Notes from Egypt

My dear E

The excursion to the site of Heliopolis, the On of Scripture, occupies about three hours on a good donkey, and was made by me in that wise, June 2\st. The road lies across some of the prettiest scenery around Cairo, the neighbourhood of which abounds with fine views on nearly every side, singular pictures, in which the richest luxuriance and the most absolute sterility are seen side by side; the bold ranges of the Mokattan hills, and the innumerable mosques, minarets, and elaborately adorned Saracenic buildings, relieving the landscape from that tameness which the flat shores of the Nile, and the level plain of the Delta would otherwise impart to it.

The road to Heliopolis runs between fields in high cultivation, and is bordered in many parts with noble tamarisks and sycomores. You pass out of Cairo by the Babel Nusr, one of the finest of the many beautiful old gates of this most picturesque of cities, and near which is the fine mosque of the Sultan Berdouk. Emerging from this gate you enter on the desert plain 3 on whose bare surface stand the numerous tombs of the Circassian Mamalouk kings, to some of which a mosque is attached. These are domed structures, of great richness and elegance of architectural detail, although some barbarisms are always mixed with the better style; and while at a distance appearing fresh and entire, discover on a nearer approach woful dilapidation and neglect. Farther on, the present Pasha has built an immense palace, the chief view from which, seems to command a huge range of ugly whitewashed barracks close in front of the building, which is the lightest and prettiest of all the palaces I have seen in Egypt, for they are generally the most tasteless, ill-finished, and flimsy structures imaginable. Abbas Pasha is possessed of a perfect mania for palace building, and I believe has some halfdozen in hand at this moment; one, I have only passed an hour ago, on the banks of this branch (the Damietta) of the river at Baunah Hassan, and which seems modelled after a first-rate union poor-house in England. Besides the Citadel, he has two palaces close to Cairo on the Suez road \ and I saw another in the middle of the desert between Cairo and Suez , perched on a high ridge, and near to which, I met, on my return from the latter place, a number of the ladies of his hareem travelling in the carriages of the Transit Administration: I suppose, for the sake of inhaling the. desert air, which, as I have before said, is a marvellous restorative, and, to these poor secluded creatures, probably the best of medicine. The Pasha has also a palace on the western or Rosetta branch of the river, besides that of his predecessor Mohammed Ali at Alexandria . The labour on these works is all forced, the men being compelled to leave their ordinary occupations to serve the government (that is, the governor), at a low nominal rate of wages, which, besides that it is very irregularly paid, is often partly given in sugar, cloth, or other necessaries, at high government prices, and always of inferior quality. The poor labourers are marched together to their tasks chained like felons, and it is most lamentable to see the number of children that are employed to carry stone and other heavy burdens much beyond their strength, The Egyptian children are the most interesting portion of the population; they are often very pretty, and very generally artless and engaging: their features, (especially among the Copts) often forcibly recall those of Egypt's ancient inhabitants as depicted in their sculptures and paintings; but a large proportion look wan and emaciated, and diseases of the eyes afflict at least half their number. The amount of blind, half blind, and squinting people one meets at every step in the streets of Cairo, is indeed incredible; in the provinces, complaints of the eyes are less rife, but still obtrude prominently on the traveller's notice.

But to return to Heliopolis. Although now in the height of summer, and the sun shining as usual, in an unclouded, though somewhat opaque or hazy sky, my mid-day journey was performed as pleasantly as if on a temperate day in the same season in England; so freshly blew the north wind, to which the Egyptians are indebted for preventing their country becoming the fiery furnace we are apt to suppose it during at least half the year, and which it assuredly would be were this refreshing wind to cease for only a few days at this season. Even at the present moment whilst writing, although it is a sore adversary in the way of my watery path, I hail its influence with thankfulness, for blowing over and into my wooden abode, it keeps the temperature of the cabin within reasonable limits.

Whilst this is penned, a delicate thermometer on my writing table stands at 1)6° (time quarter-past two p.m.), a temperature by no means to be considered high at this season, in a boat whose wooden roof gets thoroughly heated by the long day's sun. At Cairo, during June, and what has elapsed of J uly, I believe the thermometer has seldom exceeded 90° in the shade; whenever I have looked at the instrument, it has generally marked about 84° — 86° during the day: but at night (though the heat within doors has not been much below these points till towards morning, when it sinks at least eight or ten degrees), out of doors, the night air has always felt decidedly cool and invigorating.

The only object of antiquity still standing at Helio, olis, is the obelisk, which is just beyond the pretty village of Matareeh, a place, that itself occupies a part of the site of On, as is evidenced by the mounds on which the modern village is built e The obelisk stands in a pretty garden of fruit trees, and I must confess, requires the eye of an antiquary to appreciate its merits, or admire its proportions. I think that as an object of art, it is not a whit superior to Cleopatra's needle at Alexandria , and to an uninitiated person will not bear looking at after the beautiful colossal and profusely sculptured monoliths of the kind at Luxor and Karnak. This at Heliopolis is but sixty-eight feet high, including the much damaged pedestal, around which, excavations are now in progress at the suggestion of some inquisitive Europeans, to ascertain the rise of the soil, and of the bed of the Nile since its erection. The situation of the obelisk shews that On or Heliopolis stood on the edge of the cultivated land, the desert being close beside it, not a quarter of a mile distant: and it is well known that most of the ancient cities of Egypt stood either on the desert, as do many of the modern villages, or on the very border of the cultivated ground, with a view to occupy as little as possible of the narrow, and therefore more valuable strip of cultivation which marked the limits of the inundation. When on the site of Heliopolis, it was interesting to reflect that Plato and Eudoxus studied the " learning of the Egyptians " in this once famous seat of science, and that it was the daughter of a priest of On who became the wife of J oseph, at the beginning of his prosperous career at the court of Pharaoh. The obelisk is of the age, it is said, of Osirtasen I. who, according to Sir G. Wilkinson, was the reigning monarch in Joseph's time, and the situation still bears amongst the vulgar the name of Hagar al Pharoon, or Pharaoh's stone. I may here remark, that the traditions still extant amongst the lower classes of Egyptians relative to the old Pharaonic line of their monarchs, are in general the reverse of complimentary to the characters of this dynasty. Everything strange, ugly, mysterious, or colossal, is attributed to El Pharoon, who in the imagination of the lower people here, or in England, is a shadowy personification of the whole royal line of the name: popular opinion identifying as one and the same individual, the benefactor of Joseph, and the iron-hearted oppressor of the Israelites.

The ancient Heliopolis was celebrated for its gardens, which cherished the famous balsam or balm of Gileadtree of Judea, which had been transferred hither, it is said, by Cleopatra from Palestine; but, whatever the plant might have been, it is no longer to be found on this spot; although Matareeh, the modern successor of Heliopolis, still sustains the ancient reputation for horticulture which the latter enjoyed in its glory. The same kind of balsam as that alleged to have been the produce of Jericho and On, is still said to be an article of commerce in Arabia, and to be imported into Egypt and Europe at the present day, under the term of balsam of Mecca. I have a strong suspicion that this renowned production of the East, is neither more nor less than common Storax, an exudation from a tree frequent in Syria ( Styrax officinarum); but in this I may possibly be mistaken. I merely hint the supposition, because in England I am not aware that any article going under the name of balm of Gilead or Mecca balsam is known in our shops, although Storax is to be met with; and were the other possessed of any qualities rendering it really valuable and desirable as an article of consumption, or for its fragrance, or medicinal properties, I think it very unlikely that it should remain unknown to our druggists by name.

In a fine, and well kept garden at Matareeh belonging to Abbas Pasha, stands a venerable sycomore, under the shade of which Joseph and Mary with the Infant Saviour halted on the flight into Egypt, according to Coptic tradition. Without placing implicit faith in a story handed down amongst a christian sect so notoriously ignorant and superstitious as the Copts, I can yet believe the tree may have been in existence at the time of the i( flight," for its appearance indicates extreme age; but supposing this possible, if not probable, the tree must have been in its infancy in those days, and much too youthful to have afforded any great degree of shade to the holy and way-worn group. However, I filled my tin box with twigs from the sacred Saggar el sitte Miriam (tree of the Virgin Mary,) as this venerable vegetable antique is styled; driving out of my mind for the nonce as much as I could of the doubt which mingled with my willing belief in the legend. I could not have that satisfaction of eating the fruit, which might have strengthened my faith, for alas ! the figs had all been plucked by former visitors, or the tree had become too old for bearing, I know not which. The garden in which the tree stands is very pretty, but like all gardens in this country, contains but little , variety of plants, and those chiefly shrubs, and ornai mental or useful trees.

Before leaving Cairo, I had an opportunity which I had almost despaired of, of seeing the gardens at Shoobra, about four miles from that city, and the finest r in Egypt, but which have been closed to the public for some time. Through the kindness of Dr. Abbot I obtained access to them a day or two before leaving I Cairo, All gardens are laid out on the same plan in this country in long straight alleys or walks, crossing at right angles, or converging to a centre, where is often a kiosk or summer residence of the owner. Every garden, like every field, must be kept perpetually watered by the sakeeyeh or shadoof (the Persian wheel, or the more I simple pole and bucket), in this arid clime. Egyptian gardens, both public and private, consist of squares or phalanxes of trees, intersected by little raised channels, or water courses, fed by the wheel at the river, or from a well of generally brackish water on the premises, which is also raised by one or other of the two primitive machines just named; for pumps are unknown, except in Frank houses, or in sugar manufactories, in every part of Egypt. The trees are mostly of the following scanty catalogue; various others are met with there, but are not in such common employment for ornament or utility. Orange, Lemon, Lime, (abundant) Pomegranate, Myrtle, Oleander, Fig-sycomore, ( Ficus Sycomorus) Mulberry, (Morus alba and nigra); Nebr, ( Zizyphus spina Christi), Prickly Pear or Indian fig, ( Opuntia vulgaris, Cactus Opuntia L. ) chiefly for hedges; Cassia fistula, Lebbek, (Accacia Lebbek) a native of India, and the pride of Cairo in the Usbekeeh &c, Poplar, ( Populus Alba) a tree of northern origin, but which resists drought and heat to a surprising degree, although delighting in wet places; Willow, ( Weeping W. chiefly, Salix babylonica ) Khenna, (Lawsonia inermis spinosa) called in England Egyptian Privet, and in Jamaica Mignionette-tree. The leaves of the Khenna are in great demand when dried, for tinging the nails, fingers, and palms of the hands of a dull orange colour, amongst the Egyptian women of all classes, and even the men colour the nails of the hands and feet with this very unbecoming pigment. Roses, which grow well in Egypt, and are very sweet, form with flowering shoots of Khenna almost the only fragrant nosegays in use amongst the people, and branches of Khenna either by itself, or encircled by roses, are hawked about the streets, and sold for a few paras or fuddahs, and are carried at the many public and private processions that are perpetually blocking up the narrow thoroughfares of Cairo, thronged as they necessarily are with the passing stream of every day life, carts, carriages, donkeys, horses, camels, and the human animal. The scent of the Khenna blossom is very powerful; to myself, it recalls that of roses mixed with the fragrance of the wall-flower; but the flowers soon fade, and the smell becomes vapid, and positively unpleasant. I have no where met with the shrub wild in Egypt or Nubia, but it is raised abundantly along the Nile in both countries for its leaves, and about Cairo for its flowers; a fence or plantation of Lawsonia will perfume the air of the whole neighbourhood, particularly in the cool of the evening.The common Pig of Egypt is a variety I have never remarked in European gardens, it is of low stature, and distinguishable at a glance by the lobes of the leaves, which are longer, and produced into an acute point (especially the middle lobe) which is not the case in the common varieties, and the leaves have not the shining glossy appearance of the European forms; the fig however, is one of the very few good fruits which Egypt produces, simply because it requires no care. The other shrubs in general cultivation in Egyptian gardens for ornament, are, Jessamine, white and yellow, ( Jasminum officinale, and J. revolutum ? ) the former, a larger flowered variety than ours; the pretty Duranta Ellisii, most extensively used for garden hedges; Sessaban, (Sesbania ^Egyptiaca) wild in the upper country; a beautiful purple convolvolus, with deeply five-cleft leaves, used for covering walls and houses, and which I also found in its wild state in Nubia, but do not know the name of at present. These, with some others, are the principal plants of a ligneous or arborescent character seen in cultivation. Of Egyptian floriculture, very little can be said in praise; the garden of the humblest cottage in England can shew a more choice assortment of border flowers, than that of the proudest palace of the ruler of Egypt himself.

Of the fruits of Egypt, I can now say with confidence, that on the whole, in no part of the world, are they fewer in number, or of worse quality. This is the height of the season, and I have visited the fruit and vegetable markets of Cairo repeatedly, as well as those of the provincial towns, and found little or no variety in any of them. Water-melons hold the first rank among Egyptian fruits; they are grown in vast quantities in the fields throughout this country and Nubia, and at this time of year constitute a great item in the diet of the poorer and middling classes, and are seen at the table of the upper ranks also, it being the custom to eat slices of water-melon at dinner in the intervals of each dish that you partake of. They certainly come to great perfection in this country, and, as I myself experience, may be eaten freely in any quantity without danger; and deliciously refreshing the pulp of the water-melon is in this sultry climate. Grapes are plentiful, and have been in season about three weeks: they are of all kinds, good, bad, and indifferent. This, after the water-melon, is the fruit most to be depended upon for quality: but grapes are neither so abundant nor so cheap as the former. I forgot to say, that common melons of every kind are plentiful in the markets, but not liking this fruit, I am no judge of their merits: I believe however, from the report of others, that a large proportion are of very indifferent sorts; no pains being bestowed in Egypt in selecting and propagating superior varieties of fruit and vegetables: grafting and budding being rarely practised, and thinning out and pruning equally neglected, every advantage that the sunny clime of Egypt would afford to the horticulturist is thrown away. Stone fruit is universally bad: the fruiterers' stalls and the markets are now filled with peaches, fair to the eye, but small, and very stones for hardness, on one side at least. Most of the peaches here, have a point or projection opposite the stalk, and a somewhat oval form. Apricots are over for the season: all I have seen are extremely small, hard, and tasteless, and are usually gathered before they are quite ripe. In Syria, apricots are dried in great quantities, and exported to Egypt under the name of Mishnmsh, where they constitute a most palatable and convenient article of a traveller's commissariat; as, when stewed, they make an excellent dish, soon got ready; the fruit keeps perfectly well in this dry climate, and sufficient for a month's consumption, or longer, can be stowed in a very small compass. Mishmush was a principal article in our cuisine during our voyage up the Nile, and from its portability, it is excellently adapted for desert travelling. Zummer e deen (the moon of the faithful) is the same fruit differently prepared, and is equally known as mishmush, but is very inferior in quality to the former kind. It consists of the pulp of the apricot rolled out (after drying I should suppose ) into thin sheets two or three feet long, and a foot or two in width; and from its dark colour, and the edges of the sheet being left untrimmed, it resembles nothing so much as a blacksmith's old leather apron; when dressed, however, it is no despicable dish, and in the upper country is the kind of mishmush most usually seen in the markets; we could seldom procure the entire fruit, and when we could, it was rarely of the best description. A small round plum, the size and colour of our greengage, and ( if I recollect right ) very like the Yorkshire wine-sour, is sold in quantities, and though scarcely eatable at dessert, is the only plum I have seen in the country. A dish of small wretched green apples and pears, made its appearance for several weeks successively at the dessert at Shepherd's hotel, for ornament only I suppose, as no one could reasonably be expected to partake of them ! Figs are good and plentiful: the larger kinds, as the green Ischia &c. I have never seen in Egypt, and I have eaten figs from St. John's garden at Ryde fully as saccharine, and as well-flavoured as in this country. Pomegranates abound later in the season; I eat them in their perfection last year at Alexandria , Cairo, and up the Nile; but at best, they are an insipid, though refreshing, and splendid looking fruit. Bananas succeed well even in Lower Egypt, where I have eaten them as good as in the West Indies; but their cultivation is confined to the gardens of the wealthier class generally, and to the vicinity of the principal towns. Dates of course grow every where, and are so emphatically the fruit of the country, as to have obtained the name of Iamr, a word which signifies fruit of all kinds, in Arabic. This concludes the list of eatable fruits, or such as might be made so at least by proper culture in Egypt; there are others called fruits by courtesy, such as the Prickly Pear ( Cactus Opuntia ), the Nebr, (Zyziphus Spina Christi), and especially that of the Sycomore ( Ficus Sycomorus ) whose figs are much in request amongst the common people. In taste, as well as in aspect they resemble the common fig (Ficus Carica ) but are vastly inferior in the quantity of saccharine matter they contain. Of the vegetables, esculent and economical, which are grown in the valley of the Nile, I shall give an account at some future time. A bare list of the various productions that line the banks of this ancient stream, with, I really believe, not a single mile of interruption in any part of its vast length, would almost fill one of these pages.In some parts of the Nubian valley, the desert descends to what may in common parlance be called the water's edge, yet even m these spots, the declivity of one or both banks bears a strip of cultivation reduced to a few yards in width, being the space included between the water level at high and low Nile. I do not remember to have remarked a complete interruption to cultivation on both banks, in any part of the valley.

On the 8th of July, I came up with a lion of the neighbourhood of the Egyptian metropolis, the so called "petrified forest." This is nothing more than a large tract of sandy and stony desert, stretching for several miles at the back of the Mokattan ridge, bestrewn with fragments of agatized wood, and even with trunks of trees similarly agatized. The larger specimens are always broken across in several places, and are sometimes many feet in length: the stumps of the trees are here and there to be seen standing in their original position two feet above ground, but completely agatized like the rest. The quantity of wood thus transformed is immense, and chiefly belongs to some palm: a species of Bombax is said to occur also, but I could find no specimens of it.

The scenery of the rocky hills of Mokattan is excessively dreary. The distance from Cairo to the best part of the forest is not above six miles; I rode out on a donkey accompanied by the same Arab who went with me to Suez , and who, on both trips, rigidly resisted eating a morsel of biscuit, or drinking a drop of water between sun-rise and sun-set (it being the fast of Ramadan), although compelled to trudge beside my donkey all day in a burning sun, which must have occasioned excessive longing for drink. The lower orders observe the fast of Ramadan with exemplary abstinence; whilst among the higher classes (the Turks especially) I am told it is in private generally disregarded.

Just before quitting Cairo on the 10th of July, I had an opportunity of witnessing the performance of the serpent charmers who profess to clear the houses of the city of the reptiles of that order, with which they are all more or less infested. Dr. Abbott kindly allowed me to bring the men to his house, in which they captured six snakes of a harmless description in less than half-anhour, which number included no less than three different species. These snake-charmers belong in general to a particular tribe of Arabs, who boast of having possessed their mysterious faculty for an indefinitely long period. The chief actor, in this case, was a fine looking man, with a handsome and intelligent, but peculiar, cast of countenance. He carried a stick in his hand, with which on entering each apartment, he struck the walls several times, uttering, in a low and measured tone, a form of exorcism in Arabic, adjuring, and commanding the serpent, which he declared, immediately on the door being thrown open, was lurking in the walls or ceiling, to come forth. Presently, the reptile would be seen emerging from some hole or corner, with which every room even in the better class of Egyptian houses abounds; on which the enchanter would draw the unwilling serpent towards him with the point of the stick, and when within reach, put it in the bag he carried about with him for that purpose. It is said that the charmer conceals one or more serpents in his ample sleeves, and these he contrives to let loose in the apartment during his evolutions with the stick; such may very possibly be the case, seeing that in ordinary juggling tricks the quickest eye may be deceived by the dexterity and rapidity of the performer's movements. I can only declare, that I was myself utterly unable to detect such a manoeuvre as that on which the operation of charming these reptiles is said to be rounded; tor although the charmer did not allow the spectator to be actually in the room during the exorcism, he permitted persons to stand close behind him, whilst at the same time, the door of the apartment was thrown wide open. Besides, I have been assured by persons of the highest credit, that they have witnessed the feats of the serpent-charmers after their garments had been thoroughly searched for concealed serpents; that they have been made to change their clothes for others provided by the owner of the house; and, what is yet more convincing, have frequently been compelled to divest themselves of all covering before entering the room they engaged to clear. It is usual to object, that in these extreme trials, the serpents were introduced upon the premises the night previous to the experiment, by persons who usually accompany the chief performers; but it is not easy to conceive how, without some secret mode of enticing them from their lurking places, serpents, so introduced, could be found, and captured, at the precise moment when it was desired to do so, as the nature of this class of reptiles is to ramble about in holes and obscure retreats, and to withdraw from the eye of man, rather than, like the lizard tribe, to frequent open sunny situations where they are much exposed to view. Supposing the serpents to be introduced, at the time of exorcising, by the performer's attendants, (which could not be done in the room in which the charmer himself exhibits, as he always enters alone; and under such rigid examination, when every precaution is taken to prevent deception, he would not be allowed to have a companion), how I say, could the reptiles be prevented from making their escape amongst the rafters, or in the holes about the apartment, which instinct would assuredly teach them to do, rather than come and present themselves to view, unless impelled to shew themselves by some influence like that by which they are apparently induced to come forth from their retreats at the word of the enchanter. Were the art of serpent-charming a mere juggling deception, how could it for so many ages have been exercised as a profitable employment by a particular tribe ?; — it being, in fact, customary in Cairo to send to the serpent-charmer when a house is much infested with serpents, just as we should require the services of a rat-catcher, to rid our premises of those destructive animals. The extreme antiquity of serpent-charming is much in favour of its honesty as an art; and were it once ascertained that conveying serpents to the premises to be cleared, was a general, or even frequent practice, the poor, and generally covetous, and parsimonious Cairenes, would not give a para to have their houses stocked with noxious reptiles under the pretence of being rid of them. I certainly did not witness the exhibition under any of the above mentioned circumstances of rigid scrutiny, but the men were taken from the street to Dr. Abbott's house without a moment's previous intimation as to whither they were about to be conducted. One or two circumstances respecting the kind of serpent brought forth, and the weak, torpid condition of the whole six, throw a shadow of suspicion on the matter, but I am not prepared to object too strongly against either of these points; the torpidity of the reptiles might be the effect of the incantation, what»ever that singular process may consist in; and although one kind was a species of slow-worm, it does not follow, that because our own indigenous reptile of that name never is found in houses, that no other species of the genus can inhabit the haunts of man, as the same may be said of all our English serpents, which shun the abodes of mankind; whereas, in warmer climates, snakes of various, and totally different genera, haunt houses even in the crowded purlieus of a great city, as at Cairo, where perhaps not a house is free from them. The serpent charmers pretended to secure me from the accidental effect of the bite of these reptiles, by the not very pleasant process of blowing into the mouth, and afterwards pressing the lobe of my left ear between the jaws of one of the snakes, so as to draw a little blood. My late experience in the case of poor Ameen's scorpion's sting in the desert, did not strengthen my confidence in the charm with which, at far less cost of money and suffering, I was fortified by the Cairene exorcist.

Always my dear E., Your affectionate Brother, William Arnold Bromfield.