Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/735

EGYPT ANIMALS. J melookheeyeh (Corchorus olitoriiis), leeks, onions, garlic, celery, parsley, chicory, cress, radishes, carrots, turnips, colocasia, lettuce, cabbage, fennel, gourds and cucumbers (both of several kinds), the tomato, the egg-fruit or badingdn (black and white), caraway, coriander, cumin, aniseed, and red pepper. The chief field-produce is wheat (which is more grown than any other kind of corn), barley, several sorts of millet, maize, rice, oats, clover, pease, the sugar-cane, roses, two species of the tobacco-plant, and cotton, now largely cultivated. The sugar-cane is extensively cultivated, and excellent sugar is manufactured from it. There are fields of roses in the Feiyoom, which supply the market with rose-water. The tobacco produced in Egypt is coarse and strong compared with that which is used by the middle and upper classes and imported from Syria and Turkey. That of Syria is considered the best. Of textile plants, the principal are hemp, cotton, and flax; and of plants used for dyeing, bastard saffron, madder, woad, and the indigo plant. The intoxicating hasheesh, which some smoke in a kind of water-pipe formed of a cocoa-nut, two tubes, and a bowl, seldom used for any other narcotic, is not, as has been erroneously supposed, opium, but hemp. The effect is most baneful. The leaves of the hinne plant are used to impart a bright red colour to the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, and the nails of both hands and feet, of women and children, the hair of old ladies, and the tails of horses. Indigo is very extensively employed to dye the shirts of the natives of the poorer classes, and is, when very dark, the colour of mourning ; therefore, women at funerals, and generally after a death, smear themselves with it. Oil is extracted from the seeds of the cotton plant, hemp, colewort, the poppy, the castor-oil plant, sesame, and flax. The high coarse grass called halfeh (Poa cynosuro ides] grows in great quantity in waste places and among ancient ruins. Many kinds of reeds are found in Egypt, though, if we compare the representations in the ancient tombs with what we see in the present day, it is evident that they were formerly much more common. That they should be wasted away was prophesied by Isaiah (xix. 6, 7). The famous by bins, or papyrus, from which paper was manufactured, appears to be nearly, if not quite extinct, since Sir Gardner Wilkinson had never seen it (Mod. Eg. and Thebes, i. 441). M. Delile, in his excellent account of the Egyptian flora, merely mentions it by name in his list as the Cyperus Papyrus, called in Arabic berdy, and found at Damietta, 1 but gives no figure of it. The lotus, greatly prized for its flowers by the ancient inhabi tants, is still found in Egypt, though it is not common. The French naturalist above mentioned enumerates three species which formerly grew in that country, one with white flowers, another with blue, and a third with rose- coloured, the last of which is now extinct there. On the botany of Egypt, see Boissier, Flora Orientalis, in pro gress. Animals. The zoology of Egypt is not of remarkable interest, although it contains some very curious points. The absence of jungle and of forest, and the little cover thus afforded to beasts of prey, as well as other wild animals, partly causes this ; and we observe few birds of beautiful plumage for the same reason. One of the most characteristic of the beasts is the came], which is more at home in the dry climate of Egypt than elsewhere out of his native deserts. It has been remarked, however, that the camel, like his master the Arab, Til "^Cyperus Papyrus, Linn. Arab, berdy, Damiatse." Description de f Egypte, torn. six. 71. Other Cyperi are described at pp. 125-6 and 130-2 of the same volume. degenerates when removed into a city or a cultivated tract, that the former commonly becomes mangy, and the latter experiences a physical and moral degradation. The Egyptian camel is of the one-humped kind, which has been erroneously called the dromedary, whereas the dromedary is merely a swift camel standing in the same relation to the ordinary camel that our saddle-horse does to our cart-horse. Camel s flesh is for the most part eaten only by the peasants and the Arabs of the desert ; by the Copts it is considered unlawful food. It is very remarkable that no representation of the camel has been found in the sculptures and paintings of the Egyptian monuments, among the very numerous figures of the animals of Egypt both tarne and wild, and of those brought from foreign lands as presents. It does not appear to have been introduced into other African countries until after the Christian Era (comp. Desmoulins, Mem. lu d V Institut, 28 Juin 1823); but it was known to the Egyp tians, although it is by no means certain that it was one of their domestic beasts. Two passages in the Bible which speak of camels in the possession of Pharaohs (Gen. xii. 16 ; Ex. ix. 3) refer to the time at wtich foreign tribes had been settled in Egypt ; and perhaps the camel was peculiarly the animal of one or all of those tribes, and, as they were hated by the Egyptians, it may have been omitted in the representations of the monuments. To modern Egypt the camel is very valuable, since the traffic with Syria, Arabia, Western Africa, and Ethiopia is to a great extent carried on by caravans. But the ancient Egyptians appear to have derived their wealth more from tributary presents than from commerce, to have allowed their land commerce to be much in the hands of foreign merchants, like those who brought Joseph into Egypt, and to have left even their sea commerce partly at least to foreigners. The horse is not known to have been used in Egypt be fore the time of the Empire. Thenceforward the horses of Egypt were famous, and the armies of the Pharaohs were noted for their war-chariots. From Egypt, Solomon, and in his time the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria, had horses and chariots (1 K. x. 28, 29). And long after, when first the kingdom of Israel and then that of Judah endeavoured to throw off the yoke of the great kings of the East, and made alliance with Egypt, they put their trust in Pharaoh s horses (Isa. xxxi. 1). In the representations of battles fought by the kings of the Empire we see no Egyptian cavalry, but only chariots, called " horse " in the inscriptions. At later times they may have had cavalry, properly speaking, of their own, and perhaps at all times among the mercenary or auxiliary forces. In the present day the horses of Egypt are of a very indifferent breed, and the best that one sees in that country have been brought from Arabia and Syria, but these are seldom of great excellence. It is indeed surprising to find few really good horses in a country bordering on Arabia; and not many years ago this was still more remark able, though not during the existence of the Memlooks. The finest Arabs, however, are kept in the background by their possessors, partly for fear of the " evil eye," and partly, in the case of all but the highest dignitaries, to avoid their forcible seizure by those of greater rank and power. The Egyptian ass holds a middle place between that of Great Britain and the wild ass, which is more swift of foot than the horse. It is tall and handsome, docile, and having excellent paces, particularly a quick and easy amble. Thus it is well suited to the narrow streets of the towns of Egypt, and is therefore commonly used for riding by

persons of the middle and lower classes. The mules are