Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

Chapter.Page

Nilia

 

23 The Fourth Personal Sojourn of Beelzebub on the Planet Earth

23.284

“Well, then, upon this the fourth flight of mine to the planet Earth, our ship Occasion descended onto the sea called the ‘Red Sea.’

“And we descended upon this Sea because it washed the Eastern shores of that continent where I wished to go, namely, to that continent then called Grabontzi and now called Africa, on which those ape-beings I needed then bred more than on any other of the terra firma parts of the surface of that planet of yours; and also because this sea was at that period particularly convenient for the mooring of our ship Occasion; but what was still more important was that on one of its sides that country was situated which was then called ‘Nilia’ and is now called Egypt, where those beings of our tribe then existed who wished to remain on that planet and with whose help I intended to collect the apes.