AND LOWER EGYPT. 217 



abominable insects, we were tormented in a man- 

 ner altogether inconceivable ; our bodies were an 

 uninterrupted continuity of little wounds and 

 smarting blisters. I had been exposed, in South 

 America, to the stings of innumerable swarms of 

 musquitos, but I do not remember that I ever suf- 

 fered so much as in that accursed kanja. 



These boats likewise have, as the gcrmes of 

 Alexandria, immense triangular sails, attached to 

 sail-yards of a very extraordinary length. (Sec 

 plate VIII.) These yards too, like the others, arc 

 not made to lower; and when the vessel is under 

 sail, it is impossible to make them change their side 

 of the mast, aloft, to go on the other tack ; so that 

 in the frequent necessity of putting about, occa- 

 sioned by the sinuosities of the Nile, the sails are 

 for some time backed close to the masts and 

 shrouds, without a possibility of reefing or lower- 

 ing them. The wind being unsteady, the squalls 

 frequent and furious, and the boatmen ignorant in 

 the extreme, it is by no means uncommon to see 

 some of those boats, in such a position, go to the 

 bottom. The one on which wc were embarked, 

 was freighted for my sole use ; there was no one 

 on board but ourselves and our bao-^age. \ na d 

 leisure and opportunity to converse with the mas- 

 ter. I endeavoured to make him comprehend that, 

 by means of certain slight arrangements, it would 



be 



