OVERFLOWING OF THE NILE. 81 



scarcity of water the preceding season, the Arabs had recourse to 

 their wonted expedient of erecting fences of earth and reeds round the 

 villages, to keep the water from their houses. But on this occasion, the 

 pressure of the flood baffled all their efforts. Their cottages built of 

 earth, could not stand against the current, but were, as soon as tiie water 

 touched them, levelled with the ground. The rapid stream carried off all 

 that was before it; the inhabitants of all ages, with their corn and cattle, 

 were washed away in an instant. In Upper Egypt, where the villages 

 are not raised above the level even of the ordinary inundations, the natives 

 depend for their safety upon artificial barriers. At Agalta, whither he 

 went to procure the assistance of the camaikan or magistrate, he found 

 the said functionary in great alarm, expecting every hour to be carried 

 away by the Nile. " There was no boat in the village, and should the 

 water break down their weak fences, the only chance of escape was by 

 climbing the palm trees, till Providence sent some one to their relief. 

 All the boats were employed in carrying away the corn from villages that 

 were in danger. Both in Upper and Lower Egypt the men, women, and 

 children, are left to be last assisted, as their lives are not so valuable as 

 corn, which belongs to the pacha ! As this village was four feet below 

 the water, the poor Fellahs were on the watch day and night round their 

 fences. They employed their skin machines or bags to throw out the 

 water which rose from under the ground ; but if their fences should be 

 broken down, all would be lost." At another village described by the 

 traveller, the distress of the people was very great; some of them had 

 taken refuge on a spot where there were only a few feet of land uncovered ; 

 and the water, he adds, was to rise twelve days more, and after that to 

 remain twelve days at its height, according to the usual term of the 

 inundation. In a distance of 1 ,350 nautical miles from the mouth of the 

 Tacazze to the Delta, the Nile does not receive a single tributary stream 

 from either east or west, which, as remarked by Humboldt, is a solitary 

 instance in the hydrographic history of the globe. The great canal which 

 runs through Cairo, is cleaned periodically, and when the water in the 

 Nile has risen to a certain height, it is opened with great ceremony ; the 

 day is kept as a holiday, a grand festival takes place, and the 

 most extravagant joy animates the inhabitants. The other canals are then 

 allowed to be opened. 



