340

MANUSCRIPT OF THE KORAN.

heavy massive binding, resembling that of our ancestors, in which oak supplied the place of millboard. Before I was permitted to touch this sacred relic, the keeper of the mosque, whose suspicions were evidently excited, explicitly demanded of my companion what were my religion and country. Without the slightest hesitation, he replied, "He is a Turk from Stambool:" upon which the Koran was placed in my hands. The manuscript, which was of fine parchment, and many centuries old, was written partly with ink, and partly in gold characters, and beautifully illuminated with stars of bright blue, purple, and gold. These tasteful ornaments, varying in size from that of a crown-piece to sixpence, studded the pages and the margin, but varied only in dimension, the pattern being always the same. The titlepage, slightly torn, exhibited a glittering mass of gilding, intermingled with arabesques in brilliant colours. Turning from the tomb to the apartment itself, I admired the simple beauty of the dome, springing from a square basis, adorned above at each angle with an ornament consisting of a cluster of octagonal bronze pipes of different lengths. Every thing throughout the building displays a severe masculine taste, suggesting the idea of a fortress rather than a mere place of worship; and it is related that, in the seditions and revolutions which burst forth during the decline of the Mamalook empire, this mosque, like the temple of Jerusalem, was frequently taken possession of by the insurgents.

ALMANSOOR KALAWNI.

341

DCXII. The famous Sultan Almansoor Kalawni, who defeated the Tartars in a great battle near Homs, in Syria, likewise erected, A. H. 683 (A. D. 1282), a mosque, which still retains its celebrity. In the month Shaban of the previous year, Almansoor had narrowly escaped death, from an inundation at Damascus; and in gratitude, perhaps, for this interposition of Providence, he commanded the edifice to be built. Kalawni having, as Mengin observes, possessed a considerable knowledge of medicine, they still preserve in the mosque several of his caftans, and his broad leathern girdle, formerly encrusted with plates of gold. A talismanic virtue being attributed to these relics, the sick of both sexes repair with great devotion to the mosque; where, for a trifling present to the keeper, they are permitted to don a moth-eaten caftan, and bind the girdle round their waists. Other miracles are operated in this sacred building. At the threshold of the door is a slab of red marble, upon which a few drops of water being poured, and rubbed with a mysterious stone, preserved for the purpose, acquire a reddish hue. This water, dropped into the mouth, is supposed to be a remedy for the cough. In the interior are two columns, one of which, if touched by the tongue of the patient, cures the jaundice; the other, like the lingam of Hindoostan, and the fascinum of the Romans, removes barrenness in women; who, when thus afflicted, press a citron against the pillar and swallow the juice.*

Mengin, Hist. de

Jemaleddin, Annales Ægyptiacæ, p. 43. l'Egypte, &c. tom. ii. p. 326.— Antiquit. Middleton, pp. 66. 71.

342

TOWER OF THE NILOMETER.

DCXIII. On the same day of my visit to the mosques, I also went over to the island of Rhouda, the greater part of which is now laid out in pleasure gardens in the English style. At the southern extremity the Pasha has erected powder-mills; near which is the tower of the Nilometer, or Mekyas, a marble pillar divided into cubits and inches, for ascertaining the rise of the river. It stands in a deep square basin, and, in A. D. 847, the year of its erection, its base was on a level with the surface of the river, at low Nile. Formerly, as we learn from the Nubian geographer, an elegant cupola was erected over the cistern, ornamented with arabesques in gold, blue, and other colours; but this no longer exists. A square beam, passing from wall to wall, as represented in Pococke's engraving, rests on the top of the column, and is now, perhaps, necessary to keep it erect, but greatly detracts from the beauty of its appearance. We descend into the well by a flight of steps, once an ornament to the building, but at present neglected and covered with mud. The water, like that of the Khalish, having been long stagnant, was green and fetid; and the whole place, like all other public works in this country, had an appearance of dilapidation and decay. On the steps of the Nilometer, Moses, according to the traditions of the country, was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter in the ark of bulrushes.

DCXIV. Authors have launched into extremely strange speculations on the inundations of the Nile,

INUNDATIONS OF THE NILE.

343

and the rise of the land of Egypt. Herodotus acquaints us, says Dr. Shaw, that, in the reign of Myris, if the Nile rose to the height of eight cubits, all the lands of Egypt were sufficiently watered; but that, in his time (which was not quite nine hundred years after Myris), the country was not covered with less than 15 or 16 cubits of water. The addition of soil, therefore, by supposing them to have been 15 only, will be 7 Grecian cubits, or 120 inches, in the space of nine hundred years. About Myris, however, and the ages anterior to Herodotus, nothing is known with certainty; but since, in early times, Egypt, like all other vallies, was lowest in the centre, it would then have required a greater rise in the river to inundate the same extent of ground, than it does at present; and the accumulation of soil, far from opposing the spread of the waters, as Dr. Shaw supposes, tends most materially to facilitate it. For, by the constant elevation of its bed, which rises even more rapidly than the surrounding country, the Nile now flows along a kind of ridge, from which the water descends to the desert on either side. Supposing the statement of Herodotus to be correct, as far as regarded the appearance of the inundation on the Nilometer, it would be necessary to conclude, not that a greater rise was required to cover the country, but that the base of the column erected in the time of Myris was, in his time, 126 inches below the level of the Nile. In process of time, therefore, since, while the bed of the stream is incessantly rising, the base of the Nilometer continues the same, the whole column will be

344

DEPARTURE FROM CAIRO.

entirely buried. To approach any thing like exactness, having ascertained the rate at which the soil accumulates, the figures on the Nilometer should be periodically accommodated to the change in the level of the country. It is, however, probable that the Nile now brings down with it much less earth than in former ages; and that, in time, the whole process must entirely cease, and Egypt be reduced to the condition of other inundated lands.

DCXV. Having abandoned the project of visiting Mount Sinai and Syria, and taken my leave of Monro, who was proceeding to Palestine, I quitted Cairo, Sunday, March 31st, and embarked on the Nile for Alexandria. It was with much difficulty that a boat could be procured, owing to the multitude of persons of both sexes, who, attracted partly by devotion, partly by commerce, were proceeding on pilgrimage to Tanta, in the Delta, where a great fair, like that of Haridwara, in Hindoostan, is held twice a year; at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. These fairs, which last fifteen days, draw together a great concourse of peoplegreater, perhaps, in the autumn than in the spring, but both are numerously attended. Nearly every boat in Boolak was occupied, or, rather, thronged with men, women, and children, decked in their holiday costume, all with gay excited looks, like the old Egyptians during the festival of Boubasta. Setting sail about eleven o'clock, in an hour we passed the Pasha's villa at Shoubra, which, with its numerous windows and projecting roof, presents a neat appearance when