ROT IN SIJEKP. 
541 
herds, and where the art by which other animals are improved is 
despised, the sheep have degenerated; they are subject to the 
rot; and they yield to the miserable being who is employed 
about them, and lives by them, productions comparatively worth¬ 
less. 
All the veterinary surgeons of Europe agree with regard to the 
exciting causes of rot. Chabert, Dupuy, Hurtrel D’Arboval, &c. 
&c. describe low situations—the feeding on marshy plants, as the 
different species of the ranunculus, or plants which grow in or 
under the water—the drinking of stagnant waters filled with 
insects, or where the fluke-worm and the leech abound—the in¬ 
fected air of the sheepcote, and the sudden change from dry to 
green food. In England, an extraordinary experimentalist, 
Bakewell, produced the rot whenever he pleased, by turning his 
sheep on pastures that had been flooded. 
That which this celebrated practical agriculturist was enabled 
to effect is observed every year in Egypt. As soon as the waters 
of the Nile begin to subside, the pastures which were submerged 
are speedily covered by a tender rushy grass, which the natives 
call dyssa. The sheep are exceedingly fond of it, and they are 
permitted to feed on it all day long, their feet being buried in 
the mud; and, as we have already said, for many months they 
have no other aliment. In the course of a very little time they 
begin to get fat, when, if possible, they are sold. Their flesh is 
then exceedingly delicate ; but soon after this the disease begins 
to appear, and the mortality commences. 
In the neighbourhood of Abou-Zabel there is a vast tract of 
low land which the Nile overflows for two months. When the 
waters retire it is found to be covered with these rushes. The 
neighbouring inhabitants hasten to drive their flocks thither, and 
they leave them on the marsh from the rising to the setting sun. 
Every year the rot carries off numerous victims; but it is a matter 
of general remark, that this disease is more frequent and fatal 
when the sheep are first turned on the newly recovered pasture 
than afterwards when the ground has become dried and the 
rushy grass harder. The rot continues to prevail at Abou-Zabel 
about fifty or sixty days. 
In the Delta the rot lasts longer. This part of Egypt lies 
very low; it is cut in every direction by an infinity of canals, the 
waters are out a longer time, and there is more marshy ground. 
The very habitations of the Arabs are in the water—the rush is 
the only food for their flocks during three or four months—the 
sheep pasture in the midst of the mud, or on the borders of the 
marshes and canals—the rot attends every step, and thousands 
of them perish. The Arabs are not ignorant of the cause of 
VOL. VII. 4 A 
