AND LOWER EGYPT. 39 



I have just now said, had nothing formidable, is 

 semicircular. The city, the suburbs, and the walks 

 which surround them, present an amphitheatre 

 equally agreeable and variegated. A chain of 

 lofty mountains, bare and uncultivated, rise behind 

 the city, and render its position more picturesque. 

 It is shut in by four beautiful gates ; two streets, 

 which terminate in them, form, crossing each other 

 nearly at the centre, an open place, of no great ex- 

 tent, which they call the Ottangolo, and from which 

 you can see the four gates. These streets run in a 

 straight line ; they are broad, well built, and paved 

 with great stones. In the evening, a multitude of 

 shops and coffeehouses lighted up, the great num- 

 ber of carriages rolling along, illuminated by flam- 

 beaux, the crowds of people on foot pressing byeach 

 other, through the longest and the most respect- 

 able of these streets, resemble the splendour and 

 the hurlyburly of that of Saint-Honore, at Paris. 

 The Sicilians, who are not of the laborious class of 

 mankind, never go abroad but in a coach : it would 

 be deemed indecent for a man in affluent circum- 

 stances to make use of his legs. The number of 

 carriages is accordingly very great ; a stranger may 

 hire a very decent one at the rate of six or seven 

 shillings a day. Every body there wears a sword : 

 the cobler, with his leathern apron and greasy 

 jacket ; the hair-dresser, in his jerkin and his pow- 

 der-bag on his arm ; in a word, the artisan of every 



d 4 descrip- 



