graze the meadows during mules, and camels winter, and they eat chopped ftraw, barley, and beans, the reft of the year, which kind of feed gives health, ftrength, and mettle. The Arabs accustom their horses to great abftinence, water them only once a day, and feed them with a little barley and milk. The Egyptians, who feldom cultivate the olive, buy their oil in Crete and Syria, but, as the love of illuminations has defcended to them from their forefathers, they extract oil from various plants: the commonest is the produce of the fefamum; they call it fireg, lamp-oil. They alfo extract it from the feed of the carthamus, from flax, poppies, and lettuce. The oil of the carthamus is eaten by the common people. I have mentioned, Sir, the Egyptian art of hatching chickens, which is peculiar to themselves. Their manner of raising bees is not lefs extraordinary, and befpeaks great ingenuity. Upper Egypt, preferving its verdure only four or five months, the flowers and harvefts being feen no longer, the people of the lower Egypt profit by this circumftance, affembling on board large boats the bees of different villages. Each proprietor confides 4 confides his hives, with his own mark, to the boatman; who, when loaded, gently proceeds up the river, and ftops at every place where he finds verdure and flowers. The bees fwarm from their cells, at break of day, and collect their nectar, returning, feveral times, loaded with booty, and, in the evening, re-enter their hives, without ever miftaking their abode. Thus fojourning three months on the Nile, the bees, having extracted the perfumes of the orange flowers of the Said, the effence of the rofes of Fayoum, the sweets of the Arabian jasmin, and of every flower, are brought back to their homes, where they find new riches. Thus do the Egyptians procure delicious honey, and plenty of wax. The proprietors pay the boatmen, on their return, according to the number of the hives which they have taken from one end of Egypt to the other. I have the honor to be, &c. LETTER LETTER XIII. · ON THE CLIMATE OF EGYPT. Heat exceffive in the upper, and moderate in the lower, Egypt. The people fubject to few difeafes. Their manner of curing fevers, and preferving health. Pernicious fouth wind during a part of winter. Leprofy unknown, and the plague not native, in Egypt. Europeans fecured from it by fecluding them Jelves. To M. L. M. Grand Cairo. I HAVE spoken of Egypt, and its productions, Sir, but you have reason to entertain doubts concerning the falubrity of the climate. The Nile's inundation, and stagnant waters in various places, may lead you to fuppofe the country unhealthy, and its inhabitants fubject to many diseases: fome length of experience and information, collected on the spot, may display facts that may calm your fears, and fix your opinion. VOL. II. Р Egypt, Egypt, beginning at the torrid, extends nine degrees into the temperate zone, though certainly the heats of the Thebais furpafs what are felt in many countries directly under the equator. Reaumur's thermometer, when the burning breath of the fouth is felt, fometimes rifes to thirty-eight degrees above the freezing point, and, often, to thirty-fix. This phænomenon must be attributed to the aridity. of the fandy plains, which furround upper Egypt, and the reverberated fun-beams from the mountains, by which it is wholly inclofed. Were heat the principle of difeafes, the Said would not be habitable, but it only feems to occafion a burning fever, to which the inhabitants are fubject, and which they cure by regimen, drinking much water, and bathing in the river: in other refpects they are ftrong and healthy. Old men are numerous, and many ride on horfeback at eighty. The food they eat, in the hot feafon, much contributes to the prefervation of their health; it is chiefly vegetables, pulfe and milk. They bathe frequently, eat little, feldom drink fermented liquors, and mix much lemon juice in their food. This abftinence preferves vigour to a very advanced age. Soon Soon after the inundation, the fields are covered with corn: the waters, exhaled by the fun during the day, and condensed by the coolness of night, fall in plentiful dews. The north wind, in fummer, continually blows, and, finding no obstacle through all Egypt, where the mountains are not high, drives the vapours of the marfhes and lakes towards Abyffinia, and inceffantly changes the atmosphere. Perhaps the balsamic emanations of orange flowers, rofes, the Arabian jafmine, and odorous plants, contribute to the falubrity of the air. The waters of the Nile, alfo, lighter, fofter, and more agreeable to the taste than any I know, greatly influence the health of the inhabitants. antiquity acknowledges their excellence (a), and the people, certainly, drink them with a kind of avidity, without ever being injured All (a) Ptolemy Philadelphus marrying his daughter Berenice to Antiochus King of Syria, fent her water from the Nile, which, alone, fhe could drink. Athenæus.The Kings of Perfia fend for the waters of the Nile and Sal ammoniac. Dino Hiftory of Perfia. The Egyptians are the only people who preferve the water of the Nile in fealed vafes, and drink it, when it is old, with the fame pleafure we do old wine. Rhetor. Ariftides |