AND LOWER EGYPT. 23 I 



marsh which it is dangerous to stir, on account of 

 the exhalations which issue from it. But in the 

 vast plains of Lower Egypt, besides that the strong 

 and regular winds would purge the atmosphere of 

 the noxious vapours with which it might be loaded, 

 it is not on marshy grounds that the rice is raised; 

 a stagnant and infected water by no means covers 

 the plains in which it is produced ; they moisten 

 it, they bathe it with the water of the river, which 

 all the resources of art are employed in conveying 

 to it : this water runs off, and they give over sup- 

 plying their conduits with more, as soon as the 

 plants stand no longer in need of moisture. 

 Another species of crop^, which does not require 

 such copious refreshment, and which absorbs the 

 remains of an excessive humidity, succeeds to that 

 of rice, and beautiful carpets of verdure assume 

 the place of the yellow robe, with which, a little 

 before, the self same plains were clothed. 



As soon as the rice is reaped, the Egyptians 

 sow a beautiful variety of trefoil, which they call 

 bai sun *. The seed of it is scattered over the sur- 

 face of the ground without the labour of plough- 

 ing or digging, and it sinks to a sufficient depth 

 in a soil which, at that period, is still abundantly 



* Trifolium Alexandrinum, Forskal, Flora EgyptLco-Arabica, 

 p. 139, Noia. Some travellers have confounded the batsim with 

 the sainfoin : it is a species, or rather variety, of our trefoil. 



u ± humid. 



