THE NILE. 261 
height of the waters is tantamount to promising an abundant 
harvest for three years, and thereby lowering the price of the corn 
already in hand. ; 
We crossed the river in a boat, similar to what is figured in 
Bruce's Travels, and called a Canjan. We were in a small one, 
and the asses followed in another. During the passage, I had 
time to make two little sketches,—one of the opposite bank, 
Ghizeh and the Pyramids, from the east shore,—and the other of 
the Nilometer and Cairo, from the west,—in each instance, looking 
across the noble stream. Both banks were equally thronged with 
filthy Egyptians, of all mixtures of blood; pure and mingled 
Ethiopians, Nubians, Abyssinians, Turks, and a few Copts, whom 
lsuppose to be the most peculiar race; at all events they ap- 
peared to have the long almond-shaped eye, so conspicuous in the 
sculptured figures of ancient Egypt, and quite different from the 
Turk or Arab eye. I was unfortunate in meeting with no person 
in Cairo who could give me information on this and many other 
points: all the individuals to whom I was recommended were 
away. 
From Ghizeh, the village to which we crossed, and from which 
the Pyramids take their name, we struck inland, through cultivated 
fields and Date plantations for a little way, and then over a long 
flat, without house or tree, and all cut up by little canals and 
dykes, retaining the waters of the late inundation, and distributing 
them in every direction. The soil is a rich fat mud, through which 
the naked Arabs were wading, scattering seeds of Pulse, Tares, and 
such vegetables, We wound along the margins of the enclosures 
for many miles, by a course so devious that often our backs were 
turned to the Pyramids. The latter looked bigger and bigger as we 
approached, till we arrived within two miles of their bases. Our 
progress was arrested by broad beds of mud and clay, puddly 
canals, and chains of Lagoons, which, together, constitute the outer 
limit of the fertile soil on the west boundary of the inundation. 
In these pools a great body of water is retained, which gradually 
evaporates and leaves its bed dry, previous to the following year's 
tise of the Nile. Ere reaching them, we were met by parties of 
VOL. VIL 2r 
