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III. Sulim’s father and the other men agreed that their homes must be moved soon, because there was so little grass left near-by that the goats, sheep, and camels would no longer have enough to eat. Sulim’s big brother already had been sent to seek a good place for a new home, and had found one ten miles away. The next morning, as soon as the camels were loaded, one party started on, with Sulim’s brother as guide. The flocks were driven slowly, so they could graze along the way wherever there were desert grasses or other plants for them to eat. By night the new homes were ready. It had been a hard day, and every one was hungry when the time came for’ the evening meal of mutton, goat’s milk, and barley bread. Sulim hoped that some traders would pass by their new home before long, for his father had some wool to sell, and he had promised to buy Sulim a knife from the next traders, if he could. The cataract and dam. — Look at the picture in Figure 65. What do you see in the river? Notice the water carefully. Can you see that it is rough in the part of the river nearest you in the picture? This place in the river is called a cataract, or rapid. The water flows rapidly here because the bed of the river slopes more than it does just above or below this place. The water dashes into spray as it strikes against the islands of rock. You can see that it would be very hard for even small boats to go upstream through this cataract. In Figure 43 run the point of your pencil along the Nile upstream from Cairo till you come to the first sign like this —. This sign stands for the cataract you see in Figure 65. Look at Figure 66. Men have built this great dam across the river just a little upstream from the cataract shown in Figure 65. Would this be north or south of the cataract? At times the Nile was so low that the farmers could not get as much water from the river as they needed. At other times there was more than they could use. Men built this great dam across the river so that some of the water could be held back when they wished it to be. Notice the gates in the dam. If many gates are open, much water goes through. If few gates are open, little water goes through. Some signs not on the map. 1. How do you think the dam would look if you saw it from an airplane? What sign do you think would be a good one tc put on a map to remind you of a dam? Car you find in Figure 43 the place where this sign belongs? 2. If you were in an airplane and looked down on the farms along the Nile betweeii this great dam and the sea, how would this narrow strip of farms look? Think, of a good sign for it that might be put on a map. Going on upstream. — The dam is farthet from the mouth of the Nile than Bagdad is from the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab. The upper part of the Nile south of the dam is several times as long as the lower part north of the dam. What do the signs in Figure 43 show you about cataracts in the upper Nile? The one shown in Figure 65 is called the first cataract. The next one upstream is called the second cataract. The third one is called the third cataract, and so on. To the "Town of the Elephant Tusk." — Going on upstream through the region of the cataracts, you pass through hundreds of miles of desert. At places, high bluffs of reddish-brown granite, which look something like the bluffs shown in Figure 60, are near the river. Here and there along the banks there are clumps of bright green trees which shelter little villages where men are at work taking water from the river for their gardens. There are fewer villages and farms than along the lower Nile. You are no longer in Egypt, but in a region called the Sudan. Except when the water in the river is very high you cannot go through the upper cataracts by boat, but you can go by train along the part of the river where boats cannot take you. The train carries you to the place where a large river from the east, named the Blue Nile, flows into the Nile. Find this place in Figure 43. The main river is called the White Nile upstream from this place. Between the White Nile and the Blue Nile, very near the place where they join, is the town of Khartum. The word Kharturn means "elephant tusk," and the city was given this name because the narrow strip of land on which it is built is shaped somewhat like the tusk of an elephant. From Rhartum you can go on upstream on the White Nile by boat. Something to do. — In Figures 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 you see views such as you might see in the lands near the White Nile. Make a list of all the differences you can find between these views and those you saw along the lower Nile. From the following paragraphs, try to find other differences between the people and lands of the White Nile and those of the lower Nile. Grasslands. — The villages you see along the \Vhite Nile are not like those in Egypt. The houses are round and have cone-shaped roofs of grass or leaves. The walls of some of them are of mud. Palm trees are fewer than in Egypt, but there are many little trees, like the one in Figure 73, and many thorny shrubs. Some of the land is covered with long, coarse grass. Suppose you stop at one of these villages. You might find the women working in little fields of corn and beans near the village. Some of the men might be tending cattle. Others might be hunting. With long spears and knives, they kill deer, lions, and other wild animals of these grasslands. In Figure 72 you can see part of a village on the White Nile. What is there in the picture which suggests one kind of work carried on near the village? The Sudd. — Still farther up the White Nile you pass through a vast marsh called the Sudd. From the steamer you can look across miles and miles of water grass and reeds. You can see great masses of papyrus, a tall grass with a beautiful plume. The ancient Egyptians used it for making paper. When Theodore Roosevelt was collecting animals for a museum in Washington, he hunted for water buck in these marshes. He says, "We pushed the steamer’s nose as near to the shore as possible. The walking was hard; sometimes we were on dry land, and occasionally floundering . . . up to our hips through stretches of reeds, water lilies, green water, and foul black slime. Once or twice we caught glimpses of the game in small patches of open ground covered with short grass; but almost always they kept to the high grass and reeds." A country of big game. — Beyond the Sudd, you are in other grasslands. Some of the grass is three or four feet high. Trees are scattered here and there. Farther along the river, you come to patches of jungle and forest, where the trees are not scattered but grow close together. Elephants feed in these jungles. They like to eat the bean pods which grow on one kind of tree found in these forests. Through the grassland and the forest run many narrow paths. Some of these have been worn by the tramping of elephants. Others have been made by the natives. If you follow an elephant trail you may come upon a herd of elephants feeding. If you follow native trails, they may lead you to villages of round, grass-roofed huts, hidden by the tall grass till you are very near them. Around the villages, the people may have cleared the grass or trees away and planted sweet potatoes, sugar cane, corn, beans, and banana trees. Sometimes the elephants trample the crops of the villagers. Besides elephants, there are giraffes, deer, rhinoceroses, buffalos, zebras, and other animals in these grasslands or in the patches of forest. In no other part, of the world can you find so many kinds of large wild animals. Lake Victoria. — The journey up the Nile and the White Nile is so long that it would take many books of pictures and stories to show you all the things you could see along the way. After you had gone on and on, seeing the things which this book tells you about the places along the river, and finding others that are not mentioned here, you at last would come to a great lake called Lake Victoria. Find the sign for this lake on the map in Figure 43. This, lake is the largest of the three lakes near the head of the White Nile. The White Nile flows from Lake Victoria. At the place where it leaves the lake, the river is about a quarter of a mile wide. Here the water falls, over a rocky ledge about sixteen feet high. Another traveler. — The water that comes tumbling over these falls from Lake Victoria tp the White Nile is starting on a northward journey toward the Medjterrańean Sea, more than two thousand miles away. Some of it never will reach the sea. The cattle along the White Nile may drink it. Abdullah’s father may take it out of the river to put on his farm. Other things may happen to it. The part of it that does reach the sea must travel downstream through the lands that you have just seen on your journey upstream. Had you ever thought of water as such a traveler? You know, however, that water cannot flow uphill. It can move only down a slope. If you think a little about this, you will know that the land near Lake Victoria must be a good deal higher than the land at the mouth of the Nile. The water would not flow from Lake Victoria to the sea if the land did not slope downward from the lake to the sea. The land could not slope from the lake down and down and down as the river flows on’ for hundreds and hundreds of miles if the land at the lake were not a good deal higher than the land near the mouth of the river. As you came upstream, then, you came into higher and higher land. Rain along the White Nile. — Did you wonder, as you read about the scenes along the White Nile, why they are so different’ from those along the lower Nile? Did you think that there must be more rain along the White Nile than along the lower Nile? If you did, you found for yourself one reason why the scenes in these two parts of your journey were so different. Suppose you were to live for several years near the lower part of the White Nile. You would find that all but a few days of each year are without rain. But every summer there would be a few rainy days. The rains during these few days would make grass grow in many places, but as soon as the dry days came again, the grass would turn brown and die. Suppose you were to live a little farther upstream. Here, in most summers, there are more rainy days than there are along the lower White Nile. More grass grows, and the grass stays green a longer time. The farther upstream along the White Nile you lived, the more rainy days you would have, and the more grass and trees you’would find. Along the upper part of the White Nile, toward Lake Victoria, rain falls on many days in the year, and there are not only grasslands but also scattered patches of forest. However, it very seldom rains all day. Most days are bright till about noon. Then clouds cover the sky, and there is a heavy shower. Soon after the shower the sun shines again. In traveling up the White Nile, then, you pass from a land in which there is almost no rain, through lands in which there is more and more rain, till at last you reach a country where there is a great deal of rain. Reasons. — Now that you know about the rain in this region, it is easy to see why people along the White Nile do many things that people along the lower Nile do not do. Does rain run more easily off a sloping roof, or off a fiat roof? Which kind would be better in a land where there is much rain? Which kind do the people along the White Nile build? Why? Would it be easier to get grass for a roof in a land where there is no rain, or in a land where there is enough rain to make grasses grow? Could there be more wild animals that live on grass and leaves in a region where there is no rain, or in a land where there is enough rain to make grass and trees grow? Could there be more animals that live on grass-eating animals in a land where there is no rain, or in a land where there is enough rain to make grass and trees grow? Would men learn more easily to be hunters in a place where there are many wild animals, or in a place where there are few or none? Men can pasture cattle on some kinds of grass which grow in the lands along the White Nile, and so many men there are cattle herders. In a hot, dry land, like that along the lower Nile, people need more clothing than people in a hot, wet land need. In the dry country they need protection from the burning rays of the sun. In a rainy, hot country the trees shelter them from the sun’s rays. Then, too, nights are not so cool in a hot country where there are many trees as they are in a desert, and so people in a hot, wet land do not need so much clothing to protect them from cold as people in a hot, dry land need. As you learn more about people in hot, wet lands, you will find still other things which they do that people in hot, dry lands do not do. Shadows along the Nile. — Did you ever play with your shadow? In what direction does your shadow fall at noon? When Abdullah, who lives on the delta of the Nile, plays with his shadow, he finds that at noon it is always north of him. Does his shadow behave as yours does? Abdullah’s shadow always falls to the north of him at noon because the sun is always south of him at noon. He often looks at the sun and his shadow to see what time it is. Toward the end of June, Abdullah sees that at noon the sun is higher in the southern sky than at any other time of the year. In Figure 74, Abdullah is facing south and is pointing to a place in the sky straight above his head. He never sees the sun as high in the sky as that. In Figure 75, he is facing south and is pointing due south to the place where the earth and sky seem to meet. He never sees the sun as low in the southern sky as that. In Figure 76, he is facing south and is pointing to the place where he sees the sun at noon on the day in June when it is highest in the sky. Imagine yourself with Abdullah in the clover field where he is watching the cattle, and point to the place in the sky where you and he would see the sun at noon on that day. In Figure 77, he is facing south and is pointing to the place where he sees the sun at noon on the day toward the end of December when it is lowest in the sky. Imagine yourself with him, and point to the place in the sky where you would see the sun at noon on that day. Every other noon, if Abdullah looks at the sun, he will see it somewhere between the places to which he is pointing in Figures 76 and 77. Notice his shadows. Is his shadow longer in December or in June? In June is it as long as he is tall? In December is it as long as he is tall? Do you see why? Along the White Nile, shadows play some tricks that they do not play in the United States and in Abdullah’s country along the lower Nile. Mingi is a little boy who lives near the place where the White Nile leaves Lake Victoria. Twice each year, on one day late in September and on another day late in March, he sees the sun at noon directly over his head. His shadow is then neither north nor south of him, but right beneath him. In Figure 78, he is pointing to the place where he sees the sun at noon on the day late in December when it is lowest in the southern sky. Is it higher or lower than’ the place where Abdullah saw it in December? Is Mingi’s shadow north or south of him in Figure 78? In June, he has to look in the northern sky if he sees the sun at noon. In Figure 79, he is pointing to the place in the sky where he sees the sun at noon on the day in June when it is lowest in the northern sky. Point to the place in the sky where you would see the sun at noon on this day if you were in Mingi’s country. Notice his shadow. Is it north of him, or south of him? In your own countries you and Abdullah could never make your shadows go due south of you as Mingi’s shadow sometimes does. But your shadow does something Mingi’s never does. Your shadow at noon is sometimes longer than you are. He can never have a long shadow at noon. Of course he can have a long shadow when the sun is low in the east in the morning, and when the sun is low in the west in the afternoon, just as you can. A Nile exercise. — One of the following lists contains groups of words which suggest the lands near the White Nile; the other list, lands near the lower Nile. Decide which list suggests each.
Have you found any differences between these regions that these lists do not suggest? If so, what? Adding to the world map. — As you look now at your world map (IFig. 43), name all the things that the sign for the Nile River brings to your mind. Your next travels will take you into the region that is south and west of the Nile. If from airplane pictures you could make a map of the coasts, and of the great river in this part of the world, you could add it to Figure 43, which then would look like Figure 80.
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