Ch. I.] ALEXAKDEIA AND THE DELTA. 5 



the streets, which were impregnated with a penetrating and 

 far from agreeable odour, and under a sun more powerful 

 than we had ever felt in England, were crowds of Arabs, 

 Turks, Negroes, and Egyptians, in every variety of costume 

 and of every shade of colour ; — some in gaudy dresses, and 

 flowing robes, turbans, and fezzes — others with bare legs 

 and arms, or wearing only a kind of smock, and variously 

 contrived head-covexings — women veiled, with a long strip 

 of black hanging down from their eyes to their feet ; others 

 in dazzling white, veil included, or with little ones astride 

 upon their shoulders — children of all ages and degrees of 

 dirtiness, crying for backsheesh — lean mules and donkeys, 

 with turbaned and portly Turks upon their backs, or with 

 bundles of merchandize hanging on either side — strings of 

 camels laden with various goods — ^warlike gentlemen vnth 

 long curved scymitars at their sides, and pistols two or three 

 feet in length stuck in their belts — all these together formed 

 a combination often described, perhaps, but not to be for- 

 gotten when once seen. 



A land journey is always a pleasant interlude in a long 

 sea voyage, though the small carriages of the Pasha's rail- 

 way, generally filled with their full complement, are not the 

 most delightful of conveyances under an Egyptian sun. 

 Across the fertile Delta agricultural operations were every- 

 where going on. Groups of date-pahns (Phcenix dactylifera) 

 and groves of olive ti'ees constantly met the eye ; numerous 

 camels, herds of buffaloes, mingled with the coloured do- 

 mestic cattle, goats of a small size, and broad-tailed sheep, ' 

 were in plenty throughout the route. The fields were often 

 separated by hedges of mimosa (M. Nilotica), and frequent 

 villages occurred, mere collections of mud huts, squalid and 

 desolate (and sometimes deserted and in ruins), about which 



