DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0381
365
hiac and Athribitic branches; the Permuthiac branch being-
mentioned by that geographer as lying Eastward of Naucratis,
and as adjoining to the island of Prosopitis.
Being desirous of visiting the ruins of Bubastus, we left our
germ, and embarked on board a small felucca belonging to the
neighbouring village. In this we rowed down the canal with
the current in our favour from the village of Mitrady as far as
Medshimy, a distance of twenty miles. Here the Sheik procured
us a lodging for the night.
The banks of the canal thus far had afforded nothing pecu-
liarly interesting. We had observed indeed uninterrupted ferti-
lity and cultivation, maintained by a variety of smaller chan-
nels, opened at the proper seasons of the year for the purposes of
communication with the interior, and of ensuring a supply of water
for the fields and the inhabitants. The villages are numerous,
but in general at some distance from the river. The inhabitants
are among the poorest in Egypt, and live in the most miserable
manner. Hard indeed must be the lot of those who reap no
benefits from the bounties of an abundant Nature, on a soil which
their own hands have tilled, but the produce of which is only ga-
thered to meet the regular and occasional contributions, and other
demands, legal or illegal, imposed by their self-constituted lords.
This district being much exposed to the incursions of the Arabs
from the Eastern Desert, many of the villages are surrounded by
mud-brick walls twelve or fourteen feet in .height: these resemble
in the materials, but not at all in their massiveness or solidity,
those which were erected for the protection of the antient cities
of the country. At irregular distances are a few battlements
with holes for fire-arms, and the walls are higher and thicker near
the gates than elsewhere.
We passed several boats carrying provisions to Cairo. They
draw
hiac and Athribitic branches; the Permuthiac branch being-
mentioned by that geographer as lying Eastward of Naucratis,
and as adjoining to the island of Prosopitis.
Being desirous of visiting the ruins of Bubastus, we left our
germ, and embarked on board a small felucca belonging to the
neighbouring village. In this we rowed down the canal with
the current in our favour from the village of Mitrady as far as
Medshimy, a distance of twenty miles. Here the Sheik procured
us a lodging for the night.
The banks of the canal thus far had afforded nothing pecu-
liarly interesting. We had observed indeed uninterrupted ferti-
lity and cultivation, maintained by a variety of smaller chan-
nels, opened at the proper seasons of the year for the purposes of
communication with the interior, and of ensuring a supply of water
for the fields and the inhabitants. The villages are numerous,
but in general at some distance from the river. The inhabitants
are among the poorest in Egypt, and live in the most miserable
manner. Hard indeed must be the lot of those who reap no
benefits from the bounties of an abundant Nature, on a soil which
their own hands have tilled, but the produce of which is only ga-
thered to meet the regular and occasional contributions, and other
demands, legal or illegal, imposed by their self-constituted lords.
This district being much exposed to the incursions of the Arabs
from the Eastern Desert, many of the villages are surrounded by
mud-brick walls twelve or fourteen feet in .height: these resemble
in the materials, but not at all in their massiveness or solidity,
those which were erected for the protection of the antient cities
of the country. At irregular distances are a few battlements
with holes for fire-arms, and the walls are higher and thicker near
the gates than elsewhere.
We passed several boats carrying provisions to Cairo. They
draw