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Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land.

Υπάκοης περί και άλλων αρετών
X.

Χρυσοστομικά. τομοι. 42ο
Chrysostom. 8 vols.

DJEZZAR.

In our last visit to old Djezzar, we found his health visibly on the decline; but there was nothing he seemed more anxious to conceal from the knowledge of his subjects. The well-known fable of the dying lion was constantly present to his imagination; and no one better understood its moral application. Like the generality of ancient fables, it is, in fact, strikingly applicable to the policy and manners of Eastern nations. Although the repose and stillness of his charem were better suited to the preservation of his life than the public duties of his palace, he knew too well the consequences of a rumour purporting his inability to transact the affairs of his government, and therefore more readily granted audience to persons requesting admission to his presence; continuing his usual practice of cutting watch-papers, but being less ostenta tious of his bodily vigour, and the exhibition of his Herculean strength. We found him, as before, with his feet bare, and a bottle of water by his side, but a more than ordinary covering of turbans appeared about his head and neck. Having thanked him for the many obligations he had conferred upon us, he inquired concerning our late journey, and seemed to possess great knowledge of the country, as well as some degree of information respecting its ancient history. Adverting to the dispute which took place between the author and one of the escort in the plain of Esdraelon, (of which he had been informed) he cautioned us against the imprudence of striking an Arab, unless with power to put him instantly to death; adding, if you had been any where but in Djezzar's dominions, and under his protection, you would not have lived to tell the story. I know the inhabitants of this country better than any man, and have long found. that they are not to be governed by halves. I have been deemed severe; but I trust you have found my name respected, and even beloved, notwithstanding my severity." This last MONTHLY MAG. No. 357.

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observation was strictly true; for, in spite of all his cruelty, such was the veneration in which they held the name of Djezzar in many parts of the Holy Land, that many of the Arabs would have sacrificed their lives for him. As we were about to take leave he acknowledged, for the first time, that he did not feel himself well, and complained of want of sleep; asking us if we perceived any change in his health. His interpreter told us that he had never before known an instance of a similar confession; and augured, from this circumstance, that he would not long survive; which proved true, although his death did not immediately follow. His last moments were characteristic of his former life. The person whom he fixed upon for his successor, was among the number of his prisoners. Having sent for this man, he made known his intentions to him; telling him, at the same time, that he would never enjoy peaceful dominion while certain of the princes of the country existed, These men were then living as hostages in Djezzar's power. "You will not like to begin your reign," said he, " by slaughtering them; I will do that business for you:" accordingly, or dering them to be brought before him, he had them all put to death in his presence. Soon afterwards he died; leaving, as he had predicted, the undisturbed possession of a very exten sive territory to his successor, Ismael Pasha; described by English travellers, who have since visited Acre, as a very amiable man, and in every thing the very reverse of this Herod of his time.

BAR OF THE NILE,

We left the Bay of Aboukir, August the eighth, about ten o'clock, A.M. As we drew near to the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, we observed that the sig nal-boat was not out. So many lives had been lost upon the bar, by not attending to this circumstance, and such politive injunctions issued by the commander-in-chief against attempting to pass when the signal was removed, that we supposed the Arabs belonging to the djerm would take us back to the fleet. The wind was, however, against our return; and the crew of the boat persisted in saying that a passage was practicable. It was accordingly attempted; but the surf soon drove us back, and we narrowly 4K

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escaped being overwhelmed by it. A fecond attempt was then made, nearer to the eastern side of the river's

mouth, We prevailed upon some English sailors, who were on board, to let the Arabs have their own way, and not to interfere with the management of the djerm, however contrary it might seem to their usual maxims. Never was there a more fearful sight, nor a scene of greater confusion, than ensued when we reached the middle of the tremendous surf a second time. The yells of the Arabs, the oaths of the sailors, the roaring of the waters, the yawning gulphs occasionally disclosing to us the bare sand upon the bar, while we were tossed upon the boiling surf; and, to complete the whole, the spectacle afforded by another djerm swamped and wrecked before our eyes, as we passed with the velocity of lightning, unable to render the least assistance, can never be forgotten.

TRIPLE INSCRIPTION.

The first object, after entering the Rosetta branch, is the Castle, or Fort of St. Julian. In digging for the fortifications of this place, the French discovered the famous triple inscription, now in the British Museum: this will be ever valuable, even if the only information obtained from it were confined to a solitary fact, that the hieroglyphic characters do exhibit the writing of the priests of Egypt. This truth will no longer be disputed; therefore the proper appellation for inscriptions in such characters ought to be hierograms, rather than hieroglyphs.

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met, is held by the Moslems, long ago predicted, that, whenever the journeys to Mecca were interrupted, it would become the resort of Mahometan pilgrims.

TRIPLE HARVEST.

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Soon after leaving Rosetta, 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 watered, produces three crops in each year; the 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 be in many waters." In the directions given for charity by the son of David, it is written, Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days."

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ARAB CUSTOMS.

The Arab crew of our boat washed their hands, faces, and teeth, before and after eating; cleaning their teeth with wood ashes, which they collected for that purpose from the fire for boiling our kettle. The common fuel used by the inhabitants of the country is prepared from a mixture of camel's dung, mud, and straw; these ingredients, being mixed as a paste, they collect into balls, which are flattened upon the walls of their huts for drying in the sun, and made into circular cakes. From the ashes of those cakes the muriat of ammonia is obtained, which is afterwards sent to Europe.

THE BANKS OF THE NILE. Villages, in an almost uninterrupted succession, denoted a much greater population than we had imagined the country contained. Upon each side of the river, as far as the eye could sur

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10,000 soldiers in all Syria; and the Wa, habee chief has, at any time, more than 100,000 men mounted on camels, at his disposal. The interruption of this pilgri mage is considered by the Turks as a sign of the approaching desolation of the Turkish empire.

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Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land.

vey, were rich fields of corn and rice, with such beautiful groves, seeming to rise out of the watery plains, and to thade innumerable settlements in the Delta, amidst never-ending plantations of melons and all kinds of garden vegetables, that, from the abundance of its produce, Egypt may be deemed the richest country in the world. Such is the picture exhibited to the native inhabitants, who are seasoned to withstand the disorders of the country, and can bear with indifference the attacks of myriads of all sorts of noxious animals; to whom mud and mosquitoes, or dust and vermin, are alike indifferent; who, having never experienced one comfortable feeling in the midst of their highest enjoyments, nor a single antidote to sorrow in the depths of wretchednefs, vegetate, like the bananas and sycamores around them. But to strangers, and particularly to inhabitants of northern countries, where wholesome air and cleanliness are among the necessaries of life, Egypt is the most detestable region upon earth. Upon the retiring of the Nile, the country is one vast swamp. An atmosphere, impregnated with every putrid and offensive exhalation, stagnates, like the filthy pools over which it broods. Then the plague regularly begins, nor ceases until the waters return again. Throughout the spring, intermitting fevers universally prevail. About the beginning of May certain winds cover even the sands of the desert with the most disgusting vermin. The latest defcendants of Pharaoh are not yet delivered from the evils which fell upon the land, when it was smitten by the hands of Moses and Aaron: the "plague of frogs," the "plague of lice," "the plague of flies," the " murrain, boils, and blains," prevail, so that the whole country is "corrupted," and "the dust of the earth becomes lice, upon man and upon beast, throughout the land of Egypt." This application of the words of Scripture affords a literal exposition of existing facts; such an one as the statistics of the country do

now warrant*.

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* Sir Sidney Smith informed the Author, that one night, preferring a bed upon the sand of the desert to a night's lodging in the village of Etko, as thinking to be secure from vermin, he found himself, in the morning, entirely covered by them. Lice and scorpions abound in all the sandy desert acat Alexandria,

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SINGULAR ANIMAL APPEARANCE.

But the most remarkable animal ap pearance may be noticed by merely dipping a ladle or bucket into the midst of the torrent, which is every where dark with mud, and observing the swarms of animalcule it contains. Among these, tadpoles and young frogs are so numerous, that, rapid as the current flows, there is no part of the Nile where the water does not contain them.

PHENOMENON OF SAND.

A singular phænomenon engrossed all our attention. One of those immense columns of sand, mentioned by Bruce, came rapidly towards us, turning upon its base as upon a pivot: it crossed the Nile so near us, that the whirlwind by which it was carried placed our vessel upon its beam-ends, bearing its large sail quite into the wa ter, and nearly upsetting the boat As we were engaged in righting the vessel, the column disappeared. It is not probable that those columns fall suddenly upon any particular spot; so as to be capable of overwhelming an army or a caravan; but that, as the sand, thus driven, is gradually accu mulated, it becomes gradually disa persed, and, the column diminishing in its progress, at length disappears A great quantity of sand is no doubt precipitated as the effect which gathers it becomes weaker; but, from witnessa ing such phænomena upon a smaller scale, it does not seem likely that the whole body of the sand is at once abans doned.

VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS.

By

On Wednesday, the twelfth of At guft, we were roused, as soon as the sun dawned, by Antony, our faithful Greek servant and interpreter, with the intelligence that the Pyramids were in view. We hastened from the cabin and never will the impression made by their appearance be obliterated. reflecting the sun's rays, they appeared as white as snow, and of such sur prising magnitude, that nothing we had previously conceived in our imas gination had prepared us for the spec tacle we beheld. The sight instantly convinced us that no power of description, no delineation, can convey ideas adequate to the effect produced in viewing these stupendous monuinents. The formality of their structure is lost in their prodigious magnitude: the mind, elevated by wonder, feels at once the force of an axiom, which, how

ever

ever disputed, experience confirms, that in vastness, whatsoever be its nature, there dwells sublimity!

INTERIOR OF CAIRO.

To describe the interior of the city would be only to repeat what has been often said of all Turkish towns; with this difference, that there is not perhaps upon earth a more dirty metropolis. Every place is covered with dust; and its particles are so minute, that it rises into all the courts and chambers of the city. The streets are destitude of any kind of pavement: they exhibit, therefore, a series of narrow dusty lanes, between gloomy walls. It is well known that Europeans were formerly compelled to walk, or to ride upon asses, through these streets; nor had the practice been wholly abandoned when we arrived; for, although some of our officers appeared occasionally on horseback, many of them ambled about, in their uniforms, upon the jack-asses let forhire by the Arabs. Horses were not easily procured. To ride these, it was necessary first to buy them. And even when riding upon asses, if a favourable opportunity of fered, when our military were not in sight, the attendants of the rich Turks, running on foot before their horses to elear the way, made every Chriftian descend and walk, until the bearded grandee had passed.

PLAGUES OF EGYPT.

The mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer seemed at this time fixed. It remained at 90 for several days, without the smallest perceptible change. Almost every European suffered an inflammation of the eyes. Many were troubled with cutaneous disorders. The prickly heat was very common. This was attributed to drinking the muddy water of the Nile, the inhabitants having no other. Their mode of purifying it, in a certain degree, is by rubbing the inside of the water-vessels with bruised almonds: this precipitates a portion of the mud, but it is never quite clear. Many persons were afflicted with sores upon the skin, which were called "Boils of the Nile ;" and dysenterical complaints were universal. A singular species of lizard made its appearance in every chamber, having circular membranes at the extremity of its feet, which gave it such tenacity that it crawled upon panes of glass, or upon the surface of pendent mirrors. This revolting sight was ommon to every apartment, whether

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in the houses of the rich or of the poor. At the same time, such a plague of flies covered all things with their swarms, that it was impossible to eat without hiring persons to stand by every table with feathers, or flappers, to drive them away. Liquor could not be poured into a glass; the mode of drinking was, by keeping the mouth of every bottle covered until the moment it was applied to the lips; and instantly covering it with the palm of the hand, when removing it to offer to any one else. The utmost attentiou to cleanliness, by a frequent change of every article of wearing apparel, could not repel the attacks of the swarms of vermin which seemed to infest even the air of the place. A gentleman made his appearance, before a party he had invited to dinner, completely covered with lice. The only explanation he could give as to the cause was, that he had sat for a short time in one of the boats upon the canal.

BRITISH ARMY FROM INDIA.

The Indian army under General Baird was encamped in the Isle of Rhouda, and presented the finest military spectacle it is possible to conceive; offering a striking contrast to the appearance of the troops from England, which were encamped upon the Alexandrian Plain. The Indian army, in possession of abundant supplies, and having all the comforts which wealth and power could bestow, might be considered rather as an encampment of mightiest princes than of private men. The tents of its subalterns were superior to the marquees of general-officers in the English army, where the Commander-in-chief lived as the poorest soldier, and wretchedness and privation were the standing orders of the day. Every morning, at sun-rise, as in Lord Hutchinson army, a gun was fired, and the whole line of the troops from India were under arms, amounting to 3000 men. At this hour, we often resorted to the Isle of Rhouda, to view the magnificent parade.

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