AND LOWER EGYPT. 33 



the sand which the wind hurried along with it ad- 

 hered to our faces and formed a mask, on them. 

 Our employment every moment was to keep our 

 eyes cool with the water of the river, tocleansethem 

 from the sand which stuck to them, and to keep 

 them open. The air was darkened with a thick, 

 fog of small dust, and as red as fire. It insinuated 

 itself into every thing. Ouv cciffaSy our closest shut 

 trunks, were not secured from it ; and if we at- 

 tempted to eat, our mouths were filled as much 

 with dust as with food,_. 



This scorching wind abated at length, towards 

 the evening, and we were enabled to approach near 

 a little town called Benisouef^ built to the westward 

 of the Nile, and about four leagues from Schment 

 el Arab. The houses, constructed of brick ce- 

 mented with earth, and the turrets which seemed 

 to vie in height with the date- trees surrounding 

 them, render the appearance of this place less harsh, 

 less gloomy than that of the other villages which I 

 had hitherto seen. Of all the places situated along 

 the Nile from Cairo, that is, for the space of more 

 than thirty leagues, this is the largest, as it is the 

 least wretched. A manufactory of coarse carpets 

 renders it commercial. The country around it is 

 fertile and smiling, and the people who cultivate it 

 seem to be less miserable, less depressed by s ufFoir 

 ing, than those who live nearer to the capital. A 



VOL. HI. D Ktaschef 



