EGYPT* 
170 
brackish and muddy poo! may speedily be formed, by digging 
a well near their roots. The natives are chiefly occupied in 
the care of them; tying up their blossoms with bands formed of 
the foliage, to prevent their being torn off, and scattered by the 
winds. Our soldiers were at first ignorant of the extent of the 
mischief caused by cutting down these trees, each of which 
proves as a little patrimony to the native who is fortunate 
enough to be its owner. We had ventured into these wilds 
without guides^ and were therefore glad to perceive, as we 
advanced, the traces of dromedaries’ feet upon the sand, cross¬ 
ing the line we pursued. Follow ing the track marked out by 
these animals, we presently arrived at the wretched solitary 
village of Utko, near the muddy shore of the lake Maadie* 
Here we procured asses for all our party, and, setting out for 
Rosetta, began to recross the desert, appearing like an ocean 
of sand, but flatter and firmer, as to its surface, than before. 
The Arabs, uttering their harsh guttural language, ran chat- 
Bering by the side ©f our asses ; until some of them calling out 
Raschid.!” we perceived its domes and turrets, apparently 
upon the opposite side of an immense lake or sea, that covered 
all the intervening space between us and the city. ISTot having 
in my own mind, at the time, any doubt as to the certainty of 
its being water, and seeing the tall minarets and buildings of 
Rosetta, with all its groves of dates and sycamores as perfectly 
reflected by it ashy a mirror, insomuch that even the minutest 
detail of the architecture and of the trees might have been 
thence delineated, I applied to the Arabs to be informed in 
what manner we were to pass tlie water. Our interpreter, al¬ 
though a Greek, and therefore likely to have been informed of 
such a phenomenon, was as fully convinced as any of us that 
we Avere drawing near to the water’s edge, and became indig¬ 
nant when the Arabs maintained that within an hour we should 
reach Rosetta by crossing the sands in the direct line we then 
pursued, and that there was no water. “ What,” said he, giv¬ 
ing way to his impatience, “ do you suppose me an ideot, to be 
persuaded contrary to the evidence of my senses ?” The Arabs, 
smiling, soon pacified him, and completely astonished the whole 
party, by desiring us to look back at the desert we bad alrea¬ 
dy passed, where we beheld a precisely similar appearance. 
It was, in fact, the mirage , # a prodigy to which every one of 
* An explanation of the phenomenon, called mirage by the French, was published 
at Cairo,in the “ Decade Egypticniie vol. 1. p. 39. by Monge. It is too long for in¬ 
sertion here; hut the author thus previously describes the illusion: 
M .Le soir et le matin, l’aspect du terrain est tel qu’il doit etre ; etentre vous etles 
