398: 
weight which it receives—It is 
easy to explain this experiment : 
for in the season in which it is 
formed, there fall regularly 
heavy dews throughout Egypt. A 
sensible and learned Makometan, 
who looked upon the predictions 
as fooleries, told me, this vulgar 
error arose, like many others, 
from an) ambiguous expression ; 
Nokta, signifying, in Arabic, both 
a drop and the time of the sun’s 
entering the sign of Cancer; at 
which season the great rains fall 
in Abyssinia, which occasion the 
swelling of the Nile. 
I have remarked that the canal 
of Cairo is cleansed every year; 
and it then serves as a street; but 
it can never be long used as such ; 
for it.is never cleansed fill the 
dyke be ready to be cut down. 
While the water is running in this 
canal, the houses about it are very 
agreeable ; but through the rest of 
the year it is avery uncomfortable 
neighbourhood; for it is always 
exceedingly filthy. The insuffer- 
able sme!l and noxious putridity 
which it: diffuses all around, infect 
the air, and produce epidemic dis- 
tempers. 
No water fit for drinking is to be 
had at Cairo, unless out of the Nile; 
from which it is brought every day 
into’ the city, in skins, upon asses 
and camels. Under several mosques 
ate large reservoirs, in which water 
ig preserved for the use of. the pub- 
lic during the swell of the Nile; for 
the river is then muddy, and its wa- 
ter thought unwholesome. Indeed 
the water of the Nile is. always: 
somewhat muddy; but, by rubbing 
with bitter almonds, prepared in a 
x 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
particular manner, the earthen, jars 
in which it is kept, this water is. ren- 
dered clear, light, and salutary.. The 
use of it is generally thought to be 
the occasion of a cutaneous. erup-~ 
tion to which the inhabitants of 
Cairo are subject, at a certain season 
in the year. It is troublesome, but 
does not injure the health. 
‘ 
Of the Egyptian Agriculture. 
From the same. 
EPs had few opportunities 
of observing theindustry of this: 
people, I shall have little to say con- 
cerning the state of the arts in Egypt, 
which is not yet very flourishing. 
But there are some which afford ar- 
ticles of trade; and these it would be 
improper to overlook entirely. 
Agriculture, the first and most im- 
portant of all arts, is net in a very 
thriving condition here; at least, if 
we compare the present produce of 
the lands with what.a country of such 
natural fertility might be brought by 
cultivation to produce. I have hint- 
ed, above, at the, natural causes of 
this decline. But the local circum-) 
_ stances of this singularly situated 
country are such, that evenan unhap- 
py mode of government, and the mi- 
sery of the husbandman, cannot ex- 
tinguish the natural fertility of the. 
soil. However ill-cultivated, it stilh 
continues to compensate richly the 
slight labour that is bestowed upon 
it, and to repay, with usury, the 
trifliag expence laid out thereon, 
The soil of the lower Egypt 
seems to be a sandy earth that has 
been gradually deposited by the ri- 
ver*, In adry and torrid climate, 
* The formation of the Delta has beena subject of speculation with every writer 
concerning Egypt, from Herodotus to Bruce. 
head; willdo wellto consult’: Herodotus, Maillet, Bruce, and Savary. 
The reader who is curious on this 
and 
