130 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



trade, as well as our prostitutes of Europe, of sell- 

 ing the appearance of pleasure. They endeavour 

 to attract the men, whom they allure to the utmost 

 of their power, extract from them as much as they 

 can, and often strip them with as great address as 

 our courtesans. On the other hand, you will seek 

 in vain among those of Upper Egypt for the ravish- 

 ing details of beauty which have very unjustly been 

 ascribed to them. You only behold there wretched 

 creatures, ugly, for the most part poorly drest, and 

 repelling, by the excess of their effrontery, so much 

 the more remarkable in these countries, that they 

 are the only women who walk with their faces un- 

 covered, and who speak to men in public ; more 

 disgusting still on account of the numberless and 

 frightful diseases with which tliey are infected ; in 

 a word, uniting all the horrors of libertinism with- 

 out possessing one of its attractions. Such is the 

 real portrait of these women, who cannot have any 

 allurements but in the eyes of brutality. May 

 those young men, who, seduced perhaps by the 

 deceitful picture vi^hich has been given of the Egyp- 

 tian Venuses, may desire an opportunity to pay 

 adoration to them, have no cause of regret. They 

 would only find in them digusting objects, in com' 

 parison with whom the greater part of the courte- 

 sans of Europe might pass for divinities. 



In 



