Sf)S E G Y 
As the Nile could not of itfelf cover every part of 
tire country in a due proportion, the Egyptians have, 
with great labour, cut a valt number of canal's to facili¬ 
tate the overflowing of their lands. The villages that 
ft and on eminences on the banks of the Nile have their 
refpeftive khalidges or canals, and the more diftant vil¬ 
lages have theirs alfo, even to the extremities of the 
kingdom, by which means the waters are fucceflively 
conveyed to the mod remote places. It is not lawful to 
cut the trenches for the reception of the water till the 
river hits attained its proper heightneither mud all the 
trenches be opened together, as in that cafe Come lands 
would be injured by the inundation, while others would 
be almofl totally deprived of their needful refrefhment. 
The trenches are therefore opened with the greatelt pre¬ 
caution, firlt in the Upper,, and afterwards in Lower 
Egypt; and the natives, who ftriftly attend to the rules 
preferibed in a roll or book,.contrive to difpofe the fer- 
tilifing flood fo judicioufly, that all parts of the country 
are plentifully watered, and the cultivators are enabled 
to rejoice in the anticipation of great and abundant har- 
vefts. 
But as the Egyptians fo much depend on the Nile’s in- 
creafe for all the fruits of the earth which Nature fends; 
fo, whenever thefe waters chance to fail, the utmoft dil- 
trefs is fare to follow ; and hence the deplorable famines 
and pedilences of Egypt are readily accounted for. The 
Arabian author Abdadlatiph, mentioned above as having 
been recently trandated by Dr. White, treats alfo of the 
rife of the Nile,, the caufes of its increafe, and the laws 
by which it appears to be regulated. The momentous 
importance of this fubjeft to the welfare of Bigypt clearly 
appears from his fecond and third chapters ; in which 
Aodollatiph details with great- m ip u tends the melancholy 
hidory of a famine, occafioned by a failure in. the uliial 
increafe of the waters, which occurred during his own 
retidence in Egypt. The famecaufe, indeed, in this ex¬ 
traordinary country, has often produced fimilar effects ; 
and the narrative of Abdoliatiph cannot fail to recal the 
attention of the ferious reader to that famine recorded in 
the book of Genefis, which, under the aireftion of Di¬ 
vine Providence, prepared the way for fuch dupendous 
events, by inducing the patriarch Jacob and his fotis to 
take up their abode in Egypt. When we recollect that 
the produce of the land is here always proportioned to 
the overflowing of the Nile, we cannot but remark with 
what matchlefs fimplicity, and at the fame time with 
what drift propriety and truth, the feene of Pharaoh’s 
dream is laid by the river, while both the fat and lean 
kine are emphatically reprefented as coming up out of it, 
and feeding on its banks. See Gen. chap.xli. 
The famine, and the pedilence which eiilded, of which 
Abdoliatiph has fo forcibly deferi-bed the direful effects, 
were accompanied with peculiar horrors ; and hidory, 
whether (act ed or profane, no where exhibits to our view 
a more dreadful picture of calamities and crimes. Tire 
-narrative of the prefent author bears every internal mark 
and charafter of truth ; and the judicious critic will not 
helitate a moment in admitting its authenticity, though 
the fafts which it records were before altogether un- 
knownto the European world. Fortunately, we have it 
in our power to adduce a drong teftimony in fupport of 
tIre narrative of Abdoliatiph, from Elmacin, in his Uni¬ 
verfal Hidory ; a part only of which was publifhed by Er- 
penius, under the title of Hijloria Saracenica. “ In the fame 
year (597) there was a great dearth over the land of 
Egypt, fo that a meafure of wheat called an irdab. was 
fold for five Egyptian dinars. And this didrefs conti¬ 
nued nearly three years; and men were fo dediiute of 
fudenance, that they were compelled to eat each other, 
and even their own children, and to feed on animals that 
perilhed. Great multitudes, therefore, of people, with 
their children and fervants, emigrated to Syria, and the 
soafts of the fea.” 
We dia.ll here date a few padages from Abdoliatiph, as 
1> T. 
given in the Monthly Review for April 1802 ; not merely 
with the view of gratifying curiofity, hut becaufe it has a 
mod powerful tendency to humble the pride of man,- by 
demon Uniting his condant dependence on the- bounty of 
Providence ; by teach.ing that even the gifts of nature, 
as they are called, are not more permanent than thofe of 
fortune ; and, by reminding us that what has happened 
to others, may podibly happen to ourfelves. Page 212: 
“ When firit the poor Egyptians began to feed upon hu¬ 
man fledi, dories of this kind went abroad, and formed 
the univerfal fubjeft of dilcourfe ; while every one ex- 
preffed the utmoft horror and averdon at the crime, and 
adonifhment at its novelty. Thefe fenfations were after¬ 
ward worn out by the force of example, and the calls of 
hunger: the praftice became familiar; and human fledi 
was fought not only as a neceffiiry fupport, but as one of 
tlie greated luxuries of life. It was reckoned among the 
fird delicacies of the table, and was dreiled in many dif¬ 
ferent ways. Afterward, when tlie praftice became more 
general, and had extended through every part of Egypt, 
the adonidiment and abhorrence which it had formerly 
excited ceafed ; and to exprefs or liden to fuch fenti- 
ments was no longer difgraceful. I law a woman drag¬ 
ged and mangled by ruffians in tlie market-place. They 
took from her a roaded child which die had provided for 
her fudenance. The people in tlie market feemed en¬ 
tirely to disregard this horrid fpeftucle,.and purfued their 
own bufinefs and employment with the utmod unconcern* 
I obferved no furprife, nor even difapprobation, in their 
countenances; while I was druck with the deeped ado¬ 
nidiment at the fight, and the infenfibility with which 
they beheld it. So powerful is tlie effect of cudom, 
which can dived the mod unnatural and prodigious crimes 
of their horror, by prefenting them repeatedly to the 
fenfes, and reducing them to tlie level of tlie mod com¬ 
mon objects and trivial occurrences!” 
Again, page 233. “ Of the number of the poor who 
perilhed with hunger, it is impodible to. form any proba¬ 
ble edimate : but I will give tlie reader fome information 
on this fubjeft, whence he may form a faint idea of the 
mortality with which Egypt was then airlifted. In McTr 
and Cairo, and their confines, wherever a perfon turned, 
lie could not avoid leeing or dumbling over fome fturved 
object, either already dead, or in the agonies of death. 
From Cairo alone nearly five hundred were daily carried 
out to the burying-ground ; and fo great was the mor¬ 
tality in Mefr, that- the dead were thrown without the 
walls, where they remained tinburied. But afterward, 
when the furvivors were no longer able to throw out tlie 
dead bodies, they were left wherever they expired, in 
the Iioules, (hops, and ftreets. Tlie limbs of the dead 
were even cut in pieces, and ufed for food ; and, iiiftead 
of receiving tlie 1 a ft offices from their friends, and being 
decently interred, their remains were attended by per- 
fons who were employed in roafting and baking them. 
In all the diftant provinces and towns, the inhabitants 
became entiiely_extinft ; except in the principal cities, 
and Come of the larger towns, fuch as Kous, Alhmunein, 
Mahalla,.&c. and even there but a few furvived. In 
thefe days, a traveller might pals through a city, with¬ 
out finding in it one human creature alive ; he faw the 
houfes open, and the inhabitants lying dead 011 their 
faces, fome grown putrid, and others who had recently 
expired. If lie entered into the houfes, lie found them 
full of .goods, but no one to make ufe of them ; and he 
faw nothing wherever he turned, but a dreadful folitude, 
and univerfal defolation. This account refis not on the 
information and authority of a Single perfon, but of many, 
whole feveral afi’ertions mutually confirmed each other. 
One of them gave me his relation in the following words : 
‘ We entered a city, where no living creature was to be 
found ; we went into the houfes, and there we faw the 
inhabitants proftrate and dead; all lying in a wretched 
group on the ground, the hutband, the wife, and the 
children. Hence we palled into another city, which con¬ 
tained. 
