500 years,' says Dr Richardson, I will never forget the eagerness with which the crew let down and pulled up the pitcher, and swigged of its contents, whistling and smacking their lips, calling "good, good," as if bidding defiance to the whole world to produce such another draught.' From a knowledge of the extraordinary fondness and veneration the Egyptians cherished for their national river,—a sentiment which, in the breasts of their ancestors, existed even to greater intensity, one may easily form some idea of the magnitude of the calamity to which they were subjected when its waters were turned into blood, and all the fish in the river, which were esteemed one of the greatest delicacies at their tables, stank.

[The Nile is the great benefactor of this country, as it annually overflows, in consequence of which, and the careful industry of the natives, who wait with the utmost anxiety for the return of the season, and lead the refreshing waters by artificial sluices over the parts which the rising stream does not reach, the whole land enjoys the advantage of regular irrigation. The time of this periodical inundation extends from the 19th of June to the middle or end of October, the rise or fall being earlier or later by fifteen days, or sometimes even a month. The cause of the phenomenon is thus assigned by Mr Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller :

The air is so much rarified by the sun during the time he remains almost stationary over the tropic of Capricorn, that the winds, loaded with vapours, rush in upon the land from the Atlantic ocean on the west, the Indian ocean on the east, and the cold Southern ocean beyond the Cape. Thus, a great quantity of vapour is gathered, as it were, into a focus; and as the same causes continue to operate during the progress of the sun northward, a vast train of clouds proceeds from south to north, which are sometimes extended much farther than at other times. In April, all the rivers in the south of Abyssinia begin to swell; in the begin

ing of June, they are full, and continue so while the sun remains stationary in the tropic of Cancer. This excessive rain, which would sweep off the whole soil of Egypt into the sea, were it to continue without intermission, begins to abate as the sun turns southward, and on his arrival at the zenith of each place, on his passage towards that quarter, it ceases entirely. Immediately after the sun has passed the line, then begins the rainy season to the southward. The rise of the Nile at Cairo does not commence till June. The red appearances occasioned by the arrival of the Abyssinian waters takes place early in July, from which the rise of the river may properly be dated, as it then begins to increase rapidly. By the middle of August it reaches half its greatest height, and is at its maximum towards the end of September. From the 24th of that month the waters are supposed to decline, but maintain nearly the same level till the middle of October. By the 10th of November they have sunk about half, and from that period continue to subside very slowly, till they reach their minimum in April. The regularity with which these phenomena occur will appear the more remarkable when taken in connexion with all the circumstances which distinguish this wonderful stream.' Not only, however, is the periodical overflow of the Nile a matter of the utmost importance to the natives of Egypt, but their experience has taught them to judge of the exact height to which the rise of the waters is absolutely necessary for the demands of the country. A few feet less than the ordinary height,' says an accurate writer, would prevent the spreading of the waters to a sufficient distance; a few feet more would prevent the water from draining off in the proper season for sowing, and spread devastation throughout the country, as happened in the years 1818 and 1829, and in either case a famine, or perhaps an extensive destruction of life and property would be the result.'* *Hence it appears, that a medium rise is essential everywhere;

6

[The houses are protected from the effects of the flood* by being situated, where a rocky foundation cannot be obtained, on artificial mounds, raised sufficiently high to place them beyond its reach. This has been the practice universally from time immemorial, although it is said that it is not now in some parts of the country so indispensable, the water not overspreading the land nearly to the same extent, at least in the Delta, that it seems to have done in ancient times.† Whatever truth there may be in this opinion, the periodical inundation of this national river is the natural source from which Egypt derives its extraordinary fertility; the earth, which for months previously has been parched, rent with cracks, and exhausted, through the severe and long-continued drought, being then impregnated with a new principle of vegetative energy, so that the seed, which is scattered on the soft mud, ere the waters have wholly subsided, and afterwards trodden down by cattle, grows to maturity, and yields a luxuriant harvest, without requiring much of the labour or assistance of the husbandman.

[The diffusion of the water over the flat surface of the country is effected by various means,-from the simple opening of a sluice with the foot, or emptying the contents of a leathern bucket, to the more laborious operations of the water-wheels, called Sâkieh, the construction of which is so singular, that we are sure our readers will be gratified by the following description of it :-‘A

but the wisdom of Providence is conspicuous in making the rise greater or less, in different parts of the country, according to the quantity of rain that usually falls.-Editor.

*To this overflow of the Nile the prophet Jeremiah alludes, when he says, ' Egypt riseth like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers, xlvi. 8.-Editor.

+ The same protection, however, cannot be extended to the fields. The inundation often breaks down and effaces almost all the landmarks, which renders the measuring-line necessary after the subsidence of the waters. To this there is an allusion in the words of Isaiah:- A nation meted and trodden down' (smoothed, levelled), 'whose land the rivers have spoiled;' xix. 2.-Editor.

deep well is sunk close by the river's bank. By means of a narrow connecting channel, deepened in proportion as the river subsides, the well is constantly replenished, Above the surface-well or fountain is a vertical wheel, around which is made to revolve a series of from twenty to sixty earthen jars or pitchers, with narrow necks. These, bound to two parallel ropes, as the wheels roll round, are made to descend with their open mouths towards the surface of the water. Therein they dip or plunge, and when filled, ascend with their aqueous burden on the other side. On passing their zenith altitude, so to speak, they are again turned upside down, and discharge their contents into a large wooden trough or cistern, which, communicating with the main trunk of the small irrigating canals, maintain an uninterrupted supply through a thousand wide-spreading branches.'*

[The extraordinary productiveness of modern Egypt,

* It is from this purely Egyptian process, with which he became acquainted through his family alliance with Pharaoh, and which he probably introduced into his own country, that the royal preacher, under different emblems, so graphically portrays the dissolution of our earthly tabernacle, when, as with his eyes fixed on this piece of rude but important machinery now described, he speaks of the pitcher broken at the fountain, and of the wheel broken at the cistern! In the process of irrigation in a country like Egypt, suppose the pitcher and the wheel to be literally broken at the cistern and fountain, what must follow? In many places, it was our lot actually to witness a broken' wheel and pitcher,'-broken and deserted through neglect or oppression. What was the visible effect? Deprived of its moisture, and, consequently, of its vegetative powers, the land became an easy prey to the loose drifting sands of the desert. All annual and biennial products had disappeared. The spaces between the irrigating furrows were completely filled. While even the more sturdy perennials, such as the sycamore, half-buried in wreaths or knolls of sand, began to exhibit a withered and drooping aspect. What a striking picture of the melancholy aspect of the human frame! once mantled over with the verdure of youth and the increasing fruitfulness of riper years,-when the fountain of the heart, with its cistern and wheel and pitcher, its ventricles, tubes, veins, and arteries for the reception, propulsion, and distribution of that blood which is the life of man,-when all, all emptied and broken, cease to discharge their life-sustaining functions! How happy, beyond all previous conception, did the graphic imagery of the sacred pen

notwithstanding the many disadvantages that exist, unfavourable to the cultivation of agriculture on an extensive scale, has called forth the admiration of all travellers who have been either in the Delta or the Thebais.* It is, in the present day, the country from which the population of Constantinople, and many other cities of the Turkish empire, derive their corn. It was, under the emperors, the granary of the ancient Romans; and we need not wonder, therefore, when we are told, that, during the calamitous famine that oppressed the countries of the Levant in the early times of Jacob, Egypt was the quarter to which all eyes were directed for relief.† For the variety and excel

man appear amidst the broken wheels and broken pitchers which occasionally exhibited to the eye such deathlike desolation even on the banks of the Nile.-Duff's Notes.--Editor.

* As one proof out of many, it may be mentioned, that a species of Indian corn, which forms a chief ingredient in the food of the native Arabs, never produces less than 3000 grains on one ear.Hamilton's Travels.-Editor.

+ Our path,' says St John, in speaking of the Thebais or Upper Egypt, lay over one of the richest and most highly-cultivated plains I ever saw, covered with luxuriant crops of clover, lentils, lupines, onions, sugar-cane, wheat, and about two thousand acres of beans in blossom. On all sides, as far as the eye could reach, arose the date-groves, in which the villages stood embosomed; sheep, goats, horses, buffaloes, &c., were feeding in numerous groups among the rich pasturage, which, having been drenched by the dews of the preceding night, every leaf and blade now glittered with sparkling dew-drops. Scarcely could paradise itself be more delightful than the land now before us: the whole atmosphere being perfumed faintly, but deliciously by the scent of many flowers, while every object which presented itself to the eye was clothed with immutable freshness and beauty. I could now comprehend why the Romans sent their consumptive patients, and the Turks their men grown prematurely old by excess, to the banks of the Nile; for no where on earth could they in winter find a more congenial climate than that of the Thebais.'-Egypt and Mehemet Ali, vol. i. p. 288. 'No flat region,' says Dr Duff, speaking of Lower Egypt, can be more beautiful. The waters of the annual inundation had not wholly withdrawn from the land, but half subsided on the channel of the river. Vast level plains spread out on all sides, having their carefully-cultivated soil clad in the living green which distinguishes the first fresh blades of vegetation in the month of May in the British climes; and their borders fringed with rows, and their points