with a bearded point of iron, and alfo faftened to a rope. A more extraordinary method ftill was made use of to catch one of these creatures that had done much mifchief: the person, who undertook it for a reward, bound his fon, a young lad, to a ftake, in a place where the crocodile used to come, and laid himself flat on his belly, with two fhort clubs in his hand, one of which was wound round at the end with a very large ball of coarse thread dipped in pitch; and fo waited for the crocodile, which, coming out of the 'ver, and fmelling the boy, made directly towards him; but, as he opened his mouth to feize him, the father thrust the staff with the pitched ball into his jaws, which sticking in his teeth, and entangling him as he bit it, the man broke his back, and killed him with the other. The inhabitants of Tentyris are reported to have been very bold and dextrous in hunting thefe creatures; they ventured even to leap on their backs in the water, and thrusting a stick across their mouths, as they opened them to bite, they fixed it with a cord wound about the head, and managed them with it as with a bridle; fo that those creatures were terrified, even by their voice and smell. The fame method is ftill practifed by the negroes in the Weft Indies, upon the alligator. The flesh of the crocodile is white and fat, and affords a delicious dish when young; the Arabs of the Upper Egypt are very fond of it, and formerly the inhabitants of Elephantis used it alfo at their tables 9. The hippopotami are common in the Upper Egypt, especially near the cataracts; but are scarce to be met with in any part of the Lower Egypt. These creatures never go in herds, and it is rare to fee two of them together. They are fo diftruftful, and fly with that fwiftness from their pursuers, that they are very feldom taken. Befides wild and tame oxen, camels, affes, goats, and fheep, of which there is great plenty in Egypt, there are vast numbers of antelopes, and a large kind of ape, with a head fomewhat like a dog, whence it was called cynocephalus the Egyptians often ufed the figure of this creature as an hieroglyphic. The chameleon is alfo common in the hedges near Al Kâhira. The animal called the little, or land crocodile, is about the size of a lizard, and has a round tail covered with fcales. It is found near the Nile, and the Red Sea, and ufually feeds on the moft odoriferous flowers; the flesh is • Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. viii. cap. 25. P Sicard. of ufe in phyfic, great numbers of them being, for that reafon, carried to Venice, and other places. The Egyptian rat, called by the ancients ichneumon, is of the fize of a cat, with very rough hair, fpotted with wlfite, yellow, and afh colour; its nofe refembling that of an hog, with which it digs up the earth: it has short black legs, and a tail like a fox. It lives on lizards, ferpents, fnails, chameleons, rats, &c. and is of great fervice in Egypt, by its natural instinct hunting out and breaking the eggs of the crocodile, and thereby preventing too great an increase of that deftructive creature. Naturalifts alfo fay, that it is fo greedy after the crocodile's liver, that, rolling itself in mud, it flips down his throat, while he fleeps with his mouth open, and gnaws its way out again. It is eafily tamed, but must not be kept where cats are, with which it is at perpetual enmity". Of birds there are also great numbers in Egypt, particularly oftriches, eagles, hawks, and a prodigious number of water-fowl, as pelicans, flamingoes, or phoenicopteri, wild-geese, herons, ducks, and various other forts. Those which are peculiar to the Nile are, the ibis, the goofe with golden feathers, the rice-hen or hen of Dimyât, and the fakfak; which laft is the trochilus of the ancients, obferved by them to be the only creature with which the crocodile is in friendship, because this bird picks and clears his mouth of the leaches which infeft it. The ibis deferves particular notice, not only because it is fo peculiar to Egypt, that it pines away and dies, if carried elsewhere; but for the great ufe it is of in that country, by deftroying the flying ferpents, which the fouth winds bring from the deferts of Libya; in the proper season of the year, the ibis in vaft numbers, by a peculiar inftinct, go and wait on the frontiers for those serpents, and devour them as they fly, before they enter Egypt. There are two kinds of the ibis; one is of a deep black, about the fize of an heron; this is the ibis which kills the ferpents, and is feldom found, except only in the Lower Egypt; the other is white, but has the head, neck, and ends of the wings and tail, as black as the former; they are very common, and great numbers of them are often feen. The bill and legs of this bird resemble those of a ftork; its ufual food (befides the ferpents above mentioned) are fnails, locufts, and other infects '. t Herodot, ubi • Diodorus Siculus, n. 32, 78. Lucas's Voyage, tom. ii. p. 245• Sicard. Mem. des Miff. tom. vi. p. 249. fupra. Lucas, ubi fupra, p. 246. Befides Befides the lakes which are in other parts of Egypt, thofe in the Delta near the fea, of which there are three between Alexandria and Tinah, the ancient Pelufium, afford great numbers of fifh, though not of above feven or eight forts; two of which the natives falt, and fend in large quantities to Syria, Cyprus, and Conftantinople. The revenue which one of these lakes alone, called Manzalah, brings into the Turkish emperor's treasury, amounts to no lefs than forty thousand crowns a year. Those who live near thefe lakes have great plenty of fresh fifh, and very cheap, as the Ifraelites formerly had; but the heat of the climate will not fuffer them to be carried far; for which reafon the inhabitants of all Kahira are obliged to content themselves with the fish which the Nile affords. The bed of that river, being very full of mud and flime, communicates a muddy tafte to all the fish that are fed in it, except four forts, which are excellent. These are the kefher or lates, the latos of the ancients, which is often fo large as to weigh two and three hundred pounds; the cafhouc, formerly called oxyrynchus, from the fharpness of its nofe; the bonni, which weighs fometimes twenty or thirty pounds, and is the lepidotus fo much esteemed by the old Egyptians; and the karmûd, known in ancient writers by the name of phagrus: this laft is black, grows to the fame fize as the bonni, and is very voracious. What makes these fifh the more serviceable to the inhabitants of Al Kâhira, is, that they are to be found in the Nile at all feafons of the year, and are very easily taken " Though woods are very rare in Egypt, yet there are Of the vefome forefts of palm-trees towards the deferts of Libya; and near Dandera, there is one of doms, or wild datetrees, whofe fruit is exceffive hard, but much admired by thofe of the country. Palm-trees are the most common of all others in this country; befides which there are feveral forts of fruit-trees, and alfo fome cedars, though not fo large, or fo frequently to be seen, as in Syria; and a great thorny tree called al hilaji, out of which, perhaps, the ancient Egyptians made those boats mentioned by Herodotus P. However, Egypt is not a country proper for trees, which thrive not there without great care and cultivation. As to plants, their kinds are n Sic. p. 245, &c. Lucas, ubi fupra, p. 242. abi fupra, p. 157. P Lib. ii. • Sicard. getables of Egypt. fo various, that we shall mention only a few, and chiefly thofe which may give fome light into ancient hiftory. The firft we fhall take notice of is, the reed papyrus, or byblus, called by the natives at prefent al berdi. It grows on the banks of the Nile, and shoots out a stalk of nine or ten feet high; the trunk is compofed of a great number of long ftrait fibres, which produce fmall flowers; the leaves are like the blade of a fword, and they make ufe of them to keep wounds open; the afhes of the ftalk cure thofe that are not inveterate. This is the plant whereof the ancients made their writing-paper, which thence took its name. The way of making it was, by taking out the pith of the ftalk, which they worked into a white paste or glue, and of that made the paper, almoft in the fame manner as we do with our linen rags : but others fay it was made of the inner rind of the plant. Before agriculture was improved in Egypt, this reed was of great fervice; for they did not only use it as food, but made cloaths, boats, and domeftic utenfils of it; and alfo crowns for their gods, and fhoes for their priests. But more useful inventions have fet all this aside, and the plant is now entirely neglected. The flax of Egypt, efpecially one fort of it, was fo exceeding fine, and they dreffed and fpun it fo curiously, that the threads could fcarce be feen. It grew in fo great plenty, that they had not only enough to clothe their priefts (who wore nothing elfe) and people of condition, and to make throwds for their dead, but to drive a very great trade with it into foreign parts. The fine linen of Egypt was in great requeft over all the Eaft: that superfine fort called byffus, was often died in purple, and was fo dear, that none but the rich could afford to wear it. The lotus, which grows plentifully in the Lower Egypt, efpecially near Rafhîd or Rofetta, is called by the inhabitants al bashnin, and is a fpecies of nenuphar, nymphæa, or water-iily. Its leaves float on the water, and cover the furface of it, producing many flowers, which were formerly woven into the crowns of conquerors. The ancient Egyptians have made bread of the middle or pulp of this plant, dried, which refembled that of a poppy; and likewife fed on the root, which is round, and as big as an apple. This lotus is different from the fruit of the fame name whereon the Lotophagi lived. The Arabs at this day make a drink of the Egyptian lotus, which is very good for inward heat, and eat the ftalk and heads of them raw, which are very moist and cooling. The henna, called alcanna by the botanists, is a fhrub which fhoots forth a great many branches. Its leaves are like that of an olive-tree, but fhorter, broader, and of a more pleasant green. The flowers, which are fet like. thofe of the elder, have an agreeable smell. and are thrown by the inhabitants into their baths. The women dye their nails with a reddish colour, extracted from this plant, by way of ornament. Other plants, the fruits or roots of which afford food to the inhabitants, are in fo great abundance, and fo excellent in their kinds, that they are almost sufficient to maintain them without the ufe of corn; and formerly the labouring people scarce lived on any thing else. It is not, therefore, fo furprifing, that the Ifraelites in the wilderness regretted the "cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick," which they used to eat fo freely in Egypt. The buildings and other works of the ancient Egyptians, which have raised the admiration of all fucceeding ages, deferve a more particular view. of the arrities of Etificial ra gypt. The firft inquiry generally made by thofe who would The pyrabe acquainted with this country, is concerning the pyra- mids. mids, thofe ftupendous structures, which were defervedly reckoned by the ancients among the wonders of the world. There are many of them in feveral parts of Egypt, and particularly in the Upper Egypt, as we have already obferved; but those which have been chiefly taken notice of, and defcribed by travellers, ftand on the weft side of the Nile, not far from Jizah, which fucceeded the ancient Memphis. The number of these pyramids is about twenty, of which three, ftanding pretty near together, are most remarkable, and have been often defcribed: the other lie far fcattered in the Libyan defert. Though fome of them are very confiderable, particularly one, which ftands fouth-and-by-weft from them, at about twenty miles distance, and has been undeservedly neglected, both by ancient and modern writers. It is the common opinion, that the word pyramid is Whence fo derived from the Greek pyr or pur, fire; and that these named. ftructures were fo called from their fhape, afcending from a broad base, and ending in a point like a flame; others, whose opinion Voffius feems to approve, fay they took the name from pyros, which, in the fame language, fignifies wheat, because they were the granaries of the ancient Egyptian kings; but a late writer, verfed in the N 4 Coptic |