CHAP. days of hatching, the eggs are kept carefully VI. turned. At the end of that time, the culling VI. them, as we should say, by the gallon; heaping CHAP. them into a measure containing a certain quan- ✔ tity, for which they ask the low price of a para, rather more than a farthing of our money. Four soldiers were at this time stationed at Berinbal, to protect the inhabitants from being pillaged by our allies, the Turks. Massora Near to this village we noticed the superb Tombs at tomb of some Santon, or Sheik, standing upon Shibrecki. the banks of the Nile. The form of the dome, so prevalent in these buildings, seems to have been originally borrowed from the shape either of a pumpkin or of a melon; the external fluted surface, and almost the entire form of the fruit, being modelled by the architect. The custom also of surrounding a principal tomb with humbler sepulchres, as it existed in ages when the Pyramids were erected, seems, by the appearance of this cœmetery, to have been common in. the country. The place is called Massora Shibrecki. Other travellers have observed, not only in Egypt, but also in Syria, and particularly in the neighbourhood of Damascus, a form of sepulchre precisely corresponding, though upon a smaller seale, with the graduated structure of the Pyramids; being all of them pyramidal, with decreasing ranges, of four or more steps, like VI. CHAP. the principal Pyramids of Succára. It is proper to mention this, because it tends to confirm what was before said of the sepulchral origin of the Pyramids; and also because this peculiarity is not observable in the cœmetery at Massora Shibrecki, which might be supposed to exhibit the usual form of Oriental tombs. The shape here of the smaller sepulchres is rather cylindrical than pyramidal. A little below Berinbal, there is a canal which extends to the Lake Berelos. At the mouth of it we saw some birds of exquisite beauty, to which the Arabs give the name of Sicsack; but (1) Colonel Squire mentions this circumstance twice in his Journal; once in describing the Cœmeteries of Damascus, and a second time in his account of the Pyramids of Saccára. Speaking of the latter, he says, "To this day the inhabitants cover the spot where the body is interred with a sort of monument, which is evidently taken from the form of a pyramid. The large pyramid at Saccára is formed in four stages, and is flat at the top. Indeed, all the Pyramids, although, as it is reported, they may have been cased with a smooth stone surface, are built with steps, and many of them are flat on the summit. At present, the common tombs of the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria are built in this form. In the towns, the work is masonry; in the villages, they are constructed of mud; but they retain, in either instance, a resemblance to the Pyramids in their forms. This, joined to other circumstances, seems to afford a strong proof that the Pyramids were originally intended as receptacles for the dead." Squire's MS. Journal. (2) Sce the Map facing p. 290, in Vol. II. of the 4to. edition of these Travels. VI. Rosetta. could learn nothing further of their history. CHAP. Also a species of Ardea, entirely of a white colour, by some mistaken for the Ibis; but the bill is differently shaped, and the Ibis has generally, if not always, some black feathers near the tail. Hasselquist described the Ibis as a species of Ardea, of the size of a raven3. He says that it eats and destroys serpents*, small frogs, and insects; that it is very common in Egypt, and almost peculiar to that country. We saw only the Egyptian Plover, or Tringa Ægyptiaca of the same author. The rest of our voyage to Ro- Arrival at setta was so expeditious, that we arrived there by eight o'clock in the same morning; and repaired to our former residence upon the quay. As soon as we landed, Mr. Hammer heard that Sir Sidney Smith was upon the point of sailing for England; and being unable to resist the opportunity thus offered of visiting a country he so much wished to see, he gave up the plan he had formed for an expedition to the Oases, and set out immediately for the British fleet. While he was employed in procuring camels for himself and his servant, we wrote a few letters of (3) Hasselquist's Travels, p. 198. Lond. 1766. (4) See Savigny's observation upon the anatomy of the Ibis, denying this property. CHAP. introduction for him to some of our correspond VI. ents in the University of Cambridge, and in other parts of England; and with great regret took leave of our valuable friend. We found an evident difference of climate between this place and Grand Cairo. The dates were not yet ripe; and the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer, when we made our usual observation at noon, had fallen five degrees lower than it stood at Grand Cairo only four days before; being at eighty-nine upon September the first; and this day, September the fifth, at eighty-four. The number of English women that had assembled at Rosetta from the different ships in the fleet, and were walking daily upon the strand, offered a singular contrast to the appearance exhibited by the Arab females, in their passage to and from the Nile for water, and in the markets of the town. To these were also occasionally added the women of the Indian army, now encamped near to Rosetta, wearing large rings in their noses, and silver cinctures about their ankles and wrists; their faces, at the same time, being frightfully disfigured by red streaks, traced above the eyebrows. Each party of these females doubtless regarded the other two as so many savages; and who shall |