Naked children, both girls and boys, were seen running along the edge of the river, begging for biscuit from the ships that were entering and going out; but they generally know that ships from long voyages have little to give away, and they rather follow those which, coming from Syria, may have laid in provisions for five days, and perhaps have run their passage with a fair wind in two. El Usby had a fortress with large cannon upon it, and, we were told, barracks for a great number of men.
The river, when it has reached the sea, turns suddenly to the east, so that vessels were obliged to keep close to the shore for nearly a mile before they were properly clear of the bar. Just at this turn are the foundations of a fortress at a small distance in the sea, which once guarded the entrance. I know not of what age this fortress may be, but certainly its present position is no proof of the inroads that the land is said to make on the sea, for I question whether it would be possible, at the present day, to lay the foundations of a structure farther in the water than where this one stood, and hence we may presume that the sea has rather gained on the land, since the architect would not have exposed his work to the effects of water when he could have lost no advantage of defence by placing it a few yards more inland.
When crossing the Delta, I was remarkably struck by the nature of the sea-coast about Brulos, and likewise both before arriving at it and after having passed it. Immediately at the back of Brulos there was a sand hill of a conical shape close to the sea: it was, if I rightly recollect, bare not only of trees, but of shrubs also. To the east of it were others, and they continued to some distance. Similar eminences existed elsewhere along the coast of the Delta. Such were Mutro, a high land between Rosetta and Brulos, and Ras el Kebryt, between the latter place and Damietta. Now if the soil of the Delta is to be considered as a gradual deposition, from the earliest times, of the alluvions of the Nile, the phenomena would, most likely, every year, or every score of years, or every century, be the same; we therefore should expect to see that these lofty sand hills would be but one of many other similar chains that had succeeded each other in the course of ages. But, although I have never seen the interior of the Delta, yet, as far as I learned by general inquiries, its surface is a perfect level. It would therefore be more reasonable to suppose that the elevations were once the sites of buildings, and (if we do not allow them a more solid basis, in giving a natural instead of an adventitious one) that they are heaps of ancient ruins, which, forming a nucleus for the sand, have since swollen to their present magnitude. If, then, they are heaps of ruins, and of an unknown date, it is evident that the soil has not gained on the sea, for the sea touches the foot of them; and if the soil has made no advance in twenty years, allowing its encroachments to be gradual, why should it in a hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand?
At the mouth of the Damietta branch of the Nile the French constructed two martello towers, or circular fortresses of brick, which command it entirely, one on either side. We passed a very agreeable afternoon in our little encampment. The arrangement of the tents, which now were pitched on service for the first time, was an amusement of an hour or two. To this succeeded the games of some Greek sailors, whose vessels lay near ours, and who danced, played at hop-step-and-jump, and wrestled in front of the tents, in expectation of a present from Lady Hester. Their games brought to our notice a young Ragusan, named Iachimo, who was about to sail in one of the Greek vessels for I know not where, but, hearing that we wanted a servant, came and offered himself. He was the voucher for his own character, and was immediately engaged at twenty-five piasters per month, and, as he had been a sailor the greatest part of his life, we were certain in him of a helper that would not be sick on board, a matter not always sure when all the servants are landsmen.[24]
The next morning, the ship, now light, crossed the bar, and the moment she was well over and anchored, we followed her in sailing barges, together with our luggage. The land wind, opposed to the current of the river, caused some roughness in the sea, and much reciprocal bumping was exchanged between the ship and the lighters. We sailed that evening.[25] We were accompanied by two of the corps of the French Mamelukes, of whom mention was made in the last chapter, who, with the approbation of the viceroy and of the French consul, had engaged themselves to Lady Hester as guards.[26] Their names were Selim and Yusuf; such, at least, were their Turkish appellations, and each had with him his groom, or, as they are called in Arabic, säys. We were in all thirteen persons, of which six were men servants.
In England, where servants work well, and one pair of hands does a great deal, six men servants would be considered a numerous retinue, and their cost would be considerable; but in Turkey it is not so, for wages were generally not more than ten shillings and sixpence a month for grown persons, and for boys or lads a meal a day and a few rags to clothe them in was as ample a recompense for their services as they could claim. Hence, in the house of a common merchant, it is not unusual to see six or seven men and boys who are his servants, or porters, or errand boys; and his wife will have as many maids to her share.
Our voyage to Syria lasted five days, and was not disturbed by any accident. The captain and his crew were obliging and civil, which was all that was to be expected from them. The ship had no pump, but only a well, from which the water, in case of a leak, was drawn up by a bucket; and this is generally the practice throughout the Levant.
It was about four in the afternoon that we approached Jaffa, and in an hour’s time we anchored close to the port. Boats immediately came off.
Before we dismiss the subject of Egypt, a few words may be said on the costume of the common people. The poorer sort of women in Egypt were dressed in a blue shift made something like a smock frock, the sleeves being very large. These shifts have at the sides two slits in the place of pocket-holes, so long that it not unfrequently happened in bending themselves forward that their naked skin was seen. Over their faces was a slip of black cotton or silk (according to the means of the wearer) tied round the head by a fillet or tape. From the centre of this, in a perpendicular line, pieces of silver or gold, or sometimes pearls, were hung. Over the head passed a long blue or black veil, one end of which had its two corners stitched together for about three inches, and, the corner so stitched being put under the chin, the face came out as through an oval opening in it. The sleeves of the shift, which tapered down to a point, were often, when the women were employed, tied by the points behind the back. The arms, thus left bare up to the shoulders, showed sometimes as much symmetry of form as would enchant a statuary or a painter. Their feet were very well formed: their skins were of a deep brown, and sometimes of a light polish: their eyes were universally of a dark colour.