NIL 
Affouan, about 360 miles, the banks, except where they 
are rocky, ptefent no natural plant ; they fomewhat refem- 
ble the fteps of ftairs, and are fown with all forts of efculent 
? which 
vegetables, chiefly that ufeful plant the ‘ bamea,’ 
grows to little more than three ke in height, with leaves 
like thofe of the currant-buth, produces oblong acu- 
leated pods, which yield a ale stat Navcue to the repalt. 
Other ftriking and ancient features of this diftinguifhed 
flream, are the rafts of “ belaffes,”’ or large white jars, ufed 
for carrying water 5 little rafts of gourds, in which a fingle 
acro 
heads 
the ftream ; and the divers who, concealing t their 
confined to the diftri& above Affidt, where they are dange- 
rous to bathers. It is not eafy, we are told, to con- 
ceive a more pleafurable mode of travelling than that b 
the Nile when it overflows. The great body of water, 
perfectly calm and unruffled, the banks on each fide covered 
~ the rich produ& of the hufbandman’s labour, form 
aflengers are pro- 
hes from the immediate 
E ypt, is bounded on either fide with barren nace: and 
e towns and cultivation are chiefly on the 
anges of mountains 
extending to the Arabian gulf, abounding with marble and 
ay eke but almoft deftitute of water, and inhabited only 
by Bedou Acrofs thefe mountains is a folitary road to 
Cofleir on ie Red fea. On the weft the hills lead to a vat 
fandy defert, in ie are the two Oafes, a name applied to 
iflands fituated in 
The ae of ci Nile, and the caufes of its inundation 
and fertilizing powers, have been fubjects of {peculation and 
of ioe ary from almoft the remoteft period of anti- 
its forbid our entering ona detail of the dif- 
Pliny. See Detta, Ea@yrr, and NILoMETER.) he 
Nile during the three months of i its Ea Re apple Egypt, 
without the aid of rain, with a fufficient quantity of water 
for the reft of the year; and as it thus facilitates, or rather 
in a confiderable degree fuperfedes labour, it has been ftyled 
the fource of plenty and happinefs, and even of life itfelf. 
If Albuberque, the Portuguefe, had been able to execute 
his proje& of turning its courfe from gee at into the Re 
fea, this country, which is now fo rich, would have become a 
favage defert, {urrounded by folitudes. We need not wonder, 
therefore, that the Egyptians fhould always ae profeffed, 
— they fhould ftill retain a kind of religious veneration 
e Nile. They have called it holy, bleffed, and ego 
and ¢ on the appearance of the new waters, that is, on the op 
ing of the canals, mothers are feen plunging their children 
ate the ftream, from a belief that thefe waters have a puri- 
and divine eae fuch as the ancients are faid to have 
abot to every ri 
Auf 
NIL 
The Nile was reckoned in the number of the great gods 
of the Egyptians. To this cca river they gave the 
name of Oceanus, Ypeus, and Nilus ; and it was alfo deno- 
minated Siris, which, by abbreviation, is the fame name 
with Ofiris, becaufe in reality it ee that god. Of 
all the feftivals they celebrated in honour of this river, that 
of opening the canals, at the time of its Sablon, was the 
moft folemn and magnificent. At this feftival the ancient 
kings of Egypt affifted in perfon, accompanied by their mi- 
nifters, by all the grandees of the kingdom, and by an innume- 
rable multitude of people. They anticipated their obliga- 
cons to this river for the benefits which its inundation was 
to produce, by throwing into it, in the form of acrifice, 
barley, corn, fugar, and other fruits. It is faid that on 
this joyful occafion, they made a facrifice of a young virgin, 
whom they drowned in this river. A cuftom ttill fubfifting 
at this day, fays Savary, feems to prove that the Egyptians 
formerly a a young virgin to the god of the Nile ; 
for they now make a ftatue of earth in the thape of a girl, 
to which ies ey give the name of ¢ the betrothed bride,” upon 
which they throw into the 
of the canal. At the fe 
in oates. are anxiousto affilt at 
Ever 
Body remains filent until the moment when ce seh gives 
the fignal. Inan inftant the air 1s filled with fisaks of joy, 
the trumpets found a flourifh, and the timbrels and other 
inftruments refound from every fide. When the dam is de- 
Mutual ee and congratulations pal and on every 
ri A crowd of a 
lal run along t 
petators by aia afivous dances. 
palkioas, de phen the mofques, and the minarets are illumi- 
nated. ‘The lar geft fquare in the city, nearly half a league 
in circumference, forms an immenfe bafon, {urrounded by the 
palaces of the beys, lighted with lamps of various colours. 
Been thoufand boats with mafts, from which lamps are 
fufpended, produce a moving illumination, the afpects of 
which are continually varying. The coolnefs of the night, the 
ferenity of the fky, and various other circumftances, concur 
to render the {cene interefting and delightful. The Egyp- 
tians, according to ere Tyrius, worfhipped the Nile 
on account of its ufefulne 
NILEMBI Nevr, a om of theifland of reek e in the 
dominions of Candy, about fix or feven miles S, of 
whit er 
