Khartoum, and the Blue and White Niles, Vol. 1 (of 2)

"Khartoum, and the Blue and White Niles, Vol. 1 (of 2)" by George Melly is a travelogue written in the mid-19th century. Drawn from a family journal, it follows an English party as they journey from Alexandria and Cairo up the Nile toward Nubia and Khartoum, blending landscape description with close, often candid, observations of Egyptian society under the Pasha. Expect antiquities, river craft, court ritual, and everyday scenes—bazaars, baths, harems, slave markets, and local justice—filtered through the outlook of a curious Victorian traveler. The opening of the narrative sets out the author’s purpose and party, then carries them from Trieste to Alexandria and on to Cairo, with first impressions of Pompey’s Pillar, Cleopatra’s Needles, crowded streets, and the Mahmoudieh Canal. Early canal travel brings a fierce sirocco, swarms of swimming boys, a striking mirage, and the first encounter with the Nile’s irrigation gear (sakieas and shadoofs), before a hot, cramped night among fellow passengers. In Cairo, brisk sketches cover social classes and dress, women’s seclusion, arranged marriage customs, bustling bazaars and bargaining, an Egyptian bath, the slave market, and the notorious corruption of the cadis’ courts. Sightseeing ranges from the citadel and Mehemet Ali’s alabaster mosque to a dervish ceremony, a formal court presentation to Abbas Pasha via the Nepaulese ambassador (with lavish pipes and coffee), and the ladies’ visit to Ibrahim Pasha’s hareem. Excursions continue to Achmed Bey’s palace and famed Arabian stud, the Tombs of the Caliphs and petrified forest, Shoobra’s gardens (with a hinted-at imprisoned lady), Old Cairo, and the Heliopolis obelisk, before boats are hired—the Eagle and the Fanny—for the upriver voyage. The section closes with a moonlit departure, a comic rat intrusion, introductions to the dragoman and crew, and the first days under sail past pyramids and palm groves, complete with good-natured racing between the two boats and a small etiquette tussle over a crew’s sheep-money at Benisooef.