6

QUARANTINE HARBOUR

THE TURBAN.

mingled with the shrill voices of the Arabs, and the crowing of the cock, which does not here, as in Europe, proclaim the approach of morning, but is heard indifferently at all hours. The window of my bedchamber overlooked the ancient port, where on the left I enjoyed a view of the island on which the Pharos of Ptolemy Soter stood; and, on the right, of the modern fort, which commands the entrance into the harbour. A low ledge of rocks, commencing at the site of the Pharos, stretches out a considerable distance into the sea, and over this the waves break continually in and foam. Other rocks, unconspray nected with the former, occupy the centre of the harbour's mouth, and, opposing the course of the waves, are almost perpetually covered with snowy breakers. In compliance with the custom of travellers I this day had my head shaved, and assumed the tarboosh, an elegant red felt cap, with blue silk tassel ; which, in Egypt, has almost universally superseded the turban. To guard the head from the heat of the sun, two of these caps, with another of double calico, are worn; and as the season advances, or as we proceed farther south, a thick handkerchief is stuffed into the crown. Notwithstanding that the hair is

* But this must be regarded as a highly injudicious innovation; for, besides that the forehead, entirely exposed to the burning sun, becomes blistered and wrinkled, the eyes suffer extremely from the fierceness of the light, so that, after a few days' journey, ophthalmia frequently ensues, Broad-brimmed hats, if the Pasha could cause them to be adopted, might in part prevent the Egyptians from degenerating into a race of Cyclops.

HAIR OF THE NEGROES.

7

always closely shaven, all these envelopes keep the head exceedingly warm, and may perhaps contribute more than any other cause to render the Egyptians gray-headed from their youth. The effect of the climate of Egypt* upon the hair is remarkable. My own beard, which in Europe was soft, silky, and almost straight, began immediately on my arrival at Alexandria to curl, to grow crisp, strong, and coarse, and before I had reached Es-Souan resembled horsehair to the touch, and was all disposed in ringlets about the chin. This is no doubt to be accounted for by the extreme dryness of the air, which, operating through several thousand years, has, in the interior, changed the hair of the negro into a kind of coarse wool.

IV. It is the custom among the Europeans of Alexandria to dine about noon, after which, in imitation of the Orientals, they generally indulge themselves with a siesta; but I always found one or two individuals who preferred riding out among the ruins. Mr. Weight, a fellow-lodger at the Aquila, undertook, on the present occasion, to be my guide. Early in the afternoon, therefore, we mounted our beasts and, passing through the Frank quarter, proceeded towards that portion of the ancient city in which the Serapeum is supposed to have been situated. The

;

* Volney's idea that Alexandria ought to be considered rather as part of the Libyan desert than of Egypt, because neither the mud nor water of the Nile reaches it, is absurd; unless we also choose to say

8

ENVIRONS OF ALEXANDRIA.

ruins of Alexandria are indeed ruins. Babylon itself, which it once nearly rivalled in grandeur, can scarcely be said to have left fewer vestiges of its existence and magnificence; for, beyond the precincts of the modern town, you behold far and near upon the plain nothing but vast irregular mounds of rubbish or sand, which may probably conceal the substructions or fragments of ancient edifices. Here and there, where the Pasha's workmen have been digging among these mounds for stones, you in fact discover the foundations of various Greek or Roman buildings, in stone or brick, with arched passages, portions of the old cisterns, fragments of pillars, or perhaps entire columns of a pale red granite, overthrown, or half-buried in the sand. Were the whole of these prodigious heaps of rubbish cleared away, private houses, little less entire than those of Pompeii, might perhaps be discovered; but the plan at present pursued by the Pasha can lead to no other result than the total destruction of whatever ancient relics time may have spared; for if, while excavating at random, the Arabs find a wall, an arch, or a pavement, they immediately demolish it, and take up the stones, without attempting to ascertain whether any other part of the edifice to which it belonged exist or not. It cannot, of course, be expected or desired that

that the Pyramids, the Citadel of Cairo, the Temple of Dendera, the Memnonium, the Tombs of the Kings, &c. are not in Egypt; since all these are situated beyond the precincts of the cultivable land and the inundations of the Nile.

Mohammed Ali should be guided by the predilections of an antiquarian; but had he about him but one person of superior taste and judgment, he might easily be made to understand that his reputation, even as a politician, of which he is most jealous, would scarcely be liable to suffer diminution should he feel or feign a stronger interest than he has hitherto exhibited in what concerns the fine arts. But of this hereafter. In the midst of the prostrate remains of the ancient city we find, thinly scattered, the modern dwellings of the actual lords of the soil, of which some are fine large houses, in the Turkish style of architecture, others the meanest cabins in which poverty and wretchedness ever took shelter. The former are for the most part situated in gardens, or rather small groves of date palms; which, with their lofty columnar trunks and long pendulous branches waving and trembling in the breeze, constitute one of the most interesting objects in an African landscape. This beautiful tree was now loaded with fruit; which hung down between the branches in prodigious clusters of from fifty to one hundred pounds' weight. Of these dates, some were small and of a dark yellow; others red, and others nearly black. The stem of the cluster, as large as a man's arm, and of a tawny yellow colour, comes out between the branches on every side, and scarcely seems equal to the great weight which it has to support. The yellow dates are by far the smallest kind, and the black ones the largest, in Lower Egypt; but at Es-Souan, on the

confines of Nubia, I found yellow dates nearly three inches in length, though I was told that only one tree bearing such fruit existed in Egypt. Nothing in the vegetable creation can be more beautiful than an enormous date palm, one hundred feet in height, loaded with ripening fruit; such as we find them on the plains of Memphis. I say ripening, because, as soon as ripe, each date is gathered, to make room for the rest, and lest it should fall and perish. Even the creaking sounds of the water-wheels, as the blindfold oxen went round and round, and of the tiny cascades splashing from the string of earthen pots into the trough, which received and distributed the water to the wooden canals, arranged for conveying it over the grounds, were not disagreeable to my ears; since they called up before the imagination the primitive ages of mankind, the rude contrivances of the early kings of Egypt for the advancement of agriculture, which have undergone little change or improvement up to the present hour.

Saturday, Nov. 10.

V. As almost every thing at Alexandria which can be regarded as a relic of past ages lies beyond the inner wall, it is customary with travellers to divide the environs into a certain number of parts, all of which they visit in succession. But the place is now interesting merely as a site. Power, and art, and beauty, and learning have, we know, been there; but for this knowledge we are almost wholly indebted