it seemed to me that the river has what one might describe as a "Nile Code of Ethics", respected and applied by all those who ply it. No boat can overtake another; they all move according to a schedule and a timetable which are strictly adhered to. When the ships cross each other, they exchange greetings coded differently depending on the time of day: by night, there is the exchange of flickering light signals; by day, they blow their sirens.
