CHAP. XI. IRRIGATION OF THE LANDS. 37 



As the Nile subsided, the water was retamed 

 in the fields by proper embankments ; and the 

 mouths of the canals being again closed, it was 

 prevented from returning into the falling stream. 

 By this means the irrigation of the land was 

 prolonged considerably, and the fertilising effects 

 of the inundation continued until the water was 

 absorbed. And so rapidly does the ardent sun of 

 Egypt, even at this late period of the season, — 

 in the months of November and December, — dry 

 the mud when once deprived of its covering of 

 water, that no fevers are generated, and no ill- 

 ness visits those villages which have been entirely 

 surrounded by the inundation. For though some 

 travellers pretend that the Nile ceases to rise to 

 the same height as in the days of Herodotus, and 

 assert that the villages no longer present the ap- 

 pearance he describes *, of islands resembling the 

 Cyclades in the ^gean Sea, it is not less certain 

 that the great inundations have precisely the effect 

 he mentions ; and I have seen the villages perfectly 

 isolated, as in olden times. But this, as may be 

 reasonably supposed, does not happen every year ; 

 and, as in all ages of Egyptian history, the Nile 

 sometimes rises to a great height, and at others 

 falls short of the same limit ; and a casual observer, 

 judging only of what he witnessed during a short 

 stay in the country, may form too hasty an opinion, 

 and draw conclusions which longer experience 

 would prove to be erroneous. 



As soon as the canals were closed, tiie quantity of 



* Herodot. ii. 97. 



D 3 



