i68 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
affumes the afpe£V of cultivation. This little town is remark- 
able for a manufadure of mats, though the fituation be fo in- 
fecure, that the Arabs in the preceding night had plundered 
their whole ftock, to the value, as they faid, of five or fix 
thoufand patackes. The Arabs fl:ill haunted the neighbourhood, 
and we were forced to difcharge a few muflcet fhot to keep off 
a fmall party that affailed us in the morning. 
Paffed another canal at Senuris, the feat of an hofpitable 
Shech of the Bedouins. Thefe canals reach from the Nile to 
the lake called Moeris. Left Senuris at half paft feven on the 
I ft January 1793 and in two hours arrived at Feium. 
At a fmall diftance to the North are the ruins of an antient 
town, called by the Arabs Medinet Faris^ city of the Perfians, 
probably antient Arfinoe. Some mutilated bufts and ftatues 
found here were offered for fale. I alfo obferved fome jars, 
refembling thofe ufed to contain the dead Ibis, and fome 
vitrifications that feemed to indicate an Arab glafs-work. 
Feium ftands on the principal canal leading from the Nile 
to the lake, and is furrounded with cultivated ground, a great 
part gardens, producing that profufion of rofes for which this 
place was celebrated, and which were diftilled into rofe-rwater. 
The mode of propagating them was by continued layers ; the 
young twigs thence aiifing being found to produce the largeft 
and moft fragrant flowers. The rofe-water was excellent, and 
fent to all quarters ; but the cultivation is now running gra- 
dually to decay. Wheat and other grain abound in the vicinity. 
This 
