EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 8j 
the tombs of their relations, crowd to this mofque to provide 
fubftitutes, the place being the Daphne of Kahira, and facred to 
the blandifliments of Venus. 
There is a much more confiderable canal, ftyled Chalige ibn 
Menji^ which, from its opening to the Nile near Bulak, extends 
to Bilbeis^ (according to D'Anville, the Pharhathus of antiquity, 
which Herodotus, Pliny, and Ptolemy, make the capital of a 
Nome^) where it joins another canal, and pafles to the lake 
Sheib. 
The pleafure boats ufed by the great on the increafe of the 
Nile are very numerous. They are light and of elegant form ; 
rowers from four to eight. Thofe for the women covered 
with wainfcot ; fuch as are for the ufe of the men, are covered 
above, and open at the fides, or only latticed. Others are kept 
for hire, like the Venetian gondolas. They are ufed in the 
chalige, and upon the river. 
The gates of Kahira are numerous ; but the moll ftriking 
are two at the northern extremity of the city, called Bab-el- 
Nafr^ and Bab-el-Fituch, which prefent a fplendid difplay of 
Saracenic architecture, 
Rometli is an open place, of an irregular form, where feats of 
juggling are performed. The charmers of ferpents alfo feem 
worthy of remark, their powers appearing extraordinary. The 
ferpent moft common at Kahira is of the viper clafs, and un- 
M 2 doubtedly 
