46 VOYAGE UP THE NILE. to the Reis Effendi-House of the French Institute-Jewel Market -Interior of CaïroJugglers-Trees - Incense - Gum ArabicPlagues of Egypt-Statistics of Caïro-British Army from India-Dinner given by the Commander-in-chief-Discovery made by Brahmins in Upper Egypt-Examination of an Abyssinian concerning Bruce's Travels-Fidelity of that Traveller's Observations confirmed. CHAP. WE left Rosetta on Monday, August the tenth, at II. Example seven A M. and called upon Captain Hillyar, who had the command of some gun-boats to the south of the town, and whom we found stationed upon the river, on board one of those vessels. His late arduous services, in several engagements with the enemy, were then the subject of very general conversation. The Capudan Pasha, in testimony of the gratitude of the Turkish afforded by Government, had conferred upon him some trifling presents. But that which particularly excited the wonder of all his contemporaries, and which will convey the name of Hillyar to posterity, with honours more lasting than even those obtained by his valour and his victories, was the example offered by this distinguished officer to the navies of the world, in proving the possibility of fighting the battles of his a Naval Officer. II. country, and maintaining unrivalled discipline CHAP. among his crew, without the utterance of an oath by any man on board the ship he commanded. in the Maps We had convincing evidence of inaccuracy in Inaccuracy our best maps of the Delta, and of the course of the of Egypt. Nile, from the earliest comparisons we made in the country. That of Kauffer, published at Constantinople in 1799, is extremely incorrect; but it is less so than preceding documents. Soon after leaving Rosetta, we passed some extensive canals, conveying water to lands above the level of the river: these are supplied by wheels, sometimes turned by oxen, but more generally by buffaloes. They are banked by very lofty walls, constructed of mud, hardened by the sun, One of them, upon the western side of the river, extended to the Lake Maadie. The land, thus Triple watered, produces three crops in each year; the the Delta. first of clover, the second of corn, and the third of rice. The rice-grounds are inundated from the time of sowing nearly to harvest the seed is commonly cast upon the water, a practice twice alluded to in Sacred Scripture. Balaam prophesied of Israel', that "HIS SEED SHOULD (1) Numbers xxiv. 7. Harvest of CHAP. BE IN MANY WATERS." In the directions given raising Wa the Nile. for charity by the son of David, it is written', "CAST THY BREAD UPON THE WATERS: FOR THOU SHALT FIND IT AFTER MANY DAYS." When the rice-plants are about two feet high, they are transplanted. Besides the method of Method of raising water into the high grounds near the ter from river, by means of buckets fastened to a wheel, where the land is not much elevated above the surface of the Nile, they use a simple, and probably a very ancient contrivance of lifting it in a basket lined perhaps with close matting or with leather3. Two men, holding the basket between them, by a cord in each hand fastened to the edge of it, lower it into the Nile, and then swing it between them until it requires a velocity sufficient to enable them to throw the (1) Ecclesiastes xi. 1. (2) See the Vignette to this Chapter. They who are interested in tracing resemblances between the customs of the Chinese and Egyptians, may be informed that this manner of irrigating land, which certainly possesses something of singularity, is practised upon the rivers in China, without the smallest difference. An engraved representation of it is given in the account of Lord Macartney's Embassy. See vol. II. p. 359. Lond. 1797. (3) Those baskets are made capable of containing water without lining. "The Mahrea Arabs have the art of making wicker baskets of so close a texture, that they carry in them, milk, water, and bouza." See Note to p. 189 of Browne's Travels, Lond. 1799. II. water, over a bank, into a canal near the river. CHAP. The regular continuance of their motion gives them, at a distance, the appearance of automaton figures, rather than of living beings. They work stark naked, exposed to the sun's most powerful rays, during the whole day; repeating one of their Arabian songs: for they seem to have a peculiar air adapted to every labour. As to their summer clothing, when they wear any, it consists only of a blue cotton shirt, girded by a belt round the waist. The Arabs whom we saw occasionally near the river, whether alone or in company, made their appearance without any kind of covering. Sometimes. they were seen in parties of ten or twelve at a time, walking together, young and old, as naked as they were born, without seeming sensible of any indecency in their appearance. Fahrenheit's thermometer, observed in the shade, this day at noon, indicated a temperature of ninety degrees. Our course, by a very good boat-compass, given to us by Captain Clarke of the Braakel, was at this time south, half east. In half an hour, we found it to be east and by north. We observed several trees of a very singular form they resembled, by the spreading of their boughs, the shape of a fan, and looked, at a CHAP. distance, like enormous peacocks with their tails II. expanded. As we drew near and examined camorus. Etesian them, they proved to be, every one of them, the Ficus Sy- Ficus Sycamorus, or Sycamore Fig; and of this species, although so common in Egypt, there was scarcely a single specimen in any British herbary, until our return to England. It attains an enormous size near Cairo; particularly in the Isle of Rhouda, where some of them appear larger than the stateliest oaks of our forests. The fruit resembles the common fig in shape; but it is smaller, very dry, insipid, and rarely eaten. The peculiar form of the trees in this part of Egypt is owing entirely to the north and north-west, or Etesian winds, which prevail with much violence, and for a considerable length of time, during the months of July and August. As this monsoon happens annually, at the period of the Nile's inundation, the wonderful advantages it offers for the commerce of the country exceed any thing, perhaps, known upon earth. A vessel, leaving Rosetta, is driven by it with extraordinary velocity against the whole force of the torrent to Cairo, or into any part of Upper Egypt. For the purpose of her return, with even greater rapidity, it is only necessary to take down mast and sails, and leave her to be carried against the wind by the powerful current Winds. |