OF THE CUCUMBER. 5I 



towns and villages being built upon eminences either 

 natural ot artificial. When the river is at its proper 

 height the inhabitants celebrate a kind of jubilee 

 with various feftivities. 



" The banks or mounds that confine it are cut by 

 the Turkifh Balha, attended by his grandees ; but, 

 according to captain Nor den, who was prefent on 

 the occafion, the fpe^tacle is not very magnificent. 

 When the banks are cut, the water is let into what 

 they call the Chalis, or grand canal, which runs 

 through Cairo, from whence it is diflributed into 

 cuts for fupplying their fields and gardens. This 

 being done, and the waters beginning to retire, fuch 

 is the fertility of the foil, that the labour of the huf- 

 bandman is next to nothing. He throws his wheat 

 and barley into the ground in October and May, he 

 turns his cattle out to graze in November, and in 

 about fix weeks nothing can be more charming than 

 the profpei^l which the face of the country prefents, 

 in rifing corn, vegetables, and verdure of every 

 fort. Oranges, lemons, and fruits, perfume the air. 

 The culture of pulfe, melons, fugar- canes, and other 

 plants which require moiflure, is fupplied by fmall, 

 but regular, cuts from cifterns and refervoirs. 

 Dates, plantanes, grapes,, figs, and palm-trees, from 

 which wine is made, are here plentiful. March and 

 April are the harveft months, and produce three 

 crops, one of lettuces and cucumbers (the latter 

 being the chief food of the inhabitantsX one of corn, 

 ;^nd one of melons. 



D2 *'The 



