214 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



CHAP. XIV. 



Disturbances at Cairo — 'Oriental dress — -Boats of the 

 Nile — Winter — Rossetta-*- Commerce — Rice, its 

 culture, and its antiquity in Egypt — Trefoil — 

 Oxen and cows. 



Whether it be that the traveller, after having 

 dwelt for some time in the dust, and amidst the 

 ruins of Alexandria, after having traversed the 

 twelve leagues of scorched plains, which separate 

 that city from the banks of the Nile: in a word, 

 after having surmounted the hills of sand which 

 run close up to Rossetta on the west, arrives there, 

 or rather seems all at once to drop into it ; or 

 whether he has quitted a disagreeable and dan- 

 gerous residence at Cairo, a habitation at Rossetta 

 becomes a most desirable retreat, which compa- 

 rison renders delicious. With an intention to 

 penetrate into Upper Egypt, and afterwards into 

 Abyssinia, 1 had, at first, made a rapid progress to 

 Cairo, as I have mentioned, in company with M. 

 Tott, who left me there. Circumstances could not 

 have been more unpropitious. The dissensions 

 which so frequently arise among the potentates of 

 Egypt had reached the highest pitch of fury. The 

 Said was filled with combatants, and infested with 



robbers ; 



