lace and gardens. Its groves form a striking object, and
its interior, cultivated by Greek gardeners, is an earthly Mahometan
paradise. It has bower-covered walks, gardens carpeted with flowers,
ever-flowing fountains, and a lake on which the luxurious Pasha is rowed
by the ladies of his harem. The Nile winds in the most extraordinary
manner across the tongues of land; boats and sails are seen close,
which are in reality a mile further down the stream. The banks were high
above the boat, through the present shallowness of the river. They were
chiefly of brown clay, and were frequently cut into chasms for the
purposes of irrigation. As they shot along, they saw large tracts
covered with cotton, wheat, Indian corn, and other crops. Date-trees in
abundance, the leaves large and like those of the cocoa, the fruit
hanging in large clusters, when ripe of a bright red. Water-melons
cultivated every where, often on the sandy banks of the river itself,
three or four times the size of a man's head, and absolutely loading the
beds. Numbers of the Egyptian villages were seen in the navigation of
the river. The houses are huddled together, are of unbaked clay, and
look like so many bee-hives. Every village has its date-trees, and every
hut has pigeons. The peasants in general seem intolerably indolent, and
groups of them are every where lying under the trees. Herds of fine
buffaloes, twice the size of those in Ceylon, were seen along the shore,
and sometimes swimming the river. Groups of magnificent cattle, larger
and finer than even our best English breed, were driven occasionally to
water at the river side. The Egyptian boats come to an anchor every
night; but the Jack o' Lantern dashed on, and by daybreak reached the
entrance of the Mahoudiah Canal, on which a track-boat carries
passengers to Alexandria. A high mound of earth here separates the canal
from the Nile, which flows on towards Rosetta. This embankment is about
forty feet wide. Some of Mrs Griffith's observations are at least
sufficiently expressive; for example:--"All the children, and some past
the age of what are usually styled little children, were running about
entirely devoid of clothing. We observed a great deal of this in Egypt.
_Men_ are often seen in the same condition; and the women of the lower
orders, having concealed their heads and faces, appear to think they
have done _all that is necessary_." This is certainly telling a good
deal; nothing more explicit co