SSG E G Y P T. 
the merchants, and was fatal to the mamalukes, who, 
by taking this road, loft their horfes, together with a 
part of their camels, a considerable number of their at¬ 
tendants, and twenty-fix women out of twenty-eight. 
Their march was traced by their difafters, and by what 
they left behind them, tents, arms, clothing, the car- 
caffes' of IvdrfeS' ftarved to death, camels which were no 
longer able to flip'port their burden, attendants, arid their 
women, whom they abandoned to their fate. I figured 
toVnyfelf tlie fufferings of a poor wretch, panting with 
fatigue, and expiring with third, his tongue parched, 
and breathing with difficulty the hot air by which he is 
confumed. He hopes that a few minutes repofe w ill enable 
him to recover his ftrength : lie (lops, and lees his com¬ 
panions pafs by, calling on them in vain for help. The 
inilery to which each one is a prey, lias banifhed every 
compafiionate feeling : they proceed on their way w ith¬ 
out calling a look on him, and follow in (Hence the foot- 
fteps of thofe who precede them. They are no loriger 
in his view : they are fled, and his benumbed limbs, al¬ 
ready overpowered by their painful cxiftence, refrife their 
office, and cannot be ftimulated to atftion either by danger 
or by terror. The caravan has pa fifed : it appears to him 
like an undulating line in the wide expanfe, and, becom¬ 
ing at length a mere point, difappears altogether like the 
laft glimmer of an expiring taper. He cafts around him 
his wild and frantic looks, but can fee nothing : he turns 
them towards himfelf, and then clofes his eyes to (linn 
the afpedl of the terrible vacuity by which lie is fur- 
rounded. He hears nothing but his own figlis, and fate 
hovers over him to cut the final thread of his exiltence. 
Alone, and without a companion to do him the laft of¬ 
fices, he is about to expire without one fingle ray of hope 
to adminifter comfort to his departing foul ; and his 
corpfe, confumed by the parched and burning foil, foon 
becomes a bleached (keleton, which will ferve as a guide 
to the uncertain fteps of the traveller who fliall dare to 
brave the fate that has befallen him.” 
Such is tlie picture of the defolations of the defert, 
under circumftances of unallayed thri ft, fervent heat, and 
infupportable fatigue. In triefe wild and dreary waftes, 
men alfo often become a prey to thirft, with the image of 
a vail lake before their eyes. This punilliment, of a new 
defeription, requires explanation, as it refults from an 
illufion peculiar to the defert. It is produced by the re¬ 
flection of Calient objects on the oblique rays of the fun, 
refracted by the heat of the burning foil ; and this phe¬ 
nomenon lias fo truly the appearance of water, that the 
obferver is deceived by it over and over again. It pro¬ 
vokes a thirft, which is trie more importunate, as trie in- 
ftant when it prefents itfelf to trie view is trie liotteft time 
of trie day. This optical phenomenon is called mirage , 
in a late paper publillied by Monge. In thefe vaft de- 
ferts, at trie diftance of a hundred miles or more from 
either fide the Nile, are fituated trie Oafes, or illands of 
fertile foil, furrounded by feas of burning land, which af¬ 
ford miferable but central fettlements for trie robbers and 
banditti of trie defert, trie Muggrebin Arabs. 
Trie Natron Lakes, fo called from their production of 
that kali which fupplies the life of barilla, are alfo fituated 
in the defert, near that remarkable channel called the dry 
river, or Bahr Bclatne, i. e. river without water: probably 
an outlet of the lake of Kerun, in remote ages, before trie 
deferts had become fo extenlive ; and when trie moun¬ 
tains were clothed with vegetation, and tlie Nile a far 
fuperior dream. On palling -trie defert towards Collir, 
trie rugged and lofty rocks have a grand arid terrific ap¬ 
pearance, confiding chiefly of red granite, and porphyry 
red and green, the latter being the ophite or friake-ftone 
©f the ancients, by a far more proper appellation, as tlie 
word porphyry implies red or purple. Here is alfo found 
the celebrated oerde antico, or green marble with white 
and dark fpots: it arifes in the neighbourhood of Ter¬ 
pentine, under a blue lchiltus, In thefe rocks are alfo 
red and other marbles. 
If any thing can brighten the gloomy afpeft of the de¬ 
fert, it is the flow but orderly palTage of the caravans* 
whole numerous attendants give life to this otlierwife fo~ 
litury empire of death. The large groups of attendant 
guards, thofe of the merchants in their different coftuines, 
a vaft retinue of laden camels, with an equal number of 
Arab guides, trie horfes, a fifes, foot travellers, and per¬ 
haps a few inftruments of harfti mufic, give animation to 
a feene nioft (Liking and picturefque, even in trie wildeft 
regions of defolated nature. 
Let us, however, abandon to the mercy of trie karnfin 
thefe wild and barren waftes, to contemplate the fore¬ 
ground of this ftriking Egyptian picture, where the rich, 
vale abounds with eternal vegetation—where the culti¬ 
vator can live for trirce-rialf-pence a day—where trie nioft 
abundant crops of rice are produced—and where trie finelt 
fugar-canes and plantations of indigo and cotton might be 
cultivated, under trie benign influence of a-pure and 
healthy climate, on tlie bank's of a river of an almoft mi¬ 
raculous defeription, tlie advantages of which cannot be 
recapitulated. Here the vine-ftalk continues green through- 
trie winter; tlie leaves only harden, become red, and dry*, 
wliilft tlie end of trie branch perpetually renews its ver¬ 
dure ; trie creeping peale do tlie fame, their (talk becomes 
woody, and they will rife forty feet high, and climb to 
the tops of the tailed trees. Here we every where behold 
tlie advantages of irrigation, extended by water-carriages* 
locks, and flood-gates. Thefe Arabian works, made doubt- 
lefs from ancient models, are as ufeful as well contrived;, 
and, in'general, it appears that trie diftribution of the wa¬ 
ters in Upper Egypt for irrigation, is ordered with more- 
intelligence, and effected witli Ampler means, than even 
in China. Here are ftill no lefs than, eighty canals, like 
rivers during trie inundation, fome thirty, fome forty, 
leagues in length, receiving and diftributing trie waters- 
over trie face of trie country. In tlie elevated tra-Cts or. 
fpots, which cannot thus receive trie benefit of the Nile’s 
iiicreafe, trie want is fupplied by a great number of wells* 
fpiral pumps, and wheels which carry a rope of large 
earthen pots, and draw water from trie canals. In this- 
labour no lefs than two hundred thoufand men are faid 
to be employed every day during trie feafon for irrigation* 
befides thole who draw water in wicker balkets of fo fine 
a texture that not a drop of trie liquid runs through. 
The Egyptian riulbandmen have not trie laborious talk 
of ploughing, digging, or breaking the clods; nor have 
they any occafion for manure, becaufe trie Nile, by bring¬ 
ing with it a profufion of mud or (lime, fattens the earth* 
and niak.es it exceedingly fruitful. When, therefore, the 
river has retired, trie agriculturifts have no more to do 
than to mingle a little land with trie earth in order to- 
abate its ftrength, after which they call in their feed with 
little trouble, and at an inconfiderable expence. Seed¬ 
time differs according to the province, and the height of 
trie ground. Near Syene, wheat and barley are fown in 
October, and reaped in January. About Girgeh, the har- 
velt month is February, and March round Grand Cairo: 
fieri is trie general progrefs of trie riarveft through trie Said. 
There are many exceptions, according as tlie lands are 
high or low, more or lels diftant from trie river. They 
fow and reap all trie year in Lower Egypt, wherever they 
can obtain trie water of trie river. Trie land is never fal¬ 
low, and yields three riarvefts annually ; there trie tra¬ 
veller incelTantly beholds trie charming profpedt of flow¬ 
ers, fruits, and corn ; and fpring, fummer, and autumn, 
at once prefent their treafures. Defcending from the ca¬ 
taracts, at trie beginning of January, the wheat is feen 
almoft ripe; farther on it is in ear; and .ftill farther trie 
fields are green. Lucerne is mowed three times between 
November and March, and is trie only hay of Egypt, 
ferving chiefly to fodder trie cattle. All the country is 
more or lefs fown with wheat, fainfoin, barley, beans, 
leutiles, and doura or forgo, which is a kind of millet, cul- 
tivated almoft univerfally in Upper Egypt. Wliilft trie 
grain of this plant is ftill milky, the pealants roaft it like 
niaize^, 
