148 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
materials. Whether obfervation of the fa£t, without receding 
enough on the probable caufe, might have given rife to the re- 
port refpefting a canal communicating in this quarter between 
the Nile and the Arabian gulf, or whether it was the elfe£t of 
mifunderftanding the antient writers on the fubjed:, is unim- 
portant ; fuch an idea has prevailed, and it is countenanced by 
fome intelligent authors. In frequenting the places, and not 
wholly unimprefled by this thought, I have never yet been able 
to perfuade myfelf that fuch a canal had exifted, or could have 
been formed. There are no marks, in either of the roads I paffed, 
of water having ever flowed there, and the level of the road, 
after leaving the river, is much higher than that of the river 
itfelf. But the level of the river is certainly not lower than in 
former ages, and the water, if ever it flowed there, muft have 
flowed from the Nile to the fea, and not from the fea to the 
Nile.— i-The concluHon is obvious. 
The coloquintida, coelocynth, abounds near Btrambar, and 
between it and Ghenne. The natives fcarcely think it worth 
gathering, fo low is the price in Kahira. At Ghenne is a ma- 
nufactory of the beft bardaks^ kulle^ earthen bottles, and 
jugs for water. They are made of a fine blue or bluifh white 
clay ; very thin and light, not too much baked, of a pretty 
fhape and convenient fize. Something of the fame kind is made 
in other places, but none fo much efteemed as thofe of Ghenne. 
The fabric is in few hands, but great numbers are made. They 
fell for double the price at Kahira which they fetch here. 
Large jars are alfo conftruded, which are called hamam, or bath. 
Thefe too are very elegantly formed, and both by filtration 
purify 
