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REMARKS 



ON 



THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 



OF 



THE MODERN INHABITANTS OF EGYPT. 



[FROM THE JOURNALS OF BR. HUME.] 



We arrived at Rosetta, celebrated by travellers as the paradise or 

 Egypt ; but the lofty minarets of the great mosque, with those of the 

 smaller mosques, the tombs of Arab saints, and some houses of the 

 Franks, which are almost embosomed in woods, give the traveller as 

 he sails up the river ideas of populousness and wealth which are 

 strongly contrasted by the mean and ruinous buildings seen by him 

 on landing. The situation of this town would be very advantageous 

 for commerce were a channel sufficiently deep formed across the bar, 

 and this might be done by an industrious and enterprising people. 

 But as the canal of Alexandria did not allow the coasting vessels and 

 dgerms to pass through it, Rosetta has become the entrepot of com- 

 merce between that city and the interior of Egypt. The country 

 being in the hands of the French, and the mouth of the Nile and 

 Alexandria blockaded by the English, the trade had for a long time 

 been interrupted ; immense quantities of merchandize, corn, and rice 

 were lying on the wharfs in 1801, ready for exportation. 



Between the houses and the Nile is a wide space, the parade of 

 Rosetta; in the evening I found it crowded with people; their dress 

 consisted generally of a blue, brown, or white cotton stuff ; but the 

 prevailing colour was light blue. The longest streets or rather lanes 



