416 Letters from Egypt. 
telegraph, to be eftablithed on the coafts and in the road to 
Cairo. 
Alexandria ftands in the middle of a defert. The Turkifh 
town is built at the expence of that of the Arabs, where no- 
thing has been preferved untouched but the cifterns, none 
of which have been formed under the new town. »The ob- 
jects of culture here confift of beautiful palms, which have 
a fomewhat difmal appearance, fig-trees, the cactus opuntia, 
and wretched vegetables, to which the inhabitants do much 
honour by giving them the names of cabbages, forrel, parf- 
Jey, &c. The onions, however, deferve particular attention. 
They are much harder, a little more pointed in their form, 
and have a fomewhat ftronger tafte than thofe of Europe. 
The grapes which we have ate here for a fortnight paft are 
- brought by water from Rofetta and Cyprus: water-melons, 
which are abundant, come alfo from Rofetta: they are culs 
tivated here, but in fmall quantities. 
The Bedouin Arabs who inhabit the defert, and wha 
feed there their flocks, which they afterwards bring for fale 
to Alexandria, wear a white drefs that appeared to me to 
have a great refemblance to the ancient Roman habit, and 
which produces a very fine effect. The painters, when [ 
afked what they thought of it, entertained the fame opinion. 
~The men here are ftrong, of large fize, and well propor- 
tioned. This, no doubt, is owing to the drefs worn by the 
children and the lower claffes, which is merely a blue fhirt. 
They take a great deal of exercife, and their fecngth,4 is €X- 
panded at a very early age. 
We have been all indifpofed: this is a tribute we muft 
pay to a climate fo different from our own, and above all to © 
the difference of nourifhment. Though the heat here is 
only 22 or 23 (81 or 84 Fahr.), on account of the fea- 
- breeze which cools the atmofphere, the hygrometric difpo- 
fitign of the air has a powerful effeét on the animal economy. 
Jt never rains at this feafon, but in the evening there is an 
3 abundant 
