On bringing up," we were visited by a health-officer, and seeing the yellow flag flying from some Swedish menof-war, were rather frightened lest we should be again in quarantine; but we were admitted sans ceremonie, and immediately after the Egyptian admiral sent his boat, with two officers, to know if he could be of any service to us. They were exceedingly polite, and spoke very tolerable French. They use more men in their boats than is usual with vessels of war, and direct every thing by the boatswain's whistle, even to the stroke of the oars. Altogether, the harbour of Alexandria presented a picture the most imposing; and the stir and bustle, both warlike and commercial, was what we could have had no idea of. The flags of the different nations of Europe were here displayed beside the red banner of Mohammad Alee, to which he has added a star within the crescent; and were this port to be taken as an index of the flourishing state of the country, great indeed would be its wealth.

After dinner we landed at one of the wharfs near the customhouse, and met a company of the troops, who all looked abominably dirty, and in marching lifted their legs like so many turkeys in long grass. Their dress, which is of white cotton, may be the reason they appeared so very filthy, but otherwise they were all very comfortably clad. This dress consists of a light jacket; wide bagged trowsers, fitting tightly to the leg from the knee down to the ancle, and buttoned down the side like gaiters; red shoes and garters, a striped cotton sash round the waist, and a small red cap, with a blue tassel, buff belts, and bright Birmingham firelocks. Each party was preceded by a set of drums and fifes. As we walked along the wharfs, we met several groups of both sailors and soldiers off duty, and notwithstanding all that has been said of their hardships, and the cruelty of dragging them from their homes and friends, they seemed exceedingly happy, generally walking hand in hand, or playing with each other. They were all young, and mostly slight-made, active men.

Our entry into the city of the Ptolemies was any thing but pleasing. Outside the gate we had to pass through a village of miserable mud huts, only equalled in filth and squalidness by the wretched-looking set of old people, half-clad women, and wholly naked children squatted around them-quite an African wigwam. These extend all along the town on the land side, and are the abodes of the wives and families of the troops and sailors of

Mohammad Alee. We found a guard of soldiers at each of the gates. The streets are much wider than those of Algiers, and filthy in the extreme. The numerous bazaars through which we passed presented a scene of exceeding novelty-the merchants being seated in their several compartments, surrounded by their respective wares; some engaged with their customers, who, if respectable, seat themselves upon the bench that runs along the side of the bazaar, raised a couple of feet above the surface; and as the Mooslims never conclude a hasty bargain, they enjoy a cup of coffee and a pipe in the interim; others employed in reading the Koorán, which they do aloud in a very peculiar monotonous singing tone, rocking the body backwards and forwards all the time; and many of them had retired into the interior of the shop and were performing their evening prayers. All this, with the narrowness of the streets-the different cries of the several water-carriers, sellers of beans and vegetables, and venders of sherbet, at all the corners of the principal streets—the droves of camels, the diversity of the costumes, and the peculiarity of the language, are quite astounding to an Englishman, and brought before us the scenes so beautifully described in that epitome of oriental manners—the Arabian Nights.

I was not many minutes in Alexandria, until I was forcibly struck with the number of blind people I met at every turn; it is really incredible; the greater number had but one eye, and many others were groping their way through the streets in perfect darkness. Squinting is a very common affection among the people of Alexandria; the greater number of the lower orders are what would be termed blear-eyed; and wherever we went, we discovered lamentable traces of the ravages of ophthalmia.

During our walk through the city, we happened to light upon one of the donkey stations, when a scene ensued that beggars all description. The moment we made our appearance, the whole body of donkey-boys, with their animals, rushed upon us with one accord, pushing, jostling, and abusing each other, in a most unintelligible jargon; and half-a-dozen laying hold of each of us at once, attempted to place us, nolens volens, on their donkeys. I was literally lifted off and on three of them, before I could employ my stick to any advantage, to deter others from plucking me off the one on which I had at last secured a seat. The whole scene is really so ludicrous, that it is worth

DONKEYS AND DONKEY-BOYS.

175

witnessing, for once; after which, I would advise all travellers to provide themselves with a good, stout koorbág,* which is made of the hide of the hippopotamus, and forms a staple article of commerce with the inhabitants of Upper Nubia, and on the Blue River; it is the only remedy for an Alexandrian ass-boy. As soon as we were fairly seated, the boys set the animals off at a most dashing pace, through the narrow streets, over breadstalls, old women, and all the various merchandize that strew the floor of an eastern bazaar. They kept goading the donkeys with a sharp stick, and shouting to the people, "Riglac, riglac, darick,"-" Get out of the way,"-and cursing in tolerably plain English. It was quite impossible to stop, or hold up against this vis a tergo. I nearly came in collision with several enormous camels; ran foul of various Egyptian officers, naval and military; and narrowly escaped upsetting numerous blind people at every turn, besides trampling over whole hosts of halfstarved dogs, that are always lurking about the bazaars. To attempt to reason with our drivers was out of the question: the more we attempted to pull up, the more they shouted and urged on the animals; and to turn in the narrow, crowded streets was impossible. The boys laughed, and seemed to enjoy it of all things, beating the unfortunate dogs most unmercifully whenever they came across them. After many hair-breadth escapes of camels, old women, water-carriers, and buffaloes, we arrived safe at our boat, and were heartily glad to get ourselves on board again, after the noise and bustle we had just left. We were rather surprised to see one of the Basha's coaches-and-four! parading the streets.

The donkeys of Egypt are a small but well-made and active race, and are all closely shaven except the legs. The saddle is a high pad, somewhat like that used in Galicia, but it does not project so much forward. They are the only mode of conveyance at Alexandria, and are ridden by all persons, even those of rank; you can have one with its attendant for about five piastres, or twelve pence halfpenny, a day-formerly they were the only animals Christians were allowed to ride.

15th.-On our landing this morning we were instantly beset by

* Generally pronounced by Europeans Corbatch.

176

CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLES.

at least two dozen of our last night's persecutors, who were anxiously waiting our arrival, and through whom we had absolutely to fight our way; nevertheless they followed us through the town, determined to capture us at all hazards-every now and then running with their donkeys before us, exclaiming—" him best dunkey"-"you Inglese no walk"-" him kick highest❞— "him dum fine Jock-ass"-" me show you catacomb." After several fruitless efforts to get rid of them, we had to strike-further resistance was vain-indeed I deem it the part of prudence to adopt the prevailing creed of the country, and bow to your inevitable fate; the only way to escape the assault of a multitude is at once to mount the first that comes up, and belabour your way through the rest.

Having paid his respects to his consul, one of the first visits a European makes on his arrival at Alexandria is to Cleopatra's needles and Pompey's pillar, and thither we now bent our steps. These magnificent obelisks, to which authors have assigned the ridiculous name of Cleopatra's needles, are situated outside the present town, near the shore of the new harbour, amidst heaps of rubbish, drifted sand, and pitfalls-the debris of the former citywhich extends a great distance all round, including that part on which Pompey's pillar stands, and even as far as the shores of the lake Mareotis. The poorer people are constantly at work amongst its ruins, as the scarcity of stones here is very great, and they obtain much from the foundations of the old walls scattered about, some ten or twelve feet below the present surface-for it is written, "her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted."

As these were the first objects of Egyptian grandeur and antiquity we had seen, we were greatly struck with them. All who have travelled themselves will, I think, acknowledge how very difficult it is to convey by words, a description of objects such as these; or, without an appearance of affectation, to embody in language the feelings that their recollections will arouse. Blocks of stone of such magnitude must ever excite wonder ;-how much more so when we know that they contain a record of some of the mysteries of the religion of the most extraordinary, the most enlightened, as well as the most ancient people in the world. They are generally supposed by antiquaries to have decorated the entrance to the palace of the Ptolemies in the days of Egyp

THE PROSTRATE OBELISK.

177

tian grandeur, for which purpose they must have been carried down the Nile from the quarries of Upper Egypt. The one nearest the town is prostrate, lying with its base towards the shore, and imbedded to about half its depth in the sand and rubbish. It is sixty-three feet in length from the round of the mortice to the bevel of the top, the extreme end of which is broken off; the whole measurement from out to out is seventy feet, by six and a half feet in breadth at the base. The hieroglyphics with which it is covered are sharper and in better preservation than those of the one still standing, on the eastern side of which they are much defaced, probably by the action of the prevailing wind, which, blowing from the desert for centuries, loaded with particles of fine siliceous sand, has had this powerful effect. Both of them undoubtedly stood on pedestals, and are composed of the most beautiful rose-coloured granite, somewhat brighter in colour than that of Pompey's pillar. The sand and accumulating rubbish has covered up the entire pedestal of the standing one, and a considerable portion of its base.

The prostration of the obelisk has been erroneously attributed to the French, during their occupation of Egypt; a modern writer, however, first refers its downfall to an earthquake, but in a subsequent note says, I afterwards learned it had been thrown down by Chiandi, an Italian engineer, in the service of the Básha, the pedestal having been blown up, and the fragments used in constructing a fort close at hand. In the same manner the obelisk itself was to have been disposed of; but this fine monument of antiquity was saved for the time by the interference of the English consul, it being the property of Great Britain."

The French generally assign its downfall to the English, and in this they are joined by one of the last writers upon Egypt-an American traveller, who states, when speaking of the standing one, or that generally denominated Cleopatra's needle, "by its side, half buried in the sand, lies a fallen brother of the same size and about the same age, said to have been taken down by the English many years ago, for the purpose of being carried to England, but the Basha prevented it."

Now, that this obelisk must have been in its prostrate condition for some centuries, we learn from the work of the accurate and erudite Sandys, who, speaking of Alexandria, in 1610 says, "Of antiquities there are few remainders, only one hieroglyphical

N