Chapter XVII: Part II: Egypt (12)

Vol. 20. p. 50. He says the Alexandria of the Greeks was situated on a tongue of land, formed by earth lately accumulated, when the city was founded.—He means, I suppose, that the sea had left it but lately. This is possible. The natural soil round the city is rock intermixed with sand. The vegetable mold appears to have been extraneous. If he suppose that district, like the Delta, to have been a deposition of the river, this seems utterly improbable; all the circumstances are at variance, which in such a case should be common to both. The land which divided the lake from the sea is a rocky ridge, which seems to have undergone no variation for a great length of time. The remark as to the column of Pompey is not new; but I cannot agree that the capital and base are of bad taste. The sharp relief of the foliage and mouldings is worn off by time, and it never was perhaps possible to exhibit on granite marble the finer strokes of the chissel, but the proportions, though not those of the later Corinthian, are strictly conformable to those of the purest age of architecture. What may have been discovered relatively to the obelisk by digging is uncertain; but from a comparison of this with the circumstances attending the obelisks at Thebes, it cannot be deduced that much is lost of its height. It must have been erected in the most flourishing state of the city, and while it remained in that state, it seems scarcely probable that such multitudes of ruins should have existed as to raise other buildings on them. I am satisfied, from the position of the one that remains entire, and the broken one near it, they never underwent a second arrangement, but remain in their relative position, as at the gate of some public building. The obelisk is in a very low part of the city, (which indeed is all very low,) and very little above the level of the sea—how does this accord with the ruins of other buildings being yet found under it? Perhaps in this part a firm foundation was not found very near the surface, and the builders have formed an artificial one. The French antiquary may have mistaken this for the ruins of buildings.

P. 59. My measurement of the height of the pyramid was a few feet short of this, but does not very materially differ from the one here given.

P. 95. _El Maraboot_ is a kind of fort, and the tomb of a saint, situated on a high ground in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of the Arabs, a good view of which it commands.

=No. VI.=

_Explanation of the Plate facing page 286._

1. The principal inclosure, consisting of apartments exclusively appropriated to the use of the monarch.

2. Principal rukkûba, or place of public audience.

3. The large court where public audiences are given.

4. Two gates, the one of the interior, the other of the great court; at both stand slaves, to refuse admittance when the Monarch is not in the humour to do justice; and the chief of them, to strike the greater awe, is the public executioner.

5. Exterior court in which the public officers leave their horses, and thence walk barefoot to the presence of their master.

6. External entrance, fronting the market-place.

7. A court with some apartments in it for faquirs, guards, and slaves.

8. A wide court where are some horses tied.

9. Rukkûba at the other entrance, where the Sultan gives audience, principally in winter, and where he would be less public.

10. Small court surrounding that rukkûba or shed.

11. Outer court where a mob assembles, and horses and slaves are in waiting.

12. Outer gate, called _Bab-el-burrâni_, as the great one is called _Bab-el-Gebeia_.

13. A multitude of small apartments reaching almost the whole length of the palace, where slaves are kept in confinement, as a punishment for misdemeanors; they are chained and fettered, and kept to hard labour, as dressing and tanning leather, making spear heads, &c.

14. A large court of irregular form filled with a multitude of small apartments for the women; they pass through the two gates marked _w_ to fetch water, but have no other outlet. Each of the principal women has a large apartment, surrounded by a number of smaller ones for her slaves; there are also apartments for cooking.

15. Granary, which is builded on a frame of timber, to prevent the accession of the _Termis_ or white ant.

16. Gate by which the women enter the Sultan’s apartment where that sex performs all offices.

17. Stable or court where the best horses are kept tied, and sheltered from the sun.

The Eunuchs live in the interior, to be always near the Sultan; male slaves, wherever they can find a place.

18. Are the slaves’ apartments who guard the entrance.

19. A place where the faquirs read.

The officers immediately attached to the court live in small inclosures on the outside of the fence, as that marked 20.

The houses of the Meleks resemble this in miniature; those of inferior persons only of smaller size without divisions, and having fewer apartments.

The exterior is an hedge of dry thorns, about ten feet thick, and as many high.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Volney has considered the walls of Alexandria as of antient structure. But D’Anville had before rejected that idea, and the fragments of columns, &c. worked into the masonry, shew that he is right.]

[Footnote 2: Now supposed to have been erected in honour of Severus.]

[Footnote 3: There happened a plague in 1796, which it is said carried off one half of the inhabitants. This estimate is possibly exaggerated; but no doubt it thinned them much; so that at present they cannot be near so numerous.]

[Footnote 4: Hirtius, Bell. Alex. prope init.]

[Footnote 5: The miles spoken of are always geographical.]

[Footnote 6: See Major Rennel’s map.]

[Footnote 7: D’Anville with equal probability supposes Siwa to be Mareotis.]

[Footnote 8: The water in the river between Terané and Kahira was so shallow, that with a very small boat (Canjia) we had great difficulty in passing.]

[Footnote 9: The condition of slave is so very distinct in Egypt from what it is in other countries, that they who defend the practice of trading in human flesh by its antiquity, and the general consent of nations, should be well aware how they adduce the example of Egypt.—In Kahira, when a slave is legally purchased in the market, if after any length of time he feel discontented with his master, has only to say, “Carry me to the market,” (Sûk-es Sultân,) and the master is legally compellable to offer him for sale.

It can never be believed, that where a power so absolute as that of the proprietor over his slave, is supported by the sanctions of law, that no abuses of it should exist; but this single privilege greatly softens its asperity.

The child of a female slave, begotten by her master, is ipso facto free, and a slave may authorize a free person to purchase his emancipation.]

[Footnote 10: The Mamlûks suffer not the beard to grow till they be emancipated, and hold some office, as Cashef, &c.—A similar practice obtains among the Osmanli. The Ytch oghlans, though free in their persons, yet exercising a kind of servitude, shave the beard: so that though it be not absolutely the mark of a slave, the want of a beard seems to denote a dependent situation. Among the Osmanli, (European Turks) the beard is allowed to grow rather in conformity to the precept and practice of the Prophet, than as a national fashion. The Tatars wear no beard; and the Arabs alone shew great respect to that ornament.]

[Footnote 11: The two last offices are annual.]

[Footnote 12: The patacke may be rated at from three shillings to three and four-pence. The foddân is a given measure, taking its name from the quantity that a yoke of oxen can plough in a day, roughly taken, equivalent to an acre.]

[Footnote 13: English edit. p. 188.]

[Footnote 14: The length may be estimated at about three thousand five hundred yards.]

[Footnote 15: The city is still infested with the usual herds of dogs, and the kites still shriek wildly over the canal; while the turtle-doves, unmolested by men or children, breed in the houses, building their nests under the projecting beams.]

[Footnote 16: Histoire de l’Afrique, et de l’Espagne sous la domination des Arabes; composée sur differens Manuscrits Arabes de la Bibliotheque du Roi, par M. Cardonne, &c. Paris 1765, 3 tomes 12mo. It is to be regretted that the learned author did not divide his work into epochs and chapters, and particularly separate the history of Africa from that of Spain.]

[Footnote 17: Vol. ix. p. 448-466, 8vo.]

[Footnote 18: Their authority did not extend over the ancient Mauritania. The Edrissite dynasty ruled Ceuta, Fez, Tangier, &c. Fez was built by them in 788.]

[Footnote 19: The power of the Chalîfs, successors of Mohammed, had fallen about the middle of the eleventh century. The Turks, a Tataric nation, seized Iconium, and most of Asia Minor, about 1074. Twenty years after, Aleppo and Damascus became separate sovereignties under the grandsons of Elf Arslân; the former city had been long subject to the Chalîfs of Egypt.]

[Footnote 20: This expedition remains in considerable obscurity, though it may be regarded as the last dying spark of the crusades, as the adventurers seem to have been of several nations. Fordun, _Scotichr._ vol. ii. p. 488, mentions Norman Lesley, his countryman, as a prime actor. There was an old Scottish poem on the feats of Sir Walter, his brother, Duke of Leygaroch in France. _Ibid._ and Maitland’s Poems.]

[Footnote 21: This place takes its name from the tomb of a Christian ecclesiastic, called _Ammon-el-abed_, or the devout; its other name is _Ensené_, evidently from that of _Antinous_.]

[Footnote 22: The remainder might be easily copied, but circumstances did not then permit me to give the time necessary for that purpose.]

[Footnote 23: That custom is still retained at Damiatt, notwithstanding the purer precepts of Islamism.]

[Footnote 24: They sell the males, and themselves generally mount mares in their warlike expeditions.]

[Footnote 25: Now _Geziret-es-Sag_, Claustra Imperii Romani. TAC.]

[Footnote 26: A place where the troops are exercised, and rencontres between opposing parties frequently have had place.]

[Footnote 27: Populorum Africæ vocabula plerumque ineffabilia, præterquam ipsorum linguis. PLINY.]

[Footnote 28: The best idea of the Sphinx seems to be that of Maillet, who supposes it an emblem of the increase of the Nile under the signs of _Leo_ and _Virgo_.]

[Footnote 29: Pococke, vol. i. p. 56. conceives this place to have received its name from the Greek word Ταμιέια, there having been a kind of lock there to restrain or let loose the water in the canal which passes by it.]

[Footnote 30: Parallel to this is a narrow cut, called Bahr Yussuf, which runs into the Birket-Kerûn.]

[Footnote 31: Τὸν Μῖνα πρῶτον βασιλέυσαντα Ἀιγύπτου, ὁι ἱερέες ἔλεγον τοῦτον μὲν ἀπογεφυρῶσαι καὶ τὴν Μέμφιν. HERODOT.

Of the fact of Memphis having been surrounded by water, some evidences appear even at this day. Parts of the banks of the canal yet are visible toward the mountains, and at the extremities of the ground, where ruins are distinguishable.]

[Footnote 32: Soudân in Arabic corresponds to our Nigritia, merely general words for the _country of the blacks_.]

[Footnote 33: In passing the desert, partly from want of water, partly from being overloaded, (these animals being then scarce and dear in Egypt,) so many camels died, that several merchants of the caravan were obliged to bury their goods in the sand near Selimé, whither they afterwards sent for them.]

[Footnote 34: The _Mahréa_ Arabs have the art of making wicker baskets, of so close a texture, that they carry in them milk, water, bouza. Much of the earthen ware made by the people of Dar-Fûr is glazed, I know not with what composition.]

[Footnote 35: A fermented liquor, called _Bûza_ or _Merîsi_.]

[Footnote 36: By the law of the Prophet, any illicit connexion with the female slave of another makes the person guilty responsible for her value to the owner. Thus the personal injury is expiated. The public offence of _Zinna_, whoredom, incurs a punishment varying according to the character and circumstances of the offender; but the positive testimony of four witnesses is necessary to establish this fact.]

[Footnote 37: A female slave.]

[Footnote 38: It is not usual with Mohammedans to eat meat in such a state. It is reported in Soudan, I know not how truly, that the Leopard, after he has seized his prey, leaves it till it become putrid before he eats of it.]

[Footnote 39: Here is one among many instances of tacit submission to the authority of the head of a tribe, though unfurnished with any express deputation from the government.]

[Footnote 40: Sultan Teraub used always to reside at Rîl, but the present monarch, or usurper, is induced by his fears to wander from place to place. The first place I saw him at was _Heglig_; the next was _Tini_; the third was _Tendelti_, where he passed about a year.]

[Footnote 41: The Fûrians, it may be remarked, distinguish the South part of their empire by this term, as well as the Egyptians.]

[Footnote 42: On the East of Fûr there is a particular tribe of Arabs, who curl their hair, as it were, in a bushy wig, resembling that of the antient figures in the ruins of Persepolis. It is probable that many fragments of antient nations may be found in the interior of Africa. Carthaginians expelled by the Romans, Vandals by Belisarius, &c. &c.]

[Footnote 43: In the market held at Cobbé, there are slaughtered ordinarily from ten to fifteen oxen, and from forty to sixty sheep; but all the villages, six or eight miles round, are thence supplied.

It is usual for the people of the town to lay in their annual stock of grain when cheapest, which is commonly about the month of December. At that time two, sometimes three _mids_ (pecks) of millet (_Dokn_) may be had for a string of beads, worth about one penny sterling in Kahira.]

[Footnote 44: Fruit of India.]

[Footnote 45: Season of the rains.]

[Footnote 46: I remember to have borrowed, while at Damascus, a small quarto volume, written in easy Arabic, without either title or conclusion, which contained a kind of history of the progress of the (_ashab_) early propagators of Mohammedism, and which enumerated, if I mistake not, a tribe under the denomination of Fûr فور among their adversaries, after the taking of _Bahnesé_ in Middle Egypt, and their consequent invasion of the more Southern provinces.]

[Footnote 47: If but a small quantity of rain fall, the agricultors are reduced to great distress; and it happened, about seven years before my arrival, that many people were obliged to eat the young branches of trees pounded in a mortar.]

[Footnote 48: The inhabitants of a village called _Bernoo_, having quarrelled with those of another hamlet, and some having been killed on both sides, all the property of both villages was forfeited to the king, the inhabitants being abandoned to poverty.]

[Footnote 49: About a century and a half ago.]

[Footnote 50: A great tribute is also paid in butter.]

[Footnote 51: _Thummara Hindi_ means simply _Fruit of India_, not _date_, as insinuated by the learned author of the _Botanical Observations_, in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv. p. 250.]

[Footnote 52: This is observable in many of the slaves. They seem to esteem it a beauty. In filing the teeth, they also force the gums from them, to make them appear longer: the teeth in this case suffer discoloration, but do not appear to undergo a consequent decay.]

[Footnote 53: Qui Africæ aut Asiæ plagis peragratis, primi hunc exsecandi morem Occidentalibus narravere auctores, ab ore incolarum re acceptâ, et novitate ejus perculsi, de modo excisionis toto cælo errare solent, nymphas exsecari perhibentes: prorsus ineptè quidem, sed septâ pudicitiâ vitam agentibus, nunquam illis nudam vel è longinquo vidisse, multo minùs muliebria attrectavisse, uti manifestum, contigerat.]

[Footnote 54: Quoties autem confibulatio fortior meatûs etiam urinarii aditum claudere minetur, plumâ vel osseâ quâdam tubulâ adhibitâ, illam in ore urethræ inserunt, ibidemque tenent, usque dum canalis majoris aditui amplius invigilare non sit opus.]

[Footnote 55: In the neighbourhood of Damiatt the Papyrus is termed _el-Berdî_. Another name is also given it, evidently derived from the term in use among us, _El-Babîr_.]

[Footnote 56: The butcher.]

[Footnote 57: He brought her thither during the process, instituted at Rome, relatively to her first marriage, and before that marriage was set aside. A long history attends this part of the life of this remarkable man. Montague having persuaded the first husband, who was captain of a merchant-man in the service of persons at Marseilles, to leave his wife, whom he had brought with him to Egypt, under M.’s protection at Rashîd, the latter took advantage of his absence on a voyage home, to persuade the woman that her husband was no more. He then made an offer of himself, which was accepted. On a disclosure of the affair, Montague had interest and address enough to set aside the first marriage, which had been solemnized before either of the parties were of age. The religious were persuaded that Montague was a zealous convert to the Catholic faith.]

[Footnote 58: The _Santons_, or Mohammedan saints, are still permitted to continue their excesses. I was informed that one of them, very vigorous in transitory amours, met the wife of a rich Mohammedan merchant, newly married. The female attendant who was with her fled, and he accomplished his purpose in the open street. The merchant, complaining to the Pasha, only received this answer, “You ought to esteem yourself very happy, for your wife will probably be brought to bed of a _wellî_,” that is, a saint.]

[Footnote 59: This sect, represented to me by the Arabs, and others in Syria, as having only at a late period originated, is precisely mentioned by Niebuhr, Description d’Arabie, ed. Paris, p. 208. with a little variation as to the tenets of its founder. He dates its rise in the year 1760, which is very possible, considering that the later accounts all agree that _Abd-el-azîz el Wahhâbé_ is a man of very advanced age.]

[Footnote 60: The machine used in the manufacture is very simple, but the fabric is very complete, and executed with tolerable expedition. To make a _cottoni_ requires one hundred and twenty-five drams of silk. Half that quantity is sufficient for a light _alléja_. The wages of a manufacturer for making the former are sixty paras. The fabric of white silk is technically called in Arabic _craishi_; the _alléja_, _darekli_; the _cottoni_, _dadâr_. The ordinary length of each of these is about ten pikes (draa). The width about a pike.]

[Footnote 61: The manner of making soap here deserves mention. They use oil of olives, putting to an hundred weight twenty-five pounds of kali, and five pounds of pulverized chalk. The latter articles are boiled till the water be sufficiently impregnated; the oil is then poured in, and the whole boils for three days over a fire composed of stones of olives.]

[Footnote 62: Throughout Syria and Anatolia is established a kind of tolls called _ghafar_, demanded under pretence of keeping up the roads, and freeing them from robbers. A fixed sum is exacted from all Christians; and even an European, though furnished with a travelling firman, often finds it difficult to avoid paying them. Mohammedans pay what they please, or even nothing.

In Syria these tolls are of no apparent use; the demand is somewhat considerable, the roads are not repaired, and there is no defence but immemorial custom. In Anatolia, where there are woods, some responsibility is attached to the office of toll-gatherer, in case a traveller is robbed; and the sum paid is more reasonable.]

[Footnote 63: Musket and bayonet.]

[Footnote 64: Ibeit is one of the principal towns of Kordofân; it is also the name of a small district.]

[Footnote 65: The bearing of the road from Rîl to Hellet Allais is reported to be generally E. with very small variation.]

Transcriber's note:

pg xxxii Changed: Earthen ware of Ghennè to: Ghenné

pg 63 Changed: the master (ربفا) to: ربنا

pg 129 Changed: cielings of the chambers to: ceilings

pg 219 Changed: with their corruption to: which

pg 237 Changed: and and while the jelabs to: and while

pg 290 Changed: between the the former to: between the former

pg 368 Changed: articles of consumptioh to: consumption

pg 399 Changed: the most unweildy to: unwieldy

pg 408 Changed: the the walnut-tree to: the walnut-tree

pg 422 Changed: which Rashib Pasha to: Raghib

pg 439 Changed: thoughout Europe to: throughout

pg 447 Changed: _Cubeabéa_ and _Rîl_ to: _Cubcabéa_

pg 448 Changed: _Cubeabéa_ to _Wara_ to: _Cubcabéa_

Other spelling inconsistencies have been left unchanged.