Book T. AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA. 173 



sustain life ; but Browne says, that these terms can be properly applied to very few of 

 them. 



1076. The occupier of the land, assisted by his family, is the cultivator ; and in 

 the operations of husbandry scarcely requires any other aid. He commonly holds 

 no more than he and they can cultivate, and gather the produce of. When, indeed, 

 the Nile rises, those who are employed to water the fields are commonly hired 

 labourers. The rice and corn they gather are carried to their masters, and nothing is 

 reserved for them but dourra, or Indian millet, of which they make a coarse and taste- 

 less bread without leaven ; this, with water and raw onions, is their only food through- 

 out the year ; and they think themselves happy if they can sometimes procure a little 

 honey, cheese, sour milk, and dates. Their whole clothing consists of a shirt of coarse 

 blue linen and a black cloak. Their head-dress is a sort of cloth bonnet, over which 

 they roll a long handkerchief of red woollen. Their 

 arms, legs, and breasts are naked, and some of them do 

 not even wear drawers. Their habitations {fig. 139. j 

 are mud-walled huts, in which they are suffocated with 

 heat and smoke, and in which, besides the experience 

 of other inconveniences, they are perpetually distressed 

 with the dread of the robberies of the Arabs, and the 

 extortions of the Mamelukes, family feuds, and all the 

 calamities of a perpetual civil war. 



*1077. The agricultural products of Egypt consist of grain of most sorts, and particularly 

 rice. Barley is grown for the horses, but no oats are seen. In the Delta a crop of rice 

 and a crop of barley are obtained within the year on the same ground. Sometimes, instead 

 of barley, a fine variety of clover ( Trifdlium alexandrinum Forskahl) is sown without 

 ploughing or harrowing. The seed sinks to a sufficient depth in the moist soil, and pro- 

 duces three cuttings before the time for again sowing the rice. 



1078. Rice is sown from the month of March to that of May ; and is generally six months in coming to 

 maturity. In reaping, it is most commonly pulled up by the "roots. As the use of the flail is unknown 

 in Egypt, the rice plants are spread in thick layers on floors formed of earth and pigeon's dung, which are 

 well beaten and very clean : and then, in order to separate the grain from the straw, they make use of a 

 sort of carts, constructed like our sledges with two pieces of wood joined together bv two cross bars. 

 Between the longer sides of this sledge are fixed, transversely, three rows of small wheels, made of solid 

 iron, and narrowed off towards their circumference ; and on the fore part is fixed a high seat, on which a 

 man sits, for the purpose of driving two oxen that are harnessed to the machine, thus moving it in a 

 circular direction over every part of the heap of rice, till the grain is completely separated from the straw ; 

 the grain is then spread in the air to be dried. The dried rice is carried to the mill, where it is stripped 

 of its chaff or husk. This mill consists of a wheel turned by oxen, which sets several levers in motion ; 

 and at their extremity is an iron cylinder, about a foot long, and hollow underneath ; these cylinders 

 turn in troughs which contain the grain ; and at the side of each trough there stands a man, whose bu- 

 siness it is to place the rice under the cylinders. The next operation is to sift the rice in the open air, by 

 filling a small sieve, which a man lilts over his head, and thus lets fall, with his face turned to the wind, 

 which blows away the small chaff or dust This cleaned rice is put a second time into the mill, in order 

 to bleach it ; it is afterwards mixed up in troughs with some salt, which contributes very much to its 

 whiteness and also to its preservation, and in this state it is sold. Rice is furnished in great quantities 

 in the Delta ; and that which is grown in the environs of Rosetta is more esteemed, on account of its pre- 

 paration, than that which is produced in the vicinity of Damietta. The produce of the one and the other 

 is equally wonderful. In a good season, that is, when the rise of the Nile occasions a great expansion of 

 its waters, the profit of the proprietors of rice fields is estimated at fifty per cent, clear of all expenses. 

 Savary says that it produces eighty bushels for one. 



1079. li'heat is sown as soon as the waters of the Nile have retired from the lands appropriated to it ; 

 the seed time varies with the latitude, and also the harvest, which is earlier in Upper than in Lower 

 Egypt. Near to Syene they sow the barley and the corn in October, and reap it in January. Towards 

 Girge they cut in February; and in the month of March, in the vicinity of Cairo. This is the usual pro- 

 gress of the harvest in the Said. There is also a number of partial harvests, as the lands are nearer to, 

 or at a greater distance from, the river, lower or more elevated. In Lower Egypt they are sowing and 

 reaping all the year. Where the waters of the river can be procured the earth is never idle, and fur- 

 nishes three crops annually. In descending from the cataracts in January, the corn is seen almost ripe ; 

 lower down it is in ear; and, advancing further, the plains are covered with verdure. The cultivator, in 

 general, merely casts the seed upon the moistened earth ; the corn soon springs up from the mud ; its 

 vegetation is rapid, and four months after it is sown it is fit to be reaped. In performing this operation, 

 the sickle not being used, the stalks are pulled up by the roots, and carried to large floors, like those 

 which are used for treading out rice ; and by a similar operation the corn is separated from the ear. 

 Unripe ears of corn are dried and slackly baked in an oven j and being afterwards bruised and boiled with 

 meat, form a common dish in Lower Egypt, called " ferik." 



1080. Flax has been cultivated in Egypt from the most remote period, and is still 

 grown in considerable quantities. Indigo is also grown for dyeing it, the colour of the 

 shirt in this country being universally blue. 



1081. From the hemp, which is abundantly cultivated in this country, the inhabitants 

 prepare intoxicating liquors ; and also by pounding the fruit into a paste, which when 

 fermented answers a similar purpose ; and they mix the capsules with tobacco for 

 smoking. 



1082. The sugar cane is also one of the valuable productions of Egypt. The common 

 people do not wait for the extraction of the sugar, but cut the canes green, which are 

 sold in bundles in all the towns. They begin to ripen in October, but are not, in general, 

 fit to be cut till November or December. The skill of the sugar-refiners is in a very 

 imperfect state. 



