1805.] 



A Barrow defcribed. 



M ! 



air. This town has a fort of police. — 

 There are watchmen who parade the 

 ftreets every half hour during the night, 

 to apprife the inhabitants of their fafety 

 from fire. There are alfo hrge cillerns 

 in different parts of the town, which are 

 filled with water at day-light every morn- 

 ing for the ufe of the public. All the 

 Water drank here is from the Nile, and, 

 though not ill flavoured, is fo thick as to 

 be extremely unpleafant to the fight. — 

 They have looms in Rofetta with which 

 they manufafture coarlc kinds of cotton 

 and linen. There are alfo blackfmiths, 

 (boemakers, taylors, &c. Some of the 

 inhabitants turn very neatly in ivory and 

 wood. The machine is extremely (mall 

 and fimple, and is kept in motion by the 

 toes, which are alfo of great ufe to them 

 in guiding the chifl;:!, 



Early on the fecond morning after my 

 arrival here, I rode out to fee the army 

 which had lately arrived from the Eaft 

 Indies, undtr tl.e command cf Major- 

 General Baird. The diftance was about 

 three miles, and the road beautikil. On 

 one fide was i he Nile, and on the other 

 gardens, in which vvere growing oranges 

 lemons, bananas, daies, figs, and grapes. 

 The army fortunately were under arms : 

 it confifted of a regiment of native artil- 

 lery, two corps of Sepoys, and four Bri- 

 tifh regiments, the whole amounting to 

 about four thoufand men. The Sepoys 

 were ftout aftive-looking men, were 

 extremely clean and wtll dreffcd, and 

 bad a very warlike appearance. The 

 whole army was in a high (fate of dif- 

 cipline. 



During my ftay here I had an oppor- 

 tunity of feeing the funeral of a man who 

 had died cf the plague. The body was 

 preceded by fix or eight men finging a 

 fort of pfalm-tune : the words they uled 

 I did not at that time underhand, but 

 Lave fince learned their interpretation to 

 be, " There is but one God, and Maho- 

 met is Prophet." A great number of 

 women were following the corpfe, who 

 feemed to try ivhich could make the moft 

 hideous noife. In this agreeable concert 

 tliey were joined by every perfon they 

 pa/led, and by all who accidentally met 

 the procefllon. Thefe boilferous lamen- 

 tations, I was told, are only adopted when 

 the dtceafed has been carried off by the 

 plague. On other occaficns they are con- 

 ducted to the grave with very little cere- 

 mony. There are here chiirch»yajds and 

 tonib-ftones at in Europe." 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



IT is not, at prefent, my intention to 

 eater fully into the hiltory of the bar- 

 row or tumulus of the ancients, but only 

 to point out a remarkable variety v/hich 

 I di (covered in one I caufed to be opened. 



Dartmoor, a wild and walte tradl of 

 land, of great extent, in Devonfliire, con- 

 tains naany hills of very conliderable ele- 

 vation, whofe fummits are crowned by a 

 great number of barrows or tumuli, con- 

 ftrufted with large blocks and fragments 

 of granite (provincially termed moor- 

 ftone), every where met with in vaft 

 quantities. 



On opening one, in the fnminer of 1 8o3, 

 of very I'rge dimenfions, nearly twenty 

 feet high, I was ttruck with the great pe- 

 culiarity of its formation. We began by 

 opening the apex, and in this nianuer 

 gradually defcended nearly ten feet, when 

 I was extremely furprifed to meet with 

 the natural karn, which had not been dif- 

 turbed ; fortunately, on further examina- 

 tion, we vvere enabled to get lower, by 

 one of its fides, which exhibited a fmooih 

 ftirface ^(comparatively fpeaking), verti- 

 cally placed : getting ftill lower^ a moft 

 curiaus arrangement prefcnted it.'elf — a 

 kind of . cell or Kiftvaen, formed by a 

 number of columnar pieces of granite, 

 having one end refting on a ledge of the 

 natural karn, whilft the other was fup- 

 ported by a fort of wall of ftoiies, piled on 

 each other, of a femicircularlhape, joining 

 the rock at each extremity. Nothing was 

 found in this cavity except a fmall quan- 

 tity of dark coloured ailies, and fome 

 bony fragments, known to anatomifts, 

 by being the occipital bone of the cra- 

 nium, and fmail portions of the radius 

 and ulna, of the human body. 



I have had feveral others opened In this 

 neighbourhood, but never found any like 

 the one under confideration. They were 

 all of the general mode of conftru£tion, 

 and differed only in the form of the Ki(t- 

 vaen, and nature of their contents ; which 

 were, in one or two inlfances, deferving 

 particular notice. I fliall not, however, 

 trefpafs on the reader's patience by any 

 further remark on them in this paper. 



I do not recoUeft ever hearing of a bar- 

 row of a fimilar conftru61ion having been 

 examined ; but fliould I be miftaken, I 

 have only to add, that this inffance muft 

 be confidered as a further confiimation of 

 the varied ftruilure ot the barrow. 



April 14., 1805. S. 



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