CHAPTER XIII THE AMERICAN COLLEGE AT ASYUT 4T ASYUT up the Nile valley about as far south of f\ the Mediterranean as Washington is south of Buffalo, the United Presbyterians of the United States have established a training college for young Egyptians which is doing a wonderful work. I came from Cairo to see it, winding my way in and out along the great river. The valley is narrow above Cairo, being only from three to nine miles in width, so that from the railroad I could see the yellow sand on both sides of the green, watered strip. We were sometimes far out in the desert, and sometimes moving in and out of the irrigated lands. We passed mud villages which border the river and the larger canals. The date trees hanging over them were loaded with honey-coloured fruit. Upper Egypt has vast numbers of dates. There are in the whole coun¬ try something like eight million of these palms, which, at a rough estimate, bring in one dollar annually for every tree.

Asyut is the largest city in Egypt south of Cairo. It is the capital of this part of the Nile valley and the chief centre of its commerce and trade. Before the railroad was built, caravans from the Sudan brought great quantities of merchandise from Central Africa to Asyut and transferred it to other camel trains bound for Tripoli, Cairo, or Suez. The railroad now carries this trade, and the iron tracks 106