An Account of The Manners and Customs of The Modern Egyptians, Volume 1

Arabic language abounds with synonyms; and, of a number of words which are synonymous, one is in common use in one country, and another elsewhere. Thus, the Egyptian calls milk “leben;” the Syrian calls it “haleeb;” the word “leben” is used in Syria to denote a particular preparation of sour milk. Again, bread is called in Egypt “'eysh;” and in other Arab countries, “khubz;” and many examples of a similar kind might be adduced. — The pronunciation of Egypt has more softness than that of Syria and most other countries in which Arabic is spoken.

The coffee (“kahweh”) is made very strong, and without sugar or milk. The coffee-cup (which is called “fingán”) is small; generally holding not quite an ounce and a half of liquid. It is of porcelain, or Dutch-ware, and, being without a handle, is placed within another cup (called “zarf”), of silver or brass, according to the circumstances of the owner, and, both in shape and size, nearly resembling our egg-cup.

population of Egypt in the times of the Pharaohs was probably about six or seven millions. The produce of the soil in the present age would suffice, if none were exported, for the maintenance of a population amounting to 4,000,000; and if all the soil which is capable of cultivation were sown, the produce would be sufficient for the maintenance of 8,000,000. But this would be the utmost number that Egypt could maintain in years of plentiful inundation: I therefore compute the ancient population, at the time when agriculture was in a very flourishing state, to have amounted to what I first stated; and must suppose it to have been scarcely more than half as numerous in the times of the Ptolemies

which the natives of Egypt, and visiters to their country, otherwise derive from its genial climate. In spring, summer, and autumn, flies are so abundant as to be extremely annoying during the daytime, and musquitoes are troublesome at night (unless a curtain be made use of to keep them away), and often even in the day; and almost every house that contains much wood work (as most of the better houses do) swarms with bugs during the warm weather. Lice are not always to be avoided in any season, but they are easily got rid of; and in the cooler seasons fleas are excessively numerous.

There is, however, one great source of discomfort arising from this dryness, namely, an excessive quantity of dust: and there are other plagues which very much detract from the comfort

The climate of Egypt, during the greater part of the year, is remarkably salubrious. The exhalations from the soil after the period of the inundation render the latter part of the autumn less healthy than the summer and winter; and cause ophthalmia and dysentery, and some other diseases, to be more prevalent then than at other seasons; and during a period of somewhat more or less than fifty days (called “elkhamáseen”), commencing in April and lasting throughout May, hot southerly winds occasionally prevail for about three days together. These winds, though they seldom cause the thermometer of Fahrenheit to rise above 95° in Lower Egypt, or in Upper Egypt 105°, are dreadfully oppressive, even to the natives.

regular, the peasant may make his arrangements with the utmost precision respecting the labour he will have to perform. Sometimes his labour is light; but when it consists in raising water for irrigation, it is excessively severe.

The Egyptians depend entirely upon their river for the fertilization of the soil, rain being a very rare phenomenon in their country, except in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean; and as the seasons are perfectly reg

not perfectly level, being somewhat lower towards the deserts than in the neighbourhood of the river. They are interspersed with palm-groves and villages, and intersected by numerous canals. The copious summer rains that prevail in Abyssinia and the neighbouring countries begin to shew their effects in Egypt, by the rising of the Nile, about the period of the summer solstice.

The Nile, in its course through the narrow and winding valley of Upper Egypt, which is confined on each side by mountainous and sandy deserts, as well as through the plain of Lower Egypt, is everywhere bordered, except in a very few places, by cultivated fields of its own formation. These cultivated tracts are