354 COFFEE. 



EGYPT A^D TUEKEY. 



Many travellers from India to Europe stop at Suez and make 

 a short tour in Egypt for the purpose of seeing the Pyramids and 

 other interesting antiquities of that wonderful country. This 

 also our party did, and we were well repaid for our trouble.' 

 Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is situated about midway between 

 Suez on the Red Sea and Alexandria on the Mediterranean ; with 

 both of which places there is rail communication. To reach 

 Cd,iro from Suez, we pass through some fifty miles of sandy des- 

 ert to Zagazig, which is situated on one of the branches of the 

 Nile, which form the delta of that wonderful river ; and from 

 this place to Cairo it was one continuous garden, with a succession 

 of rice, cotton, and sugar-cane fields, together with a variety of 

 grains, and dotted here and there with beautiful orange groves. 

 Just below Cairo the Nile spreads out like a fan, distributing its 

 waters through numerous mouths into the Mediterranean at dis- 

 tances the extremes of which are one hundred and fifty miles 

 apart. The whole space between these channels is annually over- 

 flowed, receiving a thin but fertile deposit of soil, which is brought 

 down from the mountains of Africa by the overflowing waters ; and 

 immediately upon their subsiding there springs up a luxuriance of 

 verdure which is probably equalled in no other country on the 

 face of the globe. 



Cairo is not only the seat of government, but also the empo- 

 rium for the entire trade of the Upper Nile, which is of no mean 

 dimensions. In her bazaars, are found the ivory, and ostrich 

 plumes and eggs of Africa, the tapestries, carpets, and gems of Per- 

 sia, quaint and curious antique arms and armors from Arabia, and 

 a full assortment of European fabrics of every nature. A de- 

 pendency of Turkey and imder Turkish rule, it is Oriental in its 

 prominent features, but there is also a blending of the ancient 

 Egyptian and modern European which makes a rare and indeed 

 unique type of civilization. One of the features which strike a 

 stranger forcibly upon arriving here is that locomotion is largely 

 performed upon donkeys. Diminutive creatures that a person 

 would hardly think could carry the weight of a child may be seen 



