DAM 
naturalitts to that elegant fpecies of voluta, the fpots of 
which ftand in a ara ake order, and refemble the marks 
of a draught or chefs board, that being the common figni- 
fication of the word damier. See Vo 
DAMIETTA, or Damtatt, in Geog wereps yy a ee 
town of Egypr, which forms a val crefcent at the h 
of the ealtern branch of the Nile. 
and that it was then very 
in proportion as Pelufium declined, it 
852, 
u 
fiege it, about 15 years after, this able fultan baffled all 
their efforts, and obliged them to retreat, though their land 
zrmy was mila by a fieet of 1200 fail. In the year 615 
of the Hegira, A.D. 1218, unde eign of Eladel, 
the erufaders. attacked it vies « confiderabe ae and 
ore re of 
Eddin, the fultan’s fon, ma a a econ aa pees ee 
a bridge over the river, which the Franks demolifhed, and 
choaked up the mouth of the river, which he rendered almott 
a See by linking feveral large boats. After alternate fuc- 
nd defeats, many bloody confli@s, and a fiege of 17 
How- 
ort duration; for being pale cage! 
f Achmoun, $ of a league 
e St. Lewis finithed his exploits, by the 
waters o ile and by the Egyptian army, they pur- 
chafed their lives a liberty by the furrender of their con- 
que irty-one years after this defeat, St. Lewis car- 
ried Damietta without ftriking a ftroke. Having thrown 
himfelf into the waves, in comple 
h 
© 
aay 
eir army, flight, and 
fully abandoned a ae filled with flaves, and cape a 
a lonz rcfiftance. Arabs foon recovered it, but tired 
of defending it, they totally deftroye d it, and rebuilt it 
further up in the country, ‘ Damietta being deftroyed, 
(fays Abulfeda) a {mall town was built at fome diftance, 
called Afenchié, which is i; 
gira,” 50); or, asfome Arabian hiftorians fay, - 
years before cae a “The caliph Elmetouakkel, 
the family of the Abaflides, built mew alls e misfor- 
tunes it had occafinned to the Maho dt 
to which it had given rife, drove them to that eau: 
It feem-d, in f4&t, as if this fortrefs, in a peculiar man- 
ner, 1 wvited the Franks, who alternately Jaid fiege to the 
walls.”’ Ae: the French threatened Egypt a fecond 
he me, it was refolved to deft roy Damietta; and it was fo 
completely pote to the ground, that there remained no 
DAM 
veftige of it, except the great mofque. Its ruins are dif- 
cernible at the village of Efbé, on the eaftern bank of the 
Nile, a fhort Jeague from the fea, ee alan has ao 
gained by the Deltain the courfe of 609 y 
years a this time the mouth of the Nile was ch on 
u r, which is caaey Bogaz, fo as to prevent the 
up the river, and to render ac- 
It is now impaffable, 
shes months of the year, and 
fhipwrecks frequently occur here. From this epocha its 
entrance i3 prohibited to all. veffels, which are now obliged 
to anchor in the road. The town of Damietta, now fub. 
fitting, was built ae the deftru€ion of the ancient city; 
and it is fituated a little above it on the fame fide, or about 
Ae 2 heagne diftant from the village of Efbé, where the i 
of e former are difcoverable. The modern Damie 
aw, a ven Tiebu te The towers, which have 
ila . ae the mode i i 
y the Mage for the defence 
lace, fays Sa- 
vary, who pa afled 1 months in it, is lore and not lefs 
agreeable, than Rofetta, is rounded in a femicircle on the 
eaftern bank of the Ni 
ev 
which has retained de name of 
filled with merchants. ‘ Okals” or “ khans,” as fprcion 
as thofe of Boulak, colleGing under their ade the 
ftuffs of India, the filks of mount Lebanon, falam 
and ae of rice, proclaim th i. a Seen 
town. The hou We efpecially thofe on the banks of the 
ri very are very ey have, in general, handfome 
aoe built on the tops of their alsa which ei cheerful 
eres, open to ind, w € effemi- 
ay reclining on a fopha, paffes his life in tmeleine in 
looking on the fea, which beau: the horizon on one fide, on 
the great lake that extends itfelf on the other, and on the 
Nile, which, running between them, traverfes a rich country. 
Several large mofques, adorned with lofty minarets, are dif. 
perfed over the town. The public baths, lined with marble, 
are diftributed in the fame manner as thofe o rand Cairo. 
coli linen with rae Rie are ferved is clean, and the water 
d eatment in them, fo far 
ery pur and the trea t 
fon injuring ie health ferve ‘heen hen, and "even to 
improve 1 ufed with moder 
Th eof Dam ae is esta ily filled with a eine 
tude of siete and Gaulle eflels. Thefe called « Scher 
ous and Marfeilles, 
the fineft — in Egypt} is clad in the pi eel 
ing plain orts of it vary, 
— > aban P “milltons of livres The peels articles ‘of the 
of the country are line 
paffes un The Chriftians of Aleppo 
aad Daanieus! fettled in this town, have for sales Bie 
8 
