[28]. See again the engraving opposite p. 9.
[29]. This is the measure of the sliding bolt.
[30]. This term is also applied sometimes to the door of the hareem.
[31]. The earthen pots used in the construction of these pigeon-houses are of an oval form, with a wide mouth, which is placed outwards, and a small hole at the other end. Each pair of pigeons occupies a separate pot.
[32]. Vulgarly called “Dumyát.”
[33]. The Muslim Egyptians, Copts, Syrians, and Jews of Egypt, with few exceptions, speak no language but the Arabic, which is also the language generally used by the foreigners settled in this country. The Nubians, among themselves, speak their own dialects.
[34]. The population of Cairo has increased to this amount, from about 200,000, within the last three or four years. Since the computation here stated was made, the plague of this year [1835] has destroyed not fewer than one-third of its inhabitants, as before mentioned; but this deficiency will be rapidly supplied from the villages.
[35]. About one-third of the population of the metropolis consists of adult males. Of this number (or 80,000) about 30,000 are merchants, petty shopkeepers, and artisans; 20,000, domestic servants; 15,000, common labourers, porters, etc.: the remainder chiefly consists of military and civil servants of the government.
[36]. I place but little reliance on the accounts of ancient authors on this subject.
[37]. It has been suggested to me that, if corn was exported, something of equal value was imported; and that the exportation of corn, or anything else, would give a stimulus to industry and to population: but I do not know what could be imported that would fill up the measure of the food necessary to sustain a population much greater than that which would consume the corn retained.