94 THE EEV. F. A, WALKER, D.D., F.L.S., ON 



wheat is iioticocl or spoken of in the pages of myjournal it is 

 always "young corn," consisting of the tiny blade, whether 

 in the plain of Geezeh or as forming part of tlie panorama 

 obtained from the mountain of Lycopolis or elsewhere. Of 

 course this verdant carpet, though consisting largely of 

 wheat, did not consist solely of that grain, but of clover, lupins 

 and vetches, beans and lentils, etc., too. To advert once 

 more to Nine Hundred Miles, p. 160, on passing El Mataneh, 

 say at a rough estimate, situate at a distance of a little 

 under six liunclred miles south of Alexandria, on December 

 28th, sugar-cane and durra — these two plants are the chief 

 products planted in the neighbourhood, and the diii-ra 

 harvest is now in progress in several places on the eastern 

 bank, and again pp. 171 and 172 of the same work, in con- 

 nection with our visit to the temple of Edfou, " By reason of 

 the toughness of the stem," the dnrra is cut with a short 

 sharp sickle with serrated edge, and the lieads are collected 

 in palm-leaf baskets, while buffaloes, dromedaries, doidceys, 

 and black goats browse eagerly on its refuse stalks that are 

 lying about the stubble fields. 



There is abundant evidence, carved as Avell as pictorial, on 

 the ancient Egyptian monuments, that the Pharaohs them- 

 selves took part in the reaping of the harvest, as in one of the 

 side chambers, f(jr example, opening out of the fifth room in 

 the temple of Edfou, is a monarch grasping ears of wheat 

 with his left hand, while lie cuts it with the sickle in his right. 

 He is depicted with the ram's horns and orb of Ra, while 

 another monarch stands before him wearing the combined 

 crown. Several other side chambers and corridors contain 

 the same sculptures again and again. To quote from RaAv- 

 linson once more, the wheat grown was always bearded, and 

 comprised numerous varieties, one of which bore several ears 

 upon a single stalk. It is, at any rate, always represented as 

 bearded on the monuments. In Greece, moreover, while 

 traversing the plain of Marathon on the 5th of .June, 1 noted 

 that the wheat in the corn fields there, while considerably 

 exceeding in its height the stature of a man, and of which 

 I gathered specimens of the ears, was likewise bearded. 

 This variety is termed " rabbit wheat " in Cambridgeshire. 

 While inspecting the monuments at Edfou, I noted, what 

 Rawlinson has also observed, that the wheat therein repre- 

 sented was cut with a toothed sickle in the daj's of old as 

 Avell as the ripened harvest of to-day during my visit. Pos- 

 sibly the toughness of the stem, which required the employ- 



