«The whole country is one continued 
flat, intersected with dykes and canals for 
the admission of water at the overflow of the 
Nile; the beds of some of these dykes are 
even higher than the level of the county: 
ata particular time they are cut, the land is 
thus covered with water, and manured by 
the fat and slimy mud it brings with it, 
that produces the uncommon abundance of 
grain which Egypt boasts. Hie 
« As a great portion of mud remains in 
the dykes, which would be filled up if they 
did not clear them, it is thrown out on each 
side, making immense banks, or laid in 
heaps, which, in course of time, form the 
artificial hills upon which all their villages 
, are built, and thus secured from the water, 
while the surrounding country is inundated. 
* By describing one village you describe 
| all; invariably built upon one of these hil- 
‘locks; an assemblage of flat-roofed square 
mud-huts; few houses with upper stories 
or walls of brick; oval nical of mad, 
without any window, and only a small hole, 
through which they creep, and were it not 
that a hollow is dug about two feei in the 
sand they would scarcely be able to stand 
upright in them. ‘The Arab hut, like the 
ss cobler’s stall, serves for kitchen, parlour, 
and hall ;” in truth answers every purpose, 
for they are beastly dirty. 
** Almost eyery house has its pigeon- 
_ cote erected upon the roof, ina curious form, 
and giving a very odd aad picturesque ap- 
“pearance to the whole: a mosque or two, 
according to the size of the village, a number 
of ragged inhabitants, and a few date-trees, 
finish my description of the Arab village, 
Been at some little distance, wears the ap- 
rance of a fortification, and does in fact 
ord excellent cover to the guard which is 
regularly mounted every night by the inha- 
bitants to protect them frou the incursions 
of the Bedouin “Arabs. here are three 
‘distinct styles of habitation; the best of 
brick, with latticed windows and upper 
rooms; the intermediate ones of mud, four 
walls forming a square with flat roof, and 
holes in the wall to serve as windows; the 
worst sort, oval hoyels of the same ma- 
terial, mud. Outside of each village is a 
burial ground, which at first sight appears 
to consist of a number of the oval huts I 
have just described, but, upon a nearer ap- 
_ proach, you find are tombs of brick, really 
well constructed ; with infinite labour and 
pains bestowed upon them; they certainly 
living. 
The funerals reminded the author of 
_ the same ceremony in Ireland. The in- 
 terjection of joy, ululah, reminded him 
| also of the Irish phi/aluh ; and though 
_ this indicates sorrow, he asks if there 
“be not an affinity between the words: 
the fact is, that these words, like howl, 
ululo, and oacavfw, are all imitative and 
Ann. Rey. Vor. IL 
NON MILITARY JOURNAL. 
& . take better care of their dead, than of their 
65 
derived from the same sound, the first 
which infants articulate. 
The strange custom of hatching their 
eggs in ovens, is said to,have dwindled 
the race, and perverted their instincts: 
few hens will sit to hatch—a treble price 
is demanded for one that will. ‘here 
never was a country, says the author, 
better calculated to feed an army ; buf- 
falo beef, mutton, corn, rice, pulse, ve- 
getables of various kind, all good and 
cheap; yet the bread with which the 
poor Arabs must content themselves is 
little more than the husk of the corn 
and water. It ts remarkable that the 
English seldom felt any want of water ; 
they usually found it near the palms, at 
a depth of from four to seven feet. The 
French were ignorant of this, and were 
convinced that no water was to be pro- 
cured between Alexandria and Aboukir, 
A curious anecdote is related to ex- 
emplify the abject contempt in which 
Christians were held in Egypt before the 
French invasion. 
«* Mrs. Varsy, my hostess, told me a 
ridiculous circumstance, which you shall 
bave in her words : «* When my son was at 
my breast, I used now and then to give him 
to an old Arab servant-maid to hold; the 
woman always seemed in agony whilst she 
had him in her arms, At last, upon asking 
her why she appeared to be in such distress, 
she told me, ‘* that to say true, she had been 
to consult with one of the Imans whether 
the water of a young christian child, at 
breast, was impure; and that his answer 
was—-If the mother drinks wine it is deei- 
dediy impure, otherwise it is not so—Now, 
Ma’am, you know you do‘drink wine, and 
I am therefore kept in constant alarm lest 
the infant should misbehave, which always 
obliges me to change my cloaths, or to wash 
the part of them defiled.” . 
«© T confess,” says the writer, ‘* that were 
it not for political reasons, and lest their 
wandering spirits might have crept into the 
East, I could almost lament that the French, 
for the benefit of mankind, have not remain- 
ed here; with the sea open to them, they 
might haye brought about, after some time, 
such a change, that the country would have 
ut on a new appearance, or more properly 
P should say, its old appearance ; it is cere 
tainly to be made one of the finest countries 
in the world. I had rather the French 
should haye the pleasure of making it so, 
than it should be our lot, thousands would 
fall in the attempt, and I doubt if success 
would be quite ensured.” 
We too regret that any interests, real 
or imaginary, of Great Britain should 
oppose the progress of civilization— 
F : 
