pyramids, and may be called the gigantic dog which guards this flock of granite.

Near the great pyramid is a smaller, whose top is complete, and terminates in a point. It is rarely ascended, and our Arabs told us that the first who scaled it was a French drummer, who, pursued by the Mamelukes, found no better means of escape than to scale this wall, where his enemies would not follow. Having reached the summit, he resolved to beat his drum; and the rattling he made was heard for a league round. General Regnier sent two companies, who put the Mamelukes to flight; the blockade was raised, and the besieged came down with all the honours of war.

We again mounted our donkeys, and proceeded to Ghizeh, not to see the once celebrated pleasurehouse of Morad Bey, for I believe not a vestige of it remains, but to visit the Foundling Hospital for orphan chickens.

Every body knows, that instead of hens, which with the best inclinations and greatest devotedness, cannot sit on more than fifteen eggs at a time, the Egyptians employ two immense ovens heated by steam, in which they hatch myriads of chickens at a time. This interesting institution is conducted by a director, who not only does business for himself, but undertakes the incubation of all the eggs brought him, for a trifling retribution. The dormitory of his

oval pupils is a long gallery, in which may be seen, at each side, a series of cells ranged in two stories, communicating with each other by small openings in the centre, through which warmth is conveyed from a stove always heated to a calculated degree. The doors of these cells open on the gallery, they remain closed for ten or twelve days, and are then opened for a longer time every day until the twentieth, when the incubation is complete.

We arrived just as the contents of an oven were about to be hatched, and we were present at the first appearance of the chickens. The operation is simple; the attendants break the eggs as if they were going to make an omelette; they shell the chickens like beans, and throw them one on top of the other into the oven, where they have been heated into life, with no more precaution than if they were so many paving stones. The first act of existence perpetrated by this brood, is to squall the best way they can: the second is to look for food; this, however, is an unlucky ambition, for the proprietor of the establish ment is only bound to hatch, but not to feed them. Yet they will live in this way three or four days, no doubt upon the heat. At the end of this time, if not claimed by the proprietors, they belong to the hatcher, who sends them to market, and sells them without any further attempt at fattening.

We went back to Cairo, and passed by the isle

of

built.

Kondah, where the Mekias or Nilometer is

This instrument, which serves to measure the height of the inundation of the Nile, is nothing but a column eighteen cubits high, including the capital. The level of the river at its greatest elevation, is This Mekias was greatly

every year.

marked upon it injured after the occupation of Cairo by the French; but it was rebuilt by order of General Menou, under the direction of the principal engineer, Chabrol. When the repairs were finished, they built a portico at the entrance of the monument, and under its peristyle, just above the gate, was fixed a tablet, on which was graven an inscription in Arabic and French, (which has not the slightest interest for any human being but a Frenchman endowed with a double portion of the national vanity that is everywhere the characteristic of his countrymen).

On that very evening, when we came back to Cairo, M. Eydoux, the doctor of the Lancier, who had accompanied us with the philanthropic design of curing us, should we be seized with ophthalmia, was himself attacked with that disease. Mr. Msara advised us to send for M. Dessap, a French physician from Besançon, who had remained at Cairo since the time of the French expedition, and had acquired experience in affections of the eyes, to which he exclusively devoted his attention. We instantly

followed his advice, and about an hour after, we saw a splendid old man come in, clothed in Eastern costume, and supporting his beard in his hand; was our fellow-countryman.

The Arabs, who measure a man's science by the length of his beard, have the highest veneration for M. Dessap. I must add, that he well deserves it, and that with him the symbol does not promise more than it performs.

107

VIII. VISIT TO COLONEL SELVES AND
CLOT BEY.

BARON Taylor having learned the viceroy's return to Alexandria, set out for that city, leaving us to make preparations for our journey to Sinai.

Thanks to the wondrous topographical instinct of the Parisians, we began to know Cairo as if we had been born there; our Mussulman costume, which in spite of native modesty, I must say, that we wore with oriental dignity, opened to us all doors and gates, even those of the mosques; indeed, they were our usual promenade. The mosques are the oases of the city. In them, you find coolness, water, shade, trees, and birds. In the midst of these you will also find some Arab poets, who come during the intervals of prayer to recite commentaries on the Korán, and whose songs lull the pious idlers that dawdle away existence, reclining in the orangegroves. We were pleased with the monotonous and measured summons of the muezzin, convoking the pious to prayer from the top of the minaret; as years advance, he descends a story, and lowers his voice; until, when he becomes a feeble old man, he ascends no higher than the lowest gallery, whence he can only be heard by passengers in the street.