208 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



Vansleb, whom Buffon continues to quote, saySj 

 that the women of the villages and of the populace 

 of the cities of Ei^ypt have sparkling eyes, a stature 

 below mediocrity, a mode of dressing by no means 

 agreeable, and that their conversation is very irk- 

 some *. That the ,9"ood father should find himself 

 wearied in the company of Egyptian females, which 

 his profession as a missionary no doubt procured 

 him, is not at all astonishing, when it is known 

 how far removed these wotnen are from our means 

 of knowledge and from every species of education ; 

 that he was not satisfied with their dress, although 

 light, cool, and comfortable, I only say, lei every 

 one judge for himself; but the reverend father has 

 fallen into a mistake when he says that they are of 

 short stature, for, in fact, the Egyptian women are, 

 generally speaking, as tall as the French. It is 

 true that Vansleb was a German, and that the wo- 

 men in that part of Europe are for the most part 

 tall and slender. The Egyptian females are neither 

 so tall nor so well made. 



It is not usual to find jealousy without love. 

 The women of Upper Egypt, however, who neither 

 love nor are beloved, are sometimes seized with a 

 jealous madness, when they discover that their hus- 

 bands have any partiality for other women, a par- 



* BufFon, Natural History of Manj and Vansleb, New Ac- 

 count of Egypt. 



tiality 



