CHAP. XI. CULTIVATION OF THE IIAGER. 1'21 



defined, that you may almost step with one foot 

 upon the richest, and with the other on the most 

 barren land ; for, as Strabo says, all is sterile in 

 Egypt where the Nile does not reach; but it only 

 requires to be irrigated by the fertilising water of 

 the river, to become productive ; as the flower of 

 the female plant only awaits the pollen of the male, 

 to cause it to produce, — an idea analogous to the 

 fable of Osiris (as the inundation) approaching the 

 bed of Isis (the soil it irrigates), or more properly 

 of Nepthys (the barren land), who also produced 

 a son on being visited by Osiris. 



Besides the land inundated by the Nile, the 

 ancient Egyptians took into cultivation a consider- 

 able portion of the Hdger, or edge of the desert, 

 which, being a light soil, consisting of clay mixed 

 with sand or gravel, was peculiarly adapted for 

 certain produce, particularly bulbous plants ; and 

 many with long fibrous roots were found to thrive 

 in that soil. Those parts where a greater propor- 

 tion of gravel prevailed, were peculiarly adapted to 

 the culture of the vine ; and we are not surprised 

 to find that the wines of Anthylla, Mareotis, and 

 other places situated at the confines of the desert, 

 were superior in quality to those from the interior 

 of the irrigated land. In some places, as in the 

 Fyoom, where little change has taken place in the 

 appearance of the surface of the land, I have fre- 

 quently observed the traces of former cultivation : 

 even the vestiges of fields appear, with channels 

 for water, far above the level of all modern 

 canals ; and in the vicinity of the Lake Mocris are 



