The Delta presents the appearance of an immense marsh during the season of inundation; the various islands, villages, towns, and plantations can barely be discerned above the water's level.
The houses of the well-to-do peasants in the Nile villages are built of bricks dried in the sun; the chief magistrate usually has a more pretentious house built of bricks that have been baked in regular ovens or kilns; the humbler peasants content themselves with huts, which they form from the mud of the Nile and roof over with the leaves and stems of the palm. The whole is then plastered with a coating of mud.
In these villages, a minaret towers above the various houses and hotels; while a few sycamores spread their leafy crowns and make the chief ornament of the village. Slender date trees sway in the breeze, and the long racemes of the acacia shed their delicate perfume abroad.
The rains of the tropics, to which the rise of the Nile is due, reach Egypt about the middle of June; they do not reach the Delta till about the end of the month.
The rise of the river dates from the appearance of the red water, about the middle of July. The water does not reach its maximum height till near the end of September. By the middle of October it has sunk very perceptibly, and by the month of April has gradually subsided to its minimum depth.
By the end of November the irrigated land has dried sufficiently to allow of its being sown. Soon the eye is gladdened by the sight of a rich covering of green crops which brighten the landscape till the close of February. In March comes the harvest time when all the crops are gathered and stored.
Since the days of Moses, Egypt has been associated in the mind with plague, pestilence, and famine. It can by no means be considered a healthy country. Ophthalmia, a distressing disease of the eyes, prevails to an alarming extent.
It is no uncommon thing to find not only the father, mother, and children in a family suffering from the loss of sight in one or both eyes, but even the cat, dog, and donkey may share the same affliction.
SUEZ CANAL.