for the fpace of one hundred and twenty-fix perpendicular feet, after which you come to a fquare platform, of the fame dimenfions as the mouth of the well, upon which there are conftantly nine or ten oxen at work in turning round a wheel, which conveys the water from out of the fecond well, one hundred and fifty-nine feet deep, into a large ciftern placed upon the platform, whence it is drawn up to the top by an equal number of oxen labouring at another wheel without the mouth of the well. As before the invention of guns this citadel muft undoubtedly have been a very ftrong place, fome monarch refolved to render it almost impregnable by removing the only difficulty which rendered it incapable of maintaining a long fiege, the want of water. With this view he contrived this well, which, when he had with the utmost labour and expense finished, he to his great difappointment found the water brackish and unwholefome. This did not, however, difcourage him from purfuing his defign, in a manner different indeed, but not lefs expenfive, which was to bring the water of the Nile by an aqueduct, as it is furnifhed at this day; the water of Jofeph's well being employed in other ufes, to which its difagreeable tafte is no objection.

Near the fouthern wall of the caftle is a large fquare building, the roof of which is fupported by feveral vaft granite pillars. It is called by the inhabitants the Divan of Jofeph, to whom they attribute every thing which is in the leaft extraordinary, though it is easy to discover it to be Turkish workmanship, by the gilding and ornaments of the roof, and by the cornices filled with infcriptions in Arabic characters. Hence one has a fine view of the

XX

whole city of Cairo, which at this diftance affords a moft noble and magnificent profpect. The caftle is of an irregular figure, and the fortifications not only very indifferent, but kept in fo bad repair, that they are scarce of ftrength fufficient to defend the Pacha from the infults of the populace.

The following Account of the Arabs may not be unentertaining to our readers.

THE Arabs, who form the chief body of the inhabitants of Egypt, are diftinguifhed by the denomination of Zifzis or husbandmen, and the Bedoweens or those who live under the tents. The Zifzis live in the towns and villages, employ themfelves in the cultivation of the land and breeding of cattle; and the Bedoweens pitch their tents upon the verge of the defert, paying to the public a certain fum of money for the land which they occupy. Though these pedple have maintained the language, name, and fome of the customs of the true Arabs, inhabiters of the defert, yet they differ from them entirely in their tempers and principles, having as many ill qualities as the others have good ones. They are univerfally unpolifhed, brutal, and ignorant; guilty of the blackest pieces of treachery; cruel to the laft degree; not fparing even their own brother, if his death will turn out any thing to their advantage. Their bodies are ufually tall and well proportioned, but their features irregular, and their complexions very tawny; their drefs (if they have any) confifts in a blue fhirt, which they faften round their middles with a piece of packthread; but in the fummer time both boys and girls, till the age of twelve, go about ftark naked. The women wear veils

Over

over their faces, with large copper or filver rings in their noles and ears, and bracelets of the fame metals about their arms and legs; in every other particular they are dreffed like their husbands. The Seghs or Chiefs of the villages are generally diftinguished by a turban, a long black robe, and a piece of blue and white linen, which they threw over their fhoulders in the manner of a cloak. In their food and habitations they exprefs the utmost poverty and inifery, living more like beafts than human creatures; their ufual food is eggs and a fort of dough cakes, which they ftick up against the walls of the oven, and foon after take them out, and devour them with the utmost greedinefs. They have alfo a fort of four cheese, which they produce upon particular occafions, and ftinking butter, in which, upon any extraordinary feftival, they fry their eggs. Their houfes are built entirely of mud, and have nothing within them but the bare walls, it being a very great piece of magnificence to have a mattrafs or carpet to fleep on.

The Bedoweens are continually at variance with those who inhabit the villages, as indeed the latter have reafon to fear them, fince their chief fubfiftence is in pillaging their lands and habitations. The chief occupations of the Bedoweens is in exercifes of horfemanfhip, in which they are extremely well fkilled. Thefe, in their cuftoms, approach nearer to the true Arabs; though they are, notwithstanding, equally defpifed by them, being efteemed as flaves, upon account of the tribute which they pay for the lands on which they fpread their tents. When they go out in fearch of booty, they generally march in a body of fifty or fometimes one hundred men, arm

ed with long lances, and mounted upon excellent horfes; in case of neceffity, they in a very fmall time can be reinforced, by difpatching one of their party to alarm thofe of the neighbouring habitations, as they are frequently forced to do, in order to oppofe the troops fent from Cairo for the defence of the villages, with whom they have frequently very fharp encounters. Nothing is more common than for them to rebel, and refufe to pay their tribute, in which cafe the Beys dispatch large bodies of troops against them, and fometimes march out in perfon, as it happened while I was in Egypt. A Bey was fent against the rebels near Alexandria, who committed all forts of diforders, confining the inhabitants within the walls of the city. He was, however, obliged to return to Grand Cairo, without having brought them to reafon; for the rebels, immediately upon the notice of the approach of fome fuperior force, fly into the innermoft parts of the defert; where, as they are the only people who are acquainted, it is very eafy for them to efcape the purfuit of their enemies. The Bedoweens are wholly averfe to all fort of induftry, looking upon labour as mean and unmanly; for which reafon they make their women perform all the neceffary drudgeries, riding themfelves on horfeback, while their wives follow them on foot, loaded with their fpare arms and domeftic utenfils. Thofe who inhabit the villages have however quite different fentiments, being naturally induftrious, and employing themfelves daily in the hardeft labours. They are by no means unfkilful in the practical part of agriculture, and are acquainted with feveral methods of breeding and nourishing their cattle, of which other natives are entirely ig

norant.

Rorant. The most extraordinary practice is that of hatching their eggs, which they always perform by an artificial heat. They have for that purpose in each village feveral fquare rooms, the walls of which are made of a kind of bricks dried in the fun. In the middle of thefe rooms they make a large fire, round which they place their eggs at regular diftances, that they may all enjoy an equal degree of heat; in this manner they let them lie for fourteen days, now and then turning them, that the warmth may be the better adminif tered to all parts alike; and on the fifteenth day the chicken makes its appearance, and proves in every refpect as ftrong and perfect as thofe hatched according to the rules of nature. Nor is this any other than the continuance of a cuftom practifed by the ancient Egyptians, fince we are taught by Diodorus Siculus that they used this manner of hatch ing their chickens.

They have a fecret alfo to defend themselves against the bite of vipers, the effects of which are fo extraordinary, that had I not been an eye witnefs, I fhould have given very little credit to any accounts of them. There are many of thefe Arabs who make it their livelihood to gather vipers, which they find in great quantities upon the verge of the defert, difpofing of them for three fequins an hundred to the apothecaries of Grand Cairo. The manner of their gathering them is by obferving early in the morning their traces in the fand, which they follow till they difcover the animal, which, without the leaft hefitation, they take up in their fingers, and put him into a large leather bag, which they bring to Cairo, containing fometimes fix or seven hundred vipers. It was in an apothecaries shop that I faw one of these

people come in with a bag of an hundred, who, after he had made his bargain, feated himself upon the ground, together with his two companions, and, taking the vipers out of the fack one by one, cut off their heads, fkinned and gutted them, in which manner they are obliged to deliver them before they receive their payment. They make no fort of difficulty of putting their hands into the fack, and taking up an handful of thefe noxious animals, in the fame manner as I havefeen people put their hands into a basket of corn, and take up an handful to examine the goodness of it. Upon asking them what was the reafon that thefe

animals, commonly fo fatal to whoever touches them, fhould never fo much as offer to bite them, I was anfwered, it was a gift enjoyed only by two families, delivered to them by a faint many ages ago, who, to recompenfe his adherents, had, by bleffing them, invested them with a power of charming all venomous animals, fo as to be able to manage them without the leaft hurt. This was the only account I could get out of them, and was informed, that in reality the fecret was known only by fome families of them, who gained their livelihood by this extraordinary traffic. What to me feems moft probable is, that they are acquainted with fome herb, to which thefe venomous creatures have fuch an antipathy, that if they rub their hands or any part of their bodies with it, it incapacitates them from biting that part, by these means infected with an odour which in a manner fuffocates and deprives them of their ufual power of hurting. Among these vipers there are some of a fpecies peculiar, I believe, to Egypt. They are rather lefs than the others, whom they resemble ex

actly

actly in form and colour, differing only about the head, upon which they carry two horns about a quarter of an inch long. The venom of thefe horned vipers is of a far more inveterate nature than that of the common fort, infomuch that the bite of one of them, notwithstanding the moft immediate affiftance, is inevita

ble death: the Arabs, however, treated these with the fame familiarity as they did the others, letting them run between their fingers, putting them into their bofoms, and farther, to fatisfy my curiofity, running their fingers into their mouths, without the least dread or hesitation.

SIRS,

THERE has been a great deal of

debate and much fhedding of ink in the learned world for fome time paft, respecting the rank that women ought to hold in the fcale of creation. Some four old bachelors have thought, with Sir Anthony Abfolute in the play, that women may be taught their letters, but fhould never learn their mifchievous combinations; others, of a fofter mould, have in a manner depreffed while they exalted them, by bursting forth into rapturous eulogiums on their amiable virtues, which they would at the fame time confine to the kitchen and nurfery; while a third fort, with more liberality than the one, and more boldness than the other, have contended that literature alone exalts the female character, and that every ftep a woman mounts in the ladder of learning makes her more eminent in excellence :

Vi&orque virum volitare per ora.” Among the votaries of the third fect I beg leave to enrol my name. I began life with a determination to run counter to the established ufage

POFE.

of mankind in the choice of a wife For I fighed when I reflected on the flavish fubjection in which man detains his injured helpmate, in defiance of reafon, and in contempt of humanity; I burnt with all the zeal of a Don Quixote to fight the battles of this laft and faireft work. of nature, and refolved to fhew the world that I felt what I expreffed, by drawing fome deferving female from humble life; by providing her with books in all the learned languages, fuperintending her education with fcrupulous anxiety, and at a fit period leading her to the altar, crowned with the never-fading flowers of fagacity and erudition. This grand fcheme I immediately put in practice in the following manner:

You must know, there is a fmall fhop oppofite my study window, which profeffes to fell gingerbread, earthen-ware, gilt paper, peg tops, and treacle. To this houfe of mifcellaneous fame I had been accuftomed to fee a little girl arrive two or three times a week, and generally return with a handful of gingerbread. This did not at first appear very extraordinary,