88 Letters from Egypt. 



entertainment : the poor in all countries efcape fuch affeff- 

 ments, and people who are in eafy circumftances difdain to 

 go and eat fragments. 



Upon the whole, the Egyptians in the country are exceed- 

 ingly miferable : fo much fo indeed that the imagination 

 can hardly conceive it. Would you believe that the greater 

 part of the villages confift aim oft entirely of earthen huts, 

 which are not three feet in height ; that the aperture through 

 which thefe miferable creatures enter their kennels is a cir- 

 cular hole of a foot and a half diameter, and that this hole 

 remains always open ; that there is no room in thefe huts, 

 but what is neceffaryfdr the huiband, wife and children, all 

 huddled together, to fleep upon ; and that, to enter thefe 

 wretched habitations, they are obliged to creep on all fours? 

 A place built up of earth, on which they bake their bread, 

 occupies the third of the hut ; two ftones to grind corn, a 

 coffee-pot to make coffee, and a bag containing tobacco, are 

 all the furniture of thefe poor peafants. They never eat 

 flefh, but they all drink coffee in the morning. The Torks 

 cannot live without coffee and tobacco. Bcfides thefe, they 

 feem to be acquainted with no wants. They drink their 

 coffeewithoutfugar, andwith the grounds : the more abundant 

 the latter are, fo much the more agreeable it is to their tafte.' 



LETTER IV. 



Cairo, Fruflidor it, 



THE members of the National Inftitute have founded 

 here an eftabliihment like that of Paris. They have af- 

 fociated with them fome of the men of letters and artifts 

 who followed the army, and fome military men have been 

 admitted members alfo. Generals Kleber, Deffaix, Regnier, 

 Andreofli and Cafarelli ; Salkowfki aid-de-camp to the com- 

 mander in chief, and Sucy chief commiffary, have been 

 likewife admitted. This eftablifhment has a very beautiful 

 fituation, and in a little time we fhall have a botanical 

 garden. A menagerie has already been begun to be formed, 



and 



