At ten we reached the border of the lake, and entered the canal, called Turet el Rusweh, which leads up to Menzaleh. Although the lake itself, during the rise of the Nile, almost touches the town, yet its shallowness prevents boats of any size from approaching, and is the cause that the natives have dug a narrow canal more easily navigable. It is crooked; and, in its whole length from the lake to the town, may be a mile. When we were half way up, the boat grounded, and we disembarked to walk the rest of the way. We observed here three barges, laden with gypsum, collected at an island near El Usby; which we regretted not having seen. The gypsum was in coarse powder, and looked like so much salt.
As we had been cramped up in the boat nearly twenty hours, and were consequently desirous of stretching our legs, we had scarcely got on shore when we started off in a sort of trot, but had reason to repent of this gross deviation from Turkish gravity: for our räis and the janissary, on their return to Damietta, roundly asserted that we were either mad or possessed of an evil spirit: since no gentlemen with beards, and in their senses, would think of running!
On arriving at the town we desired to be conducted to Shaykh Cheleby’s house. The shaykh was absent, but we were introduced to his son, Hassan, a man seemingly about thirty-five years old, to whom we presented our letter from Mâlem Surûr. He received us with civility, gave us coffee: and, soon afterwards we sat down with him to a very comfortable noon repast of pilaw, roasted chicken, botarga of two kinds, and cheese. He left us to go on a party of pleasure to some orchards in the neighbourhood, to which we would not accompany him, intending to depart as soon as possible for Damietta. Shaykh Hassan was dressed in the costume peculiar to the Egyptians:—a camlet black smock-frock, and, beneath it, a showy-coloured (generally yellow, orange, or red) jubey and silk kombáz. The turban is worn by the Egyptians arranged more fantastically than by the Turks and Syrians.
Menzaleh, in the state we found it, was a large burgh, with four mosques, and with several small buildings having cupolas, which I presumed to be oratories. With the exception of one large block of granite, converted into an olive mill-stone, we saw no remains of antiquity; it is evident nevertheless that this was once a very large place. Its population was perhaps more than 3,000 souls. The houses were chiefly of brick, and many of them tolerably good. The streets, as is customary in Egypt, were unpaved; and, during the day, when the usual wind blew, the dust filled the eyes which way soever they turned. There was a rudely-constructed bridge over the canal, on the inner side of which were lying ten or twelve barges, carrying on the trade inland to Mansûra. There was a coffee-house, and a small bazar for the first necessaries of life. Within the town and in the environs there were sycamore and palm-trees. Rice was cultivated around: but the Nile had not yet decreased enough to begin tilling the soil, excepting in some fields close to the town. The magistracy of this place and district had been, for many generations, in the family which then held it, and which derived its origin (as Shaykh Hassan told us) from Tabaríah (Tiberias), and hence had gained its surname of Tabàr. Menzaleh was the principal town of an akalým, (district or sub-division) containing about twenty villages.
Shaykh Hassan el Tabàr told us, in reply to some remarks which we made on the goodness of his house, not inferior to many of the best in Damietta, that it was new; as he was obliged to desert his old one, because it was haunted by an afrýt, or ghost, in the shape of a Frank! He added that he had himself seen the ghost, which spoke in broken Arabic, generally beat a drum, knew most of the persons who addressed him, and called them by their names. Such was the terror created by this apparition, particularly among the women, that the house which it haunted, although spacious and handsome, was without a tenant. We remained in Menzaleh until four o’clock, and then, riding-down to our boat on miserable asses, quitted the canal and set sail for Damietta.
Arriving at a landing-place, called Gut el Nussára, about midnight, and asleep, towards morning I awoke; and, looking out from under the tent, found our boat driving fast in the direction from which we had come, her painter having slipped. I roused Ahmed, who, with much cursing and grumbling at the day he had ever taken Franks on board, pushed her back. At daylight we landed, leaving the servants to hire a camel and bring the baggage to Damietta. We then set off on foot for the city.
The walk in the cool of the morning, through fields presenting, in the month of October, the verdure of spring,[76] whilst above them the yellow and crimson clusters of dates hung in rich luxuriance, was no less agreeable than salutary. Yet, when we arrived at Mâlem Surûr’s house, and presented ourselves to our host, who was lolling over his morning pipe, with half a dozen servants humbly standing before him, he could not conceal his astonishment and chagrin, that we should exhibit ourselves with feet covered with dust and the perspiration running down our faces, in the guise of foot-travellers. And his Eastern pride was wounded to the quick at the surmises that must have been made, as we came through the streets, upon such extraordinary conduct. We took no pains to combat his false ideas of gentility. A servile people, restricted in their actions by their fanatic masters, fancy those only to be happy who are privileged to be inactive: although such inactivity leads to the ruin of their health, and excites commiseration in those who know better.
Shaykh Ibrahim and myself went to view the mosque of Abu el Alal, full of beautiful columns, among which were some of verd-antique. There was an inner part, into which I would not go, fearing, as I was no Turk, they would compel me to become one.
On the 7th, we were invited to dine with Monsieur Basil Fakhr, the agent of the French nation at this place, a man of great talents, both literary and political. Mâlem Surûr was dressed in a lilac silk kombaz and a salmon-coloured jubey.[77] There was a variety of dishes, and among the rest a roasted pig, which was probably put there purposely to see whether Shaykh Ibrahim would eat of it: but he did not.
Shaykh Ibrahim and myself slept in the same bedroom at Mâlem Surûr’s, and, when going on the lake, we had deliberated, as our books and clothes were lying loosely about, whether we should lock the door, or whether such caution in the house of a gentleman would not be indelicate. We at last determined for the safe side, and actually took the key with us. This proceeding, so strange, if done in England, was not equally so there: for bed-rooms are not washed as with us, neither are they regularly swept: and, when once an inmate in a house, your room is entered by none but your servant. On our return we found the door locked as we left it; but, on entering, we saw at once that our effects were not as we had left them. Mâlem Surûr, when we joined him at dinner, asked us if all was in its place, with a sort of cunning look that caused us to say no. He then informed us that the open beaufet in the wall, with shelves, the borders of which were so neatly worked, and which were decked with china and glass, was no more than a false door, but so artfully made, that it was impossible to distinguish it from a cupboard. Of this his mother had a key, and entered the room several times during our absence.