Found Everywhere, But Luxor Seems Their Natural Home.
Everywhere in Egypt one will find fortune tellers, but no city boasts more for its size than Luxor. Those who read the future with sand are in the majority. They sit cross-legged on the ground and mutter a preliminary jargon. Finally they lift up the sand, and as it trickles through their fingers they claim to see the life of their patron revealed. As none of the prognosticators speak English, and it falls to the lot of the dragoman to translate, it is difficult to place the credit of shrewd guessing where it belongs. At Luxor, as in all cities along the Nile, water for domestic purposes is carried from the river by the women and young girls, and no more interesting phase of everyday life is seen in Egypt than the evening procession of trailing robed figures, many of which now carry large Standard Oil cans instead of picturesque jars upon their heads. The hotels at Luxor are all situated on the river bank, within a few yards of the water, and it is the delight of the guests to sit on the broad verandas and watch the natives who bring up water to irrigate the lawns and to sprinkle the dusty roads.—Harriet Quimby, in Leslie’s Weekly.
The Prescott Daily News, Prescott, AR, January 28, 1908