318 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



I saw besides several fields covered with a 

 species of large millet, which in Egypt is called 

 donrra*. It is an object of great cultivation, 

 which yields an abundant harvest. Its produce is 

 estimated at nearly fifty- fold. The Egyptians 

 make bread, or rather indifferent muffins, of the 

 seed of the dourra-, they likewise ascribe to it 

 great efficacy in healing fractures of the limbs, 

 applying it when reduced to a powder. 



The great Indian pink, or African -f~, displayed 

 its beautiful yellow flowers amidst other plants, 

 in different gardens. 



We had reached the period in which wild 

 ducks of various sorts arrive from every quarter 

 in Lower Egypt. The smaller kind, as the teal, 

 come thither at the beginning of October, and 

 the larger ones appear later. They all assemble 

 on the lakes of the Delta, which are not far from 

 Rossetta and Damietta, and form innumerable 

 flocks which do not take their departure till after 

 winter. They are caught with nets ; and this 

 game, which was very productive, had not escaped 

 the fiscal tyranny of the Mamelucs or of their 

 overseers ; it was farmed out, and was conse- 



* Holcus durra. Lin. — Forskal, Flora Egyp.-Arab. p. 174. 

 f Tagetes erecta, Lin. — Forskal, ibidem, page 120. 



3 quently 



