Madden's Travels in Turkey, fyc. 1 19 



closed my eyes which I had when they were open ; it appeared to 

 me as if it was only external objects, which were acted on by the 

 imagination, and magnified into images of pleasure : in short, it was 

 * the faint exquisite music of a dream' in a waking moment. I 

 made my way home as fast as possible, dreading, at every step, that 

 I should commit some extravagance. In walking, I was hardly 

 sensible of my feet touching the ground. It seemed as if I slid along 

 the street, impelled by some invisible agent, and that my blood was 

 composed of some etherial fluid, which rendered my body lighter 

 than air. I got to bed the moment I reached home. The most 

 extraordinary visions of delight filled my brain all night. In the 

 morning I rose, pale and dispirited ; my head ached ; my body was 

 so debilitated that I was obliged to remain on the sofa all the day, 

 dearly paying for my first essay at opium-eating." — Vol. i., p. 26. 



Early in the month of July, 1825, the author reached Alex- 

 andria, where the first thing that attracted his notice was the 

 climate of Egypt. His observations on this very interesting 

 topic are somewhat desultory, but we shall extract their sub- 

 stance for the benefit of our readers. 



From the 1st of May to the 20th of June an easterly wind 

 blows, called the kamsin, or simoom. It is the poison wind of 

 the desert, and its effects on animal life are oppressive in the 

 extreme. It produces such languor and exhaustion as made 

 the author often lie for hours on his divan, incapable of the 

 slightest mental or bodily exertion. The sensation was inex- 

 pressibly distressing. It was not, however, the degree of heat 

 which occasioned it, for the thermometer is not affected more 

 than five or six degrees during its prevalence. Perhaps some 

 electrical condition of the air may be the real cause of this sin- 

 gularly depressing influence upon the nervous system. 



The country, which has had no rain since March, is now 

 completely parched up. The soil is split into innumerable 

 cracks. The trees are scorched. The only plant that survives 

 the drought is the alkaline salsola, which covers the burning 

 sands. About St. John's day (the 24th of June) the face of 

 nature changes. The north-west, or Etesian winds, begin to 

 blow, and so continue till September, diffusing at Alexandria 

 an agreeable freshness in the air. A heavy dew, called the 

 nocta, falls also at this time. The drooping plants revive, and 

 pestilence is stayed. Alexandria is at all times very damp. 

 The atmosphere is saturated with a saline vapour, which con- 

 denses on the walls and furniture of the houses, in small crys- 

 tals of nitre, sal ammoniac, and common salt. The soil is 

 every where coated with these saline particles, and every thing 

 made of iron rusts. Yet is this saline atmosphere not injurious 



