country on each side of the Nile, as far as Sennaar, under his subjection, and for this purpose he sent an army, under his youngest son Ismael. Of the activity and rapid progress of this young officer, his humanity and traits of generosity towards his prisoners and the conquered inhabitants, several instances are recorded. One single act of severity, however, proved fatal to him. He had ordered, when at Sennaar, one of the chiefs of that country to be bastinadoed, who seized the first favorable occasion to avenge himself. Ismael had gone to a village at some little distance from Sennaar, with a small guard of forty men; the chief, with a party, followed him thither, and, surprising his lodgings by night, stabbed him to the heart with a poniard, and most of his guards fell in the scuffle.

One of the objects of this expedition was that of recruiting his army with the blacks of Sennaar, Shendy, Kordofan, and the neighbouring countries, which was accomplished to the number of from 16,000 to 18,000 men. These unhappy beings were all of them, in the first place, vaccinated, and were then instructed in manual exercise and military evolutions, in the European mode, by some French officers. The hopes of the pacha, however, were greatly disappointed in these black troops. They were strong ablebodied men, and not averse from being taught; but when attacked by disease, which soon broke out in the camp, they died like sheep infected with the rot; such was the dreadful mortality that ensued, that, out of 18,000 of these unfortunate men, 3000 did not remain alive at the end of two years.

He now had recourse to a regular conscription of the Arabs or Fellahs, of whom he seized about 30,000 indiscrimately, and had them conveyed to Upper Egypt under a military guard. These, with the remains of the black slaves, a few Berbers, and the Mameluke officers, compose the pacha's present army. Twelve Europeans, chiefly Italians, were employed as instructors; at their head is placed colonel Léve, formerly aid-de-camp to Marshall Ney. A new conscription took place in 1814, of 15,000 more, it being the intention of Mohammed Aly to keep up an army of 40,000 men, one battalion of which is to be stationed at Alexandria, to be trained as marines for his navy, which is to consist of forty vessels of different rates, the seamen being entirely Arabs. His adoption of European tactics has been thought by some travellers to be preparatory to throwing off his allegiance to the Porte, to whom it is supposed he has given irreparable offence by his former protection of the Greeks: he has lately, however, made the amende honorable, we presume, by his expedition against the Greeks; and his presents to the Porte have been splendid and

constant.

We again advert to the statistical and other peculiarities of this interesting country, with a view to furnishing the reader with the latest information of travellers on these points.

The river Nile, when swelled by the rains which ta. in Abyssinia, begins to rise in Egypt about the month of May; but the increase is inconsiderable till towards the end of June, when

it is proclaimed by a public crier through the streets of Cairo. About this time it has usually risen five or six cubits; and, when it has risen to sixteen, great rejoicings are made, and people cry out Waffah Allah, i. e. God has given abundance. This commonly takes place about the end of July, or before the 20th of August; and the sooner it takes place, so much the greater are the hopes of a good crop. Sometimes, though rarely, the necessary increase does not take place till later. In 1705 it did not swell to sixteen cubits till the 19th of September, the consequence of which was, that the country was depopulated by famine and pestilence. We may easily imagine, that the Nile cannot overflow the whole country of itself, in such a manner as to render it fertile. There are, therefore, innumerable canals cut from it across the country, by which the water is conveyed to distant places, and almost every town and village has one of these canals. In those parts of the country which the inundation does not reach, and where more water is required than it can furnish, as for watering of gardens, &c., they have recourse to artificial means for raising it from the river. Formerly they made use of Archimedes's screw, but now, in place of it, they have the Persian wheel. This is a large wheel turned by oxen, having a rope hung with several buckets which fill as it goes round, and empty into a cistern at the top. Where the banks of the river are high, they frequently make a basin in the side of them, near which they fix an upright pole, and another with an axle across the top of that, at one end of which they hang a great stone, and at the other a leathern bucket; this bucket, being drawn down into the river by two men, is raised by the descent of the stone, and emptied into a cistern placed at a proper height. This kind of machine is used chiefly in the upper parts of the country, where the raising of water is more difficult than in places near the sea. of their gardens or plantations want water, it is conveyed from the cisterns into little trenches, and from thence conducted all round the beds in various rills, which the gardener easily stops by raising the mould against them with his foot, and diverts the current another way as he sees occasion. The rise of the inundation is measured by an instrument adapted for the purpose, called mikeas, which we translate nilometer. It is a round tower near Cairo, with an apartment, in the middle of which is a cistern neatly lined with marble. The bottom of this cistern reaches to that of the river, and there is a large opening, by which the water has free access to the inside. The rise of the water is indicated by an octagonal column of blue and white marble, on which are marked twenty cubits of twenty-two inches each. The two lowermost have no subdivisions, but each of the rest is divided into twenty-four parts, called digits; the whole height of the pillar being thirty-six feet eight inches. When the river has attained its proper height, all the canals are opened, and the whole country laid under water. During the time of the inundation a certain vertical motion of the waters takes place; but, notwithstanding this, the Nile is so easily managed, that many fields

When any

still indifferent.

The only thing in which they can be said to have arrived at any degree of perfection, is the manufacture of silk stuffs; though even these are far less highly finished than those of Europe, and likewise bear a much higher price. One extraordinary art indeed is still extant among the Egyptians, and appears to have existed in that country from the most remote antiquity; a power of enchanting the most deadly serpents in such a manner, that they allow themselves to be handled, nay even hurt and wounded severely, without offering to bite the person who injures them. Those who have this art are named PSYLLI. See that article. But the pacha has introduced colleges and academies for the instruction of youth in foreign languages and mathematics; afforded toleration to all the European and other religious sects; and encouraged the practice of vaccination and the surgery and pharmacy of Europe.

Mr. Bruce gives a long account of the sources of the vast quantities of marble, met with in the remains of ancient buildings in this country; and which supplied in ancient times, we know, the materials of many of the public buildings of Italy. These he discovered during his journey from Kenne to Cosseir on the Red Sea, before he went to Abyssinia. At Hamra the Porphyry Mountains and quarries begin, the stone of which is at first soft and brittle; but the quantity is immense, as a whole day was taken up in passing by them. These Porphyry Mountains begin in the latitude of nearly 24°, and continue along the coast of the Red Sea to about 22° 30′, when they are succeeded by the marble mountains; these again by others of alabaster, and these last by basaltic mountains. From the marble mountains our author selected twelve kinds, of different colors, which he brought along with him. Some of the mountains appeared to be composed entirely of red and others of green marble, and by their different colors afforded an extraordinary spectacle. Not far from the Porphyry Mountains the cold was so great, that his camels died on his return from Abyssinia, though the thermometer stood no lower than 42°. Near Cosseir he discovered the quarries whence the ancients obtained those immense quantities of marble, with which they constructed so many wonderful works. The first place, where the marks of their operations were very perceptible, was a mountain much higher than any they had yet passed, and where the stone was so hard that it did not yield to the stroke of a hammer. In this quarry he observed that some channels for conveying water terminated; which, according to him, shows that water was one of the means by which these hard stones were cut. In four days, during which our author travelled among these mountains, he says, that he had 'passed more granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper, than would build Rome, Athens, Corinth, Syracuse, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen such cities." It appeared to him that the passages between the mountains and what he calls defiles, were not natural but artificial openings; where even whole mountains had been cut out, in order to preserve a gentle slope towards the river. This descent

Mr. Bruce supposes not to be above one foot in fifty; so that the carriages must have gone very easily, and rather required something to retard their velocity than any force to pull them forward. Concerning the mountains in general, he observes, that the porphyry is very beautiful to the eye, and is discovered by a fine purple sand without any gloss. An unvariegated marble of a green color is generally met with in the same mountain; and where the two meet, the marble becomes soft for a few inches, but the porphyry retains its hardness. The granite has a dirty brown appearance, being covered with a sand; but, on removing this, it appears of a gray color with black spots, with a reddish cast all over it. The granite mountains lie nearer to the Red Sea, and seem to have afforded the materials for Pompey's pillar. The redness above mentioned seems to go off on exposure to the air; but re-appears on working or polishing the stone farther. The red marble is next to the granite, though not met with in the same mountain. There is also a red kind with white veins, and vast quantities of the common green serpentine. Some samples of that beautiful marble named Isabella, were likewise observed; one of them of that yellowish cast called quaker color, the other of the bluish kind named dove color. The most valuable kind is that named verde antico, which is found next to the Nile in the mountains of serpentine. It is covered by a kind of blue fleaky stone, somewhat lighter than a slate, more beautiful than most, kinds of marble, and when polished having the appearance of a volcanic lava. In these quarries the verde antico had been uncovered in patches of about twenty feet square. There were small pieces of African marble scattered about in several places, but no rocks or mountains of it; so that our author conjectures it to lie in the heart of some other kind. The whole is situated on a ridge with a descent to the east and west, by which means it might easily be conveyed either to the Nile or Red Sea; while the hard gravel and level ground would readily allow the heaviest carriages to be moved with very little force. In the Red Sea in lat. 25° 3′, at a small distance from the south-west coast, there is an island called the Mountain of Emeralds; but none of these precious stones are to be met with there. Here, as well as on the continent, there were found many pieces of a green pellucid substance; but veined, and much softer than rock crystal, though somewhat harder than glass. A few yards up the mountain he found three pits, which are supposed to have been the mines whence the ancients obtained the emeralds; but, though many pieces of the green substance above mentioned were met with about these pits, no signs of the true emerald could be perceived. The substance, however, he conjectures to have been the smaragdus of the Romans. In the mountains of Cosseir, as well as in some places of the deserts of Nubia, our author found some rocks exactly resembling petrified wood. The only metal said by the ancients to be produced in Egypt is copper. On the road to Suez are found great numbers of Egyptian flints and pebbles, though the bottom is a hard, calcareous,

and sonorous stone. Volney tells us that the stones above-mentioned, which resemble petrified wood, are to be met with here. They are in the form, he says, of small logs cut slanting at the ends, and might easily be taken for petrifactions, though he thought them real minerals.

Besides camels, horses, asses, mules, sheep, black cattle, and other domestic quadrupeds, there are many wild animals in Egypt; particularly tigers, hyenas, antelopes, crocodiles, apes with heads resembling those of dogs, hippopotamuses, ichneumons, chameleons, yellow lizards, and a species of ra's resembling ferrets, remarkably useful for destroying the crocodiles' eggs. Among the feathered tribe, there are ostriches, eagles, hawks, pelicans, and water fowls of various kinds, among which last the most remarkable is the ibis, a bird of the duck kind, which was deified by the ancient Egyptians, on account of its usefulness in destroying serpents, and noxious insects. These are numerous, and among the different species of serpents the cerastes, or horned viper, abounds, whose bite proves mortal, except to those who have the secret of charming it.

F. Sicard mentions two salt lakes situated in the desert west of the Delta, three or four leagues in length, and about a quarter of a league in breadth, with a solid and stony bottom. For nine months in the year they are without water; but in winter there oozes out of the earth a reddish violet-colored water, which fills the lakes to the height of five or six feet. This being evaporated, by the return of the heat, there remains a bed of salt two feet thick and very hard, which is broken in pieces with iron bars and from these lakes no less than 30,000 quintals of salt are procured every year.

Besides the ordinary winds before mentioned, Egypt is infested, as we have also intimated, with the destructive blasts common to all warm countries which have deserts in their neighbourhood. These have been distinguished by various names, such as poisonous winds, hot winds of the desert, Samiel, the wind of Damascus, Kamsin, and Simoom. In Egypt they are denominated winds of fifty days, because they most commonly prevail during the fifty days preceding and following the equinox, though, should they blow constantly during one-half of that time, a universal destruction would be the consequence. Of these travellers have given various descriptions. M. Volney says that the violence of their heat may be compared to that of a large oven at the moment of drawing out the bread. They always blow from the south, and are undoubtedly owing to the motion of the atmosphere over such vast tracts of hot sand, where it cannot be supplied with a sufficient quantity of moisture. When they begin to blow, the sky loses its usual serenity, and assumes a dark, heavy, and alarming aspect, the sun laying aside his usual splendor, and becoming of a violet color. This terrific appearance seems not to be occasioned by any real haze or cloud in the atmosphere at that time, but solely by the vast quantity of fine sand carried along by those winds, and which is so excessively subtile that it penetrates every where. The motion of this wind is always rapid, but its

heat is not intolerable till after it has continued for some time. Its pernicious qualities are evidently occasioned by its excessive avidity of moisture. Thus it dries and shrivels up the skin; and, by affecting the lungs in a similar manner, soon produces suffocation and death. The danger is greatest to those of a plethoric havit, or who have been exhausted by fatigue; and putrefaction soon takes place in the bodies of such as are destroyed by it. Its extreme dryness is such, that water sprinkled on the floor evaporates in a few minutes; all the plants are withered and stripped of their leaves; and a fever is instantly produced in the human species by the suppression of perspiration. It usually lasts three days, but is altogether insupportable if it continue beyond that time. The danger is greatest when the wind blows in squalls, and to travellers who happen to be exposed to its fury without any shelter. The best method in this case is to stop the nose and mouth with a handkerchief. Camels, by a natural instinct, bury their noses in the sand, and keep them there till the squall is over. The inhabitants, who have an opportunity of retiring to their houses, instantly shut themselves up in them, or go into pits made in the earth, till the destructive blast be cver. The description of a blast of this kind which overtook Mr. Bruce in the desert of Nubia is still more terrible. See SIMOOM.

The population of Egypt is composed of Franks, or Europeans, Armenians, Greeks, Syrians, Christians, Jews, Turks, Arabians, and Copts, who are supposed, on very probable grounds, to be the descendants of the ancient Egyptians. The Franks are mostly from the shores bordering on the Mediterranean, and engaged in commerce and in the pacha's new manufactories; they do not exceed 1000, half of whom are in Alexandria, and the other half in Cairo. In spite of ail the partiality and protection of the pacha, the Turks lose no opportunity of insulting and abusing these Christian dogs.' But our expeditions to this country seem to have resulted in two provisions, in favor of Europeans, that are remarkable enough:-1. At the peace of Amiens, Sir John Stuart demanded, and succeeded in obtaining, permission for Europeans to enter the western harbour of Alexandria, from which they had been jealously excluded, and permitted only to enter the eastern harbour, of which the water is shallow, the bottom rocky, and the anchorage dangerous: the one was formerly called the harbour of the Faithful, and the other that of Infidels. 2. No European or Christian was formerly permitted to ride on horseback in any part of Egypt, the horse being reserved for Mahommedans, while the ass was deemed the proper animal for Christians. This indignity was also abolished by the exertions of Sir John Stuart, who stipulated that all Europeans, without distinction, should be allowed to ride on horseback, which they still do.

There are about 2000 Armenians, who re ide principally in the capital, where they exercise every kind of trade, and are much concerned in money transactions with the government. The Greek Christians of Syria may be reckoned at 3000 in Cairo, and 1000 in the other cities d

Egypt: "they were formerly the wholesale merchants who supplied the land proprietors and others with various kinds of articles, and were in general wealthy; but the monopoly of the viceroy has very considerably impoverished them. There are about 5000 descendants of the ancient Greek colonists, who form quite a distinct race from the modern Greeks: these people have lost their ancient language, and speak a kind of Arabic; many of them are mariners, but in general they pursue the inferior and handicraft trades. According to the latest computations, there are about 4000 Jews in Egypt, 3000 of whom inhabit a part of Cairo, called after them the Jews' quarter, of which the streets are so narrow as to be almost impassable; the houses are dark, crowded together, filthy, and so infectious that, when the plague breaks out, the first enquiry is, If it has appeared in the Jews' quarter? M. Mengin, the author of L'Histoire de l'Egypte, sous le Gouvernment de Mohammed Aly, reckons, in Cairo, eight persons to each house, and in the provinces four. The account then stands thus:

Cairo being the only city of Egypt which contains any great accumulation of inhabitants, built by Gaubar, a general in the service of the first khalif of the race of the Fatemites of Egypt, in the year 358 of the hegira (968 of the Christian era), it was surrounded with walls by Saladin. For the last 300 years its splendor has declined considerably; and the palaces of Mohammed Aly are mean and ill contrived. But here are 240 principal streets, forty-six public places, eleven bazaars, 140 schools, 300 public cisterns, and 400 mosques.

The Copts are by far the most numerous class of Christians in Egypt, amounting at least to 160,000, of whom about 10,000 inhabit the two most populous quarters of Cairo. In towns they practise different trades, but the greater part of them labor on the lands, among the Fellahs. Under the government of the Mamelukes the Copts were employed in taking an account of, and collecting, the revenues of the villages; and many of them still hold situations of this kind, and as writers about the court. They are austere and forbidding in their manners, generally silent, and wearing an air of melancholy but are said to be tyrannical when in authority.

The oriental race of Fellahs compose the chief part of the population of Egypt, a mixture, perhaps, of ancient Egyptians, Arabians, and Syrians; they approach nearest to the Copts, in general appearance and manners, but they are rigid Mussulmen, and strictly observe the rites and ceremonies laid down by their sheiks or VOL. VII.

priests. They labor hard on the soil, and live in the most abstemious manner on dourra, dwell in cottages of unbaked bricks, are clothed in coarse woollen cloth, and sleep on mats: those in the towns exercise handicraft trades, and keep shops in the bazaars, which they only quit to attend the mosques. Like all orientals, they are fond of frequenting coffee-houses, and listening to the tales of pretended magicians, or the rude music of strolling singers. In meekness and apathy they cannot be exceeded.

The tented Arab,' says an able article on Egypt in the Quarterly Review, hovering with his flocks along the borders of the fertile valley of the Nile, is the same in character, manners, and customs, as he every where else is, and apparently has been, in all times since the days of the patriarchs, regarding with disdain and proud independence all other classes of mankind, but more particularly those of his own nation, who, in his eyes, have degraded themselves by taking up their abodes in fixed habitations, and whom he calls in contempt haty, or Arabs of the walls. Those who turn cultivators are equally despised, and considered in the light of Fellahs, with whom an alliance by marriage would be regarded as dishonorable. The Arab women have fine features and complexions; they are much fairer than the Egyptian women, and far more correct in their conduct. In cases of infidelity, the injured party takes the law into his own hands, and the culprit is generally punished with death.'

The Egyptian women, like other oriental females, are the mere slaves of their husbands' or their owners' caprices; and thus their degraded condition is one of the greatest obstacles to the civilisation of Egypt, and one of the last that will probably be removed, connected as it is with the precepts of the Mahommedan law. M. Mangin, however, states the women of late, whether married, or slaves from Georgia, Circassia, and Mongrelia, are allowed frequently to quit the harem, and that accompanied by a confidante, under pretext of going to the bath, or of making visits, they indulge with impunity in illicit amours.

A cady, or judge, sent from the Porte annually, settles all lawsuits and criminal prosecutions: under him are the sheiks and others, learned in the law. A civil process is stated to cost about 4 per cent. of the value in dispute, of which the cady takes four-fifths for himself, and gives one-fifth to the other lawyers. All minor disputes and complaints are brought before the Kiaya-bey. His officers are the Agha of the janissaries, who is charged with maintaining good order, and especially among the soldiers; the ouali, or agha of the police, who looks after the thieves and prostitutes, on both of whom he levies contributions for the support of himself and his myrmidons. The moteceb regulates the weights and measures; the bache-agha has the direction of the patroles, and the spies who frequent the coffee-houses, bazaars, and other pub→ lic places; and, in addition to these, there is a head-man in every quarter of the city for settling disputes and preserving peace. This is said to be so effectually done, that the streets of Cairo are as safe as those of London, except on occa

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