AND LOWER EGYPT. 221 



sweetest exhalations, amid which prevailed the 

 exquisite odour of the blossom of the citron-trees, 

 which were there in great numbers. 



It was the season when grapes are found in most 

 abundance. Long clusters were filled with large 

 purple fruit, the pulp of which was sweet and aro- 

 matic. This is the fruit most esteemed by the opu- 

 lent, and that which they consider as the most 

 agreeable alleviation of the heat occasioned by the 

 climate. Common and watermelons, fruits equally 

 refreshing, filled the market-places and streets of 

 Kous, 1 there ate of three sorts of melons, the 

 agour, resembling the melon of Europe, but whose 

 form is not always similar, some being round, 

 others oval, and a third sort extremely long ; the 

 ahouH, a species of cantaloupe, the rind of which 

 is yellow, and the pulp of a yellowish white; 

 and lastly, the ahdeJavoui (the slave of sweetness), 

 which is lengthened out, and remarkable on ac- 

 count of a rounded protuberance which it bears 

 close to the stalk. There is no one of all those 

 melons of so good a quality as our choicest Euro- 

 pean melons. The greater part of them are in- 

 sipid. The cantaloupe, more famous elsewhere 

 for its flavour, is there very tasteless. That kind, 

 the name of which would seem to indicate the 

 softest and sweetest pulp, is called the slave of 

 sweetness, only because it requires a great deal of 



sugar 



