From CAIRO to the EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS.

I

Left Cairo at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th, accompanied by a Janiffary and my fervant. I had befides for companions a traveller, born in Aleppo, and bred at the court of the German Emperor, who was entitled a Baron, furnamed Burkana, and had lately arrived from Rome; a Georgian Chriftian, who was a physician here, and a Jew Rabbi from Nuremberg. We all rid on affes. After we had rid through the miferable, narrow, foggy, and unpaved streets of Cairo, we came into a pretty fpacious and uninhabited plain, which refembled a little defart; but with this difference, that fome Sycomore and Tamarisks adorned this dry and fandy plain with their green leaves.

WE afterwards came to Old Cairo, which is a fuburb to Cairo. We faw fome large, and according to the taste of this country, handsome houses, as we paffed by, which are the fummer habitations of the Turkish grandees. Adjoining to each was a large, handfome, and spacious garden, with fine trees of Caffia, Acacia, Plaintain, Dates, Tamarifk, Sensitive plants, and many others, but all in diforder, being entirely left to nature. These feats were fituated

on the Nile, and were fuch as might certainly please the poffeffors of them.

THE most remarkable thing at Old Cairo, was the place where the depth of the water is taken, when the Nile encreases. This is a pretty large houfe, built in a fquare near the river. Its roof terminates in a white pyramid: in the foundation wall are holes, through which the water has a free entrance: in the middle of the building is erected a marble obelifk, on which is a fcale of inches. Here they daily fee whether the river decreases or increases, till the water is let into the town and over the country. The Regency fends fomebody hither to take the mark every hour; and at this time their fuperftition will not permit any but Mahometans to enter it. It was therefore impoffible for us now 'to fee the infide of this holy place, but I had an opportunity of feeing it another time. We went in a flatbottom boat over the Nile, with our affes and all our equipage, and landed on the other fide at Gifa, one of the handsomest villages round Cairo, where they make Sal-armoniac. We continued our journey to another village some distance from this, where we lay that night. It gave me fingular pleasure to fee the perfect husbandry practifed here, in a level country, with villages, peafants, women, fields, cattle, husbandry, utenfils, &c. in them. Egypt refembles entirely our flat country in Europe. At this time every thing was like our autumn: the fields were dry and bare, and in the plains was fcarce a green leaf to be feen, except in fome places where the fields were fown with Cucumbers and Sefamum (oily grain). It is in our winter and fpring, from December to the month of March, that Egypt is in its glory; for then the Nile is confined within its banks, and the fields are fown. Then a perfon F 2

can

can fee from a little hill a ftriking refemblance of a green fea, I mean the verdant earth, without being able to fee the end. We came to our quarters, and were politely received by the Sheick, who was the principal man in the village. He ordered us to be conducted to a large room of a stone house, which was the property of a Turk in Cairo. After fome time we got our fupper, which, after the manner of the country, was fparing. Our Sheick had killed two kids. In the fame water they were cooked, was alfo boiled a quantity of wheat-bread to a pudding: of this they filled two veffels, each as large as two men could carry. In the middle, and upon the bread, was boiled rice; round the edges the meat was laid, cut into fmall pieces; the floor ferved for a table; a rush mat for a table cloth; the palm of the hand for a fpoon, and the fingers for knives and forks. A perfon that cannot be fatisfied with this treatment from Arabs, will fare but indifferently. amongst them: but if he takes in good part the well-meaning manner in which they treat ftrangers, I doubt whether more good will, frankness, and hofpitality, is to be met with amongst any nation than amongst them. This hath been the manner of their fathers, whofe hiftory we have in the Scriptures; and fuch it is to this day, and will remain fo for We set out at break of day for the place of our deftination. After we had travelled an hour and a half over plains, and near feveral villages, we came to the Arabian tents, who have their camp round the Pyramids. Their chief is a Scheck, and without his permiffion none can approach the Pyramids. He fent his eldeft fon out on foot to meet and welcome us, and he conducted us to a little houfe, built for travellers, at some distance from their tents. I there ordered him the presents I had

ever.

brought

brought with me; and after he had given us coffee, we mounted our affes. The Scheck came then himfelf from his quarters, accompanied by his youngest fon, both mounted on excellent horfes, and conducted us to the Pyramids. There I learned the difference between a real and imaginary idea, between seeing a thing with one's own eyes, or those of others. I had read all the defcriptions travellers have given of these Pyramids; I had feen drawings of them; I had heard them described by those who had been here: and more than that, I had myself feen them at various distances fince I came to Egypt; but with all this, I knew not what the Egyptian Pyramids were until I came within twenty yards of them; and lefs yet did I know of their inward appearance until I had been in them. We first went round the largest and handfomeft Pyramid, to contemplate its height, breadth, form and conftruction. After the entrance had been opened, and we had lighted our flambeaus, and discharged fome piftols at the entrance, we went in. The Scheck and his fon faithfully kept close to my fide through all the vaults, walks, and rooms. We went in at feven, and came out half an hour before nine o'clock. After we had come out, I began alone, whilft the others were taking fome refreshment, to climb up on the out-fide, and gather what naturalia I there found of stones and petrifactions. I chose the Weft fide, and kept nearest the left corner, because it was easiest there to afcend. I had already got to the middle of the Pyramid, and between each step found fomething worth notice; when the ftones, heated by the fun, began to burn through my boots, and therefore were much lefs to be touched with the hands, which prevented me for this time from reaching the top, and obliged me to content myfelf with gathering

at the foot of it whatever I could find worth notice. We afterwards went to the fmaller Pyramids, round which I rid, and beheld attentively their appearance. I was determined to know whether ftones alone must fatisfy my curiofity, and if a burning fand had excluded every thing that had life from this place. If I had not fearched attentively, I fhould certainly have been of the opinion, and confirmed what I was told in Cairo, that no living creature, much less a plant, was to be found near the Pyramids. The earth is of fuch a nature here, that it would appear to many a miracle, if any animal or plant could here find nourishment and sustenance. I found however both; namely, one fingle plant, which was Gum Succoury (Chondrilla juncea). Of ani mals, I found the little Lizard, which I had every where seen running on the walls in the Levant, running here in numbers on the fand. But what most pleafed me was a Lion Ant (Hemerobius Formicaleo) which infects have their own republic. Thefe run by hundreds in the fand, in the fame manner as Pifmires. Each held ftone, fand, or rotten bits of wood between their curious jaws or maxillæ, and haftened with them to the dwellings they had made in the fand. I faw numbers of this infect's nefts, They were thrown up in tufts in the fand, about the bigness of the two fifts, and a little depreffed at the top. In the middle of this depreffion was a little hole, about the bignefs of a small pipe ftem, through which they went in and out. I attacked them within their intrenchments, in hopes of feeing the inward conftruction of their nefts, but I was deceived, and only demolished their outworks; from which went a private paffage, fo artfully conducted, that it was in vain to endeavour to come to their innermoft dwelling. All the architecture, magnifi

cence,