I. under heaven is better furnished with graine, CHAP. flesh, fish, sugar, fruits, roots," together with all other necessaries and luxuries of life. 5 of the Serpent During our former visit to Rosetta, we neg- Exhibition lected to notice the particular day of the year Psylli, or on which a most singular exhibition of the Ser- Eaters. pent-eaters, or Psylli, as mentioned by Herodotus and many antient authors', took place. A tumultuous throng, passing beneath the windows of our house, attracted our attention towards the quay: here we saw a concourse of people following men apparently frantic, who, with every appearance of convulsive agony, were brandishing live serpents, and then tearing them with their teeth; snatching them from each other's mouths, with loud cries and distorted features, and afterwards falling into the arms of the spectators, as if swooning; the women all the while rending the air with their (5) Denon says, this exhibition takes place during the annual procession of the Feast of Ibrahim, at Rosetta. He regretted not having been there at the time. See Denon's Travels, Eng. Edit. Vol. I. p. 123. Lond. 1803. (6) Herodot. lib. iv. cap. 173. (7) Strabon. Geog. lib. xvii. Lucan. ix. vv. 894, 937. Pausan. lib. ix. c. 14. Dio Cass. lib. LI. c. 14. Aul. Gell. lib. xvi. c.11, &c. &c. CHAP. lamentations. Pliny often mentions these jug I. glers; and as their tricks have been noticed by other travellers, it is only now necessary to attest the existence of this extraordinary remnant of a very antient custom. (1) Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vii. c. 2. lib. viii. c. 25. lib. xxv. c. 19. lib. xxviii. c. 3. YAGE UP THE NILE, TO GRAND CAIRO. Example afforded by a Naval Officer-Inaccuracy in the Maps of Egypt-Triple Harvest of the Delta-Mode of raising Water from the Nile-Summer Habits of the Egyptian Arabs-FICUS SYCAMORUS-Etesian Winds -MOTUBIS-Dancing Women-DEBE-SINDION and DERRAL-Turkish Cavalry-Arab Customs-FoUARACHMANIE-Description of the Country-DiseasesFacility of visiting Upper Egypt-KOUM SCHERIFF AMRUS-Birds-Singular Animal Appearance-PlantsEL BUREDGIAT-Remarkable Phænomenon-Tumblers -Abundance of Corn-Southern Point of the DeltaArrival at BULAC-View of the Pyramids-Visit to the Reis II. afforded by Officer. Reis Effendi - House of the French Institute Jewel CHAP. WE left Rosetta on Monday, August the tenth, at seven A. M. and called upon Captain Hillyar, who had the command of some gun-boats to the south of the town, and whom we found stationed upon the river, on board one of those vessels. Example His late arduous services, in several engagea Naval ments with the enemy, were then the subject of very general conversation. The Capudan Pasha, in testimony of the gratitude of the Turkish Government, had conferred upon him some trifling presents. But that which particularly excited the wonder of all his contemporaries, and which will convey the name of Hillyar to posterity, with honours more lasting than even those obtained by his valour and his victories, was the example offered by this distinguished officer to the navies of the world, in proving the possibility of fighting the battles of his II. country, and maintaining unrivalled discipline CHAP. among his crew, without the utterance of an oath by any man on board the ship he commanded. in the Maps of Egypt. We had convincing evidence of inaccuracy in Inaccuracy our best maps of the Delta, and of the course of the Nile, from the earliest comparisons we made in the country. That of Kauffer, published at Constantinople in 1799, is extremely incorrect; but it is less so than preceding documents. Soon after leaving Rosetta, we passed some extensive canals, conveying water to lands above the level of the river: these are supplied by wheels, sometimes turned by oxen, but more generally by buffaloes. They are banked by very lofty walls, constructed of mud, hardened by the sun. One of them, upon the western side of the river, extended to the Lake Maadie. The land, thus Triple watered, produces three crops in each year; the the Delta. first of clover, the second of corn, and the third of rice. The rice-grounds are inundated from the time of sowing nearly to harvest: the seed is commonly cast upon the water, a practice twice alluded to in Sacred Scripture. Balaam prophesied of Israel', that "HIS SEED SHOULD (1) Numbers xxiv. 7. Harvest of |