that the spot where they now read the law, was honoured by the presence of Jeremiah the Prophet. I could not, however, learn whether they still preserved a copy of the law, said to have been written by Ezra, who, having omitted, as it was pretended, the name of JEHOVAH, in reverence, wherever it ought to have occurred, found all the vacancies miraculously filled up the day after it was finished.

CHAP. VII.

THE KHALIS.

METHOD OF IRRIGATION.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF ROIDA. THE MIKIAS OR NILOMETER. PLACE WHERE MOSES WAS FOUND.- PYRAMIDS.

SPHYNX,

THE HE Khalis, or canal which originates from the Nile, near Old Cairo, runs through the city, and into the country some distance beyond it. Near the mouth of it there is a mound of earth, which, when the Nile rises to a certain height, is broken down annually with rejoicing, and the water is thus conveyed into the city, and distributed through the gardens and adjacent country.

With regard to the method of irrigation used by the ancient Egyptians, which I observed was still practised, though in a less perfect manner, it may be mentioned that the overflowing of the Nile is the grand source of fertility. As the river, however, could not cover the lands every where in the necessary proportion, the inhabitants have cut a great number of canals and trenches, which intersect the country in all directions. Towns and villages have their canals, from which smaller rivers open into the adjacent fields. In the event of the ground being above the level which the waters commonly attain, they are raised to overflow it by engines worked by oxen. The whole surface of the country is formed into various level spaces, surrounded with embanked trenches, and supplied by these feeders with water. The gardens, which are very fertile, are divided into small square beds, with trenches upon a minor scale, so that the gardeners, when they want to water one of the beds, open a trench, which immediately furnishes the requisite supply.

Nothing can be conceived more different, it is said, than the appearance of Egypt when the waters have disappeared, and the Nile has returned to its channel. In the former case the country appears similar to a sea of glass, with numerous villages, turrets, and spires, intermingled with trees, whose tops only are above the waters. But when the Nile has retired to its original state, and the ground is covered with young herbage, the same prospect presents one great meadow, with herbs and flocks scattered in all directions, and the cheerful prospect of the active operations of husbandmen and gardeners in the fields and gardens. On this change the air is embalmed by the fragrance of a profusion of flowers and the blossoms of the fruit trees, and enlivened by the voices of innumerable birds.

After I had inspected every accessible object of curiosity, I went to view the pyramids, attended by an Arab, who was understood to be respected by those who live in the district where these monuments of antiquity, or wonders of the world, are situated. At Old Cairo, where we crossed the Nile, I landed on my passage on the small island of Roida, which is about a mile in length, and planted with sycamores, or Pharaoh's fig-trees, as they are sometimes called. On the southern part of this island is a square building containing the Mikias, or measuring pillar, by which is calculated the rise and fall of the waters of this river. * This column is placed in a basin, the bottom of which is on a level with the surface of the river when at the lowest. From a court leading to the structure, there is a descent to the water by steps, called the stairs of Moses, an idea being entertained that he was discovered there by the daughter of Pharaoh.† As to the authenticity of this opinion, which can only be considered as founded on tradition, I shall offer no observation

* "The Nile water was daily measured during the inundation by a man, who then cried to the inhabitants, thank God, for the river has risen to such and such a height."- Wittman's Travels in Turkey.

+ Exod. ii. 5. 10.

further, than that as it was in the sequestered corner of an island that this princess retired to bathe, the objection which has been stated to the circumstance of immersion in the vicinity of a populous city, is refuted, and the argument founded on any comparison with the absurdity of supposing a Princess of our Royal family in England, proceeding with attendants to bathe in the Thames, op. posite the palace at Whitehall, is completely removed. Considering, indeed, the beauty of this island, and that it has been selected by the conquerors of Egypt for the site of a palace, it is not assuming too much to suppose, that Pharaoh might have had one on the spot, and that his daughter used, in the cool of the morning, with her maidens, to perform her religious lavations in the consecrated stream of the Nile, at this particular place, when she discovered the ark of bulrushes. It appears to be perfectly obvious that the spot where Moses was laid, must have been selected by his mother, that the child might attract the attention of the princess, and be taken under her protection; and that his parent had watched the time when it was supposed she might have been expected. The point, however, which I would contend for, is chiefly, that it ought not to be presumed, that it was a practice for the princess to bathe daily in the river, but an annual religious rite, performed with a degree of pomp and ceremony, of which some relics may still be traced, in the custom of the Egyptian virgins proceeding when the day dawns, with songs and timbrels, to wade in the stream on the first rising of the waters, and to chaunt the praises of that Almighty Power to whom they owe their increase.

Having been ferried across to Gizeh, we proceeded along a flat country, passing in our way several shepherds and their flocks. The pastures were very luxuriant, the fields of beans in particular, which are sown without turning up the toil, were in high blossom, and to the eye of an Englishman during December, was a novel sight, and embalmed the air with a delightful fragrance. The sheep are very large, and have tails of an extraordinary length and fatness. The habitations of the natives, however, are

miserable hovels, and ill correspond with that abundance which nature has so profusely supplied on all sides. We were obliged to pass several fields covered with water by the overflowing of the Nile, and were conveyed on the shoulders of ferocious looking Arabs, completely naked, who, perceiving us at a distance, ran to meet us, and pressed their assistance as indispensable to our arriving at the pyramids. We halted during the night at a most wretched village, where the inhabitants dwelt in dens made of mud, such as we should set apart for the canine species. The entry to these I found to be only three feet and a half in height, and one foot and a half in breadth. I was accommodated in a small piece of ground at the back of one of them, in a cart-house, unroofed, where I reposed during a most brilliant starry night.

Next morning I got up at sun-rise, and proceeded to the great pyramid, about two miles distant, after having a rencontre, almost amounting to a scuffle, with the inhabitants, who were very clamorous in their importunities. A great competition arose among them who should accom pany me.

The Pyramids of Egypt have been often and minutely described; at the present moment they engage in no ordinary degree the attention of the public, by the account of Mr. Belzoni's researches, of whose indefatigable exertions I heard much in that country. I might perhaps incur the imputation of presumption, was I to attempt to say more respecting those proud and stupendous objects, besides relating the powerful impression which they produced on my own feelings, which rivetted me to the spot in silent admiration. The oldest historians speak of these vast monuments as the principal antiquities of the ancient works of human art. No tradition that can be relied upon extends to the period in which they were formed, and therefore all must be considered as conjecture respecting their construction. Some persons indeed have been disposed to believe they are relics of antediluvian labour, which have withstood the deluge. What was however the particular form of scaffolding used to rear such tremendous