AND LOWER EGYPT. II 



winds. I saw also two curlew's of a deep green 

 plumage, with reflexes of a copper colour. I pre- 

 sume this is the species of which Buffon has taken 

 notice, under the denomination of the green cur- 

 lew, or curlew of Italy*. These birds, which have 

 on the whole a pretty strong resemblance to the 

 curlew of the woods of Guiana -j-, are passage birds 

 in Egypt, where they follow the course of the Nile 

 up to the cataract. The Arabs call them schekck. 



At night I visited the baths, which at Boulac arc 

 very tine. I had at Cairo accustomed myself to the 

 use of those kind of baths, and I was fond of fre- 

 quenting them. There was one there near the 

 quarter where the French resided, and I seldom 

 allowed many days to pass without going thither- 

 It is well known that these baths of the East, de- 

 scribed by all travellers, and which I have seen 

 badly imitated at Paris, are immense buildings, 

 where people bathe without water, and where warm 

 andhumidvapours moisten the body, and, mingling 

 with the sweat which they excite, descend in large 

 drops over all the limbs. You extend yourself 

 upon marble, heated, and slippery with humidity; 

 a servant whose hand is enclosed in a little square 



* Hist. Nat. des Ois. & pi. enlum. No. iig. 



■j- BufFon, Hist. Nat. des Ois. & pi. enlum. No. 820. u^V' 

 quata viriiiis silvatica. Lin. FInmand de bois. Barrere, Franc. 

 Equinox, page 127, et OrniLholog. page 74. 



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