SCENERY OF THE DELTA. 29

an hour, I called out to a fisherman, seated on the bank: "

Fisherman, have you any fish ? " and he held up a string of

them and made answer : " Howadji, I have." This solemn

form of address, which is universal in Arabic, makes the lan-

guage very piquant to a student.

During our second night on the river, we passed the site

of ancient Sais, one of the most renowned of Egyptian cities,

which has left nothing but a few shapeless mounds. The coun-

try was in many places still wet from the inundation, which

was the largest that had occurred for many years. The Fel-

vahs were ploughing for wheat, with a single bufialo geared to a

sharp pole, which scratched up the soil to the depth of three

inches. Fields of maize and sugar-cane were frequent, and I

noticed also some plantations of tobacco, millet, and a species

of lupin, which is cultivated for its beans. The only vegetables we found for sale in the villages, were onions, leeks and toma-

toes. Milk, butter and eggs are abundant and very good, but

the cheese of the country is detestable. The habitations resem-

ble ant-hills, rather than human dwellings, and the villages are

depots of tilth and vermin, on the most magnificent scale. Our

boat was fortunately free from the latter, except a few cock-

roaches. Except the palm and acacia, without which a Nile

journey would lose half its attractions, I saw few trees. Here

and there stood a group of superb plane-trees, and the banana

sometimes appeared in the gardens, but there is nothing of that

marvellous luxuriance and variety of vegetation which is else-

where exhibited in the neighborhood of the Tropics.

On the evening of the third day we reached the town of

Nadir, and, as there was no wind, went ashore for an hour oi

two. There was a cafe on the bank—a mud house, with two