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[ "Little health" at Cairo prevented my choosing the instruments; and the result was that at last I had to depend upon my pocket-set by Casella. Even this excellent maker's maxima and minima failed to stand the camel-jolting. The barometer, lent by the Chief of Staff (Elliott Brothers, 24), contained amalgam, not mercury. The patent messrad, or odometer (Wittmann, Wien), with its works of soft brass instead of steel, was fit only to measure a drawing-room carpet. M. Ebner sold us, at the highest prices, absolutely useless maxima and minima, plus a baromètre aneroide, whose chain was unhooked when it left the box. M. Sussmann, of the Muski, supplied, for fifty francs, a good and useful microscope magnifying seventy-five times. The watches from M. Meyer ("Dent and Co.!") were cheap and nasty Swiss articles; but they were also subjected to terrible treatment:—I once saw the wearers opening them with table-knives. Fortunately M. Lacaze, the artist, had a good practical knowledge of instruments; and this did us many a good turn.]
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[ For Arabian travel I should advise aconite, instead of Dover's powder; Cockle's pills, in lieu of blue mass; Warburg's Drops, in addition to quinine; pyretic saline and Karlsbad, besides Epsom salts; and chloral, together with chlorodyne. "Pain Killer" is useful amongst wild people, and Oxley's ginger, with the simple root, is equally prized. A little borax serves for eye-water and alum for sore mouth. I need not mention special medicines like the liqueur Laville, and the invaluable Waldöl (oil of the maritime pine), which each traveller must choose for himself.]
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[ It is Lane's "Kiyakh, vulgó Kiyák," and Michell's "Kyhak, the ancient Khoiak," or fourth month. The Copts begin their solar year on our September 10-11; and date from the 2nd of Diocletian, or the Era of the "Martyrs" (A.D. 284). It is the old Sothic, or annus quadratus, which became the Alexandrine under the Ptolemies; and which Sosigenes, the Egyptian, converted into the Julian, by assuming the Urbs condita as a point de départ, and by transferring New Year's Day from the equinox to the solstice.]
Thus Kayhák I, 1594, would correspond with December 9, A.D. 1877, and with Zúl-Hijjah 4, A.H. 1294. On the evening of Kayhák 14 (December 22nd) winter is supposed to set in. The fifth month, Tubá—Lane's "Toobeh," and Michell's "Toubeh, the ancient Tobi"—is the coldest of the year at Suez, on the isthmus and in the adjacent parts of Arabia; rigorous weather generally lasts from January 20th to February 20th. In Amshír, about early March, torrents of rain are expected to fall for a few hours. The people say of it, in their rhyming way, Amshír, Za'bíb el-kathir—"Amshír hath many a blast;" and
"Amshir
Yakul li'l-Zará 'Sir!
Wa yalhak bi'l-tawi'l el-kasi'r."'
"Amshír saith to the plants, 'Go (forth), and the little shall reach the big."' It is divided into three 'Asharát or tens—1. 'Asharat el-'Ajúz ("of the old man"), from the cold and killing wind El-Husúm; 2. 'Asharat el-'Anzah ("of the she-goat"), from the blasts and gales; and 3. 'Asharat el-Rá'í' ("of the shepherd"), from its change to genial warmth. Concerning Barmahát (vulgó Barambát), of old Phamenoth (seventh month), the popular jingle is, Ruh el-Ghayt wa hát—"Go to the field and bring (what it yields);" this being the month of flowers, when the world is green. Barmúdah (Pharmuthi)! dukh bi'l-'amúdah ("April! pound with the pestle!") alludes to the ripening of the spring crops; and so forth almost ad infinitum. For more information see the "Egyptian Calendar," etc. (Alexandria: Mourès, 1878), a valuable compilation by our friend Mr. Roland L. N. Michell, who will, let us hope, prefix his name to a future edition, enlarged and enriched with more copious quotations from the weather-rhymes and the folk-lore of Egypt.]
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[ This is a most interesting feature. According to Forskâl (Descriptiones xxix.), "Suénsia litora, a recedente mari serius orta, nesciunt corallia;" and he makes the submaritime "Cryptogama regio animalis" begin at Tor (Raitha) and extend to (Gonfoda). Near Suez is the Newport Shoal, which could be sailed over with impunity twenty years ago, and which is now dangerous: it resembles, in fact, the other reef at the entrance of the Gulf, where tile soundings have changed, in late years, from 7-7 1/2 fathoms to 3-3 1/2. Geologists differ as to the cause—elevation or accretion by current-borne drift.]