woods, cities and villages, a mighty river, with ranges of rocky, precipitous, barren mountains, extending like huge fortifications round the plain, and closing the view on all sides.

DXIII. To the gazelles, which are extremely numerous in the deserts west of Siout, the tombs of the Egyptians now furnish a retreat during the night, for, where the floor was strewed with sand, I observed their tracks and lairs. From the catacombs we descended to the plain, where a fine wide road, level as a gravel walk, leads along the foot of the mountains towards the capital, of whose extent and general appearance we could form a tolerably just idea from the mouth of the tombs above. It is a place of considerable extent, nearly, circular, and surrounded by spacious gardens. The houses are neat and well-built, and the streets much cleaner than ordinary. In all oriental cities we may form an estimate of the condition of the inhabitants, approximating very nearly to the truth, by carefully observing the shops and the bazar, with the appearance of the persons who frequent them or expose their merchandise there. The bazar of Siout is large, and tolerably well supplied with the ordinary articles of food and clothing. It was, moreover, well frequented, and men and women trod, in many places, so closely on each other's heels, that more than one fine lady, as in the story of Ardashir, seemed likely to lose her slippers in the crowd. Among the vegetables of the season, we observed very excellent beans and cauli

156

THE RHAMNUS LOTUS.

flowers; and the earliest fruit of the year was the nebk, or lotus, which is produced in great abundance in the gardens of Siout. The Rhamnus lotus is a large beautiful tree, with a small dark green leaf, like that of the olive. Its fruit, of a slightly yellow, or pale straw-colour, with a few small streaks of red on the sunny side, resembles an unripe cherry, though inferior in taste, and much less juicy, having somewhat the flavour of an insipid apple ; though by care and cultivation it might, perhaps, be rendered a fine fruit. This has been supposed to be the marvellous lotus described by Homer:

"Which whoso tastes

Insatiate riots in the sweet repast,

Nor other home, nor other care intends,

But quits his house, his country, and his friends!"

But the lotus, whose taste could make a man forget his home, it must be a strange fruit that could do this unquestionably possessed properties extremely different from those we ate at Siout, and, if it was anything beyond a mere poetical creation, may have been the padma, that mystic flower which acts so conspicuous a part in the mythologies of India and Egypt.

DXIV. At a village near this city, the greater number, if not the whole, of the eunuchs employed in the harems of Egypt are made. But an account of this operation belongs rather to a medical or physiological treatise than to a book of travels; for which reason I

EASTERN BARBERS.

157

abstain from touching on the subject. The barber, always a prominent character in oriental stories, is still a personage of some consequence in the East, where he is regarded as the gazette and oracle of his quarter. All the strange turns of fortune, and traits of scandal, which agitate the neighbourhood, being chronicled in his memory, his shop is the constant refuge of the idle. While sitting in one of these manufactories of fame, at Siout, the numerous tales where the tonsorial profession make a figure, were forcibly called to mind. It consisted of a small quadrangular apartment, with unglazed windows, fashioned like those of a Gothic church; and was surrounded by a clay divan, covered with mats, on which the customers range themselves, while the barber operates on the heads of their neighbours, and circulates the news and anecdotes of the vicinity. The walls were covered with the various professional instruments, and those circular hand-mirrors, in which the shaved man is shown his head and his beard. In dress the barber is distinguished from the vulgar, his outer garment usually consisting of gay silks; while, for greater effect, he preserves the ancient costume, with the large turban abandoned by the multitude.

DXV. On leaving the city we entered upon the northern portion of the plain, and having ordered our boats to drop down the river to a certain point, we had before us a long ride. It was a beautiful rural scene. Dispersed at short intervals over the fields, were groups of cattle lying down or feeding among

the clover; flocks of sheep or goats; shepherd boys beside them, playing on the ancient pipe; numbers of peasants of both sexes sitting on the ground, and here and there an Arab girl, with a sling and small stones, chasing away the birds from among the corn. Men mounted on camels were lazily travelling along the road, and in the numerous date woods, the peasants appeared to be engaged in scattering the pollen of the male over the flowers of the female palm. In this laborious branch of Egyptian husbandry, women seem to be employed as well as men, for in riding along, we saw a young girl of sixteen or seventeen descending the trunk of a date-tree, which, at this season of the year, she could have had no other object for climbing. Here we saw the last specimen of the doum palm, which, apparently, will not flourish farther to the northward. Having overtaken our boats, we continued our voyage until evening, when we moored at Sheghalghil, a village on the eastern bank, near Manfaloot.

SHEGHALGHIL-CROCODILE MUMMY-PITS-SICK SHEÏKH EL BELEDVILLAGE OF MAABDÉ GUIDES TO THE CROCODILE PITS DREAD

-

OF THE NATIVES - WANDER IN THE DESERT DISCOVERY OF THE CAVERN DESCENT INTO THE PIT MEPHITIC VAPOUR FAIL IN OUR ATTEMPT TO PENETRATE INTO THE INTERIOR- RETURN TO THE RIVER-COPTIC CONVENTARE FOLLOWED BY TWO ARABS SAIL BACK TO MANFALOOT-SECOND VISIT TO THE MUMMY-PITS- DISCOVER THE ENTRANCE INTO THE INTERIORDESCRIPTION OF THE CAVERN -THE AUTHOR OVERCOME BY THE MEPHITIC VAPOUR SUCCESS OF HIS COMPANIONS THEY REACH THE CROCODILES APPEARANCE AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE RETURN TO UPPER AIR WITH DESCENT OF THE GUIDES

MUMMIES -BLACK STALACTITES
SEVERAL CROCODILES SECOND

MUMMY OF A RED-HAIRED GIRL ABANDONED IN THE DESERT MUTILATED ARABS - AVERSION TO THE PLAIN OF

CROCODILE MUMMY

ARMY

MISERY OF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN MAABDÉ ELEPHANTIASIS

OF THE MARINERS

- TOMB OF SHEIKH SAID -OFFERING MOUNTAIN OF THE BATTLE-THE SOUTH WIND-APOLOGUE DIVISION OF LABOUR-MULTITUDE OF SLAVES -OBSTACLE TO CIVILISATION -SUBMERGING OF BOATS ON THE NILE BENISOOEF

TURKISH SOLDIERS-APPROACH TO CAIRO

RUINS OF BABYLON-ARRIVAL AT BOOLAK.

Sunday, Feb. 24. Manfaloot.

DXVI. In this neighbourhood, among the mountains above Maabdé, are those crocodile mummy-pits, in an unsuccessful attempt to explore which Mr. guides, and where,

Legh, in 1812, lost two of his

through want of due precaution, I was myself on the eve of sharing the same fate. All that we had heard