106 A Letter from Cairo. 



ciations as have stirred my spirit ia Italy, or by such as are now urging me 

 on to the shores of Syria. I tried to kindle up some spark of interest in 

 the recollection of the Cleopatras and Antonys and Caesars, and even in- 

 voked the shade of the Macedonian hero, whose dust lay mingled with the 

 dust I was treading on. But in vain I laboured to get up an emotion j and 

 my companions, as impassive as myself, required no intreaty to proceed on 

 our voyage. We therefore, after three days' stay, embarked in a kangia 

 (a kind of canal boat), with a low cabin, sufficient to screen us from sun 

 and shower, upon the canal which has been made or restored by the 

 present ruler of Egypt, and which, skirting the Lake Mareotis, is united 

 to the Nile at the town of Rhamanieh, about thirty miles above Rosetta. 

 We arrived there the next day, and hiring another boat, better formed for 

 the wider channel of the Nile, began to ascend the river, by sail and oar 

 and tow rope, according to the exigency of the hour, with a crew composed 

 of a Turkish rais, or skipper, and five Arabs. I like not to dwell upon the 

 discomforts of tliis navigation j the boat was alive with myriads of fleas 

 and bugs, as well as of other still more disgusting vermin, from whose in- 

 roads no precaution could preserve us. These familiar companions, though 

 odious to us, were, I am convinced, not unwelcome to our crew, whose idle 

 hours seemed agreeably occupied by the inexliaustible chasse, which was 

 always ready at hand in the covert of their woollen garments. There is 

 nothing grand or pretty in the scenery of the Nile. At this season it flows 

 deep between cliffs, composed of compacted mud and sand. Its course is rapid, 

 but broken by banks and shallows, and its average depth we calculated to 

 be not more than six feet upon a breadth of half a mile. From the boats' 

 deck nothing can be seen of the country, save at times collections of black 

 tumuli, to which the eye is attracted by a few scattered palm trees rising 

 amongst them, but which on a nearer approach prove to be the dwellings 

 of the miserable Fellahs, constructed of the earth on which they are placed, 

 with which short straw is mingled and trodden in by the feet of men. The 

 mass is then shaped into rude bricks, and dried in the sun. These owe 

 their tenacity solely to the straw, and, unless protected from the weather, 

 soon return to their original earth. Whole towns may thus, by a few days' 

 rain, be melted away. These villages are perched upon every rising ground 

 on the margin of the river, and are insulated during the season of inunda- 

 tion. At one of these, where we landed, every third structure was a high 

 cone of narrow base, formed of pots of earthenware piled upon each other, 

 cemented together with mud, and inhabited by multitudes of pigeons. 

 These birds are kept for their manure, which is used in the culture of 

 melons, and in the fabrication of nitre. They descended in crowds upon 

 our deck, and alighted like ducks or gulls upon the water around us, when- 

 ever grease or the washings of our culinary utensils were thrown overboard. 

 In our progress up the river we hauled nightly to the shore, and remained 

 moored in the morning till the Etesian wind arose, which came in generally 



