DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11638#0194
172 TRAVELS IN UPPER
petuatcd in Egypt from the most remote antiquity:
for Caylus has given us the figure of a vase in use
amongst the ancient Egyptians, the bottom of which
was formed in like manner*; and Paul Lucas
found a similar one amidst the ruins of Dendera
In these parts of Upper Egypt you frequently
meet with whole districts filled with water melons.
They are sown in the sand on the bank of the river;
and it is in this situation, where the burning heat
co-operates with the freshness of the water which
moistens the stalks, that this fruit acquires its grate-
ful and refreshing pulp ; where, under a scorching
atmosphere, it is sought after as affording a nou-
rishment equally wholesome and agreeable.
A dead calm having continued during the whole
of the 2 2d, we could not reach Neguade, on the
west of the Nile, till after mid-day, although we
had left Ballas, between which and IStguade there
was only three leagues distance, at daybreak.
It is conferring too much honour on Neguade to
style it, as some havedone, a city; for it scarcely de-
serves the title of a market-town, being in fact no-
thing else than a village somewhat larger than the
rest. It is almost entirely peopled with Cophts,
* Recueil d'Antiquitcs, pi. 15, No. 1.
■f Voyage in 1714, vol. iii.
among
petuatcd in Egypt from the most remote antiquity:
for Caylus has given us the figure of a vase in use
amongst the ancient Egyptians, the bottom of which
was formed in like manner*; and Paul Lucas
found a similar one amidst the ruins of Dendera
In these parts of Upper Egypt you frequently
meet with whole districts filled with water melons.
They are sown in the sand on the bank of the river;
and it is in this situation, where the burning heat
co-operates with the freshness of the water which
moistens the stalks, that this fruit acquires its grate-
ful and refreshing pulp ; where, under a scorching
atmosphere, it is sought after as affording a nou-
rishment equally wholesome and agreeable.
A dead calm having continued during the whole
of the 2 2d, we could not reach Neguade, on the
west of the Nile, till after mid-day, although we
had left Ballas, between which and IStguade there
was only three leagues distance, at daybreak.
It is conferring too much honour on Neguade to
style it, as some havedone, a city; for it scarcely de-
serves the title of a market-town, being in fact no-
thing else than a village somewhat larger than the
rest. It is almost entirely peopled with Cophts,
* Recueil d'Antiquitcs, pi. 15, No. 1.
■f Voyage in 1714, vol. iii.
among