A circumstance is related concerning the propagation of fish in Kahira. As soon as the Nile begins to fill the several pools, birkets, in the neighbourhood, the fishermen go to the river, and collecting several sorts of spawn, distribute it into the pools, where in the space of three or four days, it produces fish in abundance.
Nov. 1796. Achmet Aga, a Zanthiote, who has been already mentioned, about this time left Kahira on his way to Dar-Fûr, by the return of the caravan with which I came. The Sultan Abd-el-rachmân, desirous of gaining a name among the neighbouring princes, but injudicious and governed by caprice in the choice of the means, and stung with the rage of conquest, though regardless of the means of security, sought for some person to exhibit to him the European invention of artillery; and though he had not yet been witness to its effects, conceived that the possession of some of the gold mines under Sennaar would soon be realized on his obtaining these powerful engines. He wrote to the Beys to request they would send him some one from among their servants, who might make him master of this important discovery. He also sought for a medical practitioner.
The person abovementioned had embraced Islamism, and possessed some ingenuity in mechanical operations, particularly the construction of artillery. He was not extremely at ease in Kahira; and Murad Bey, unable to improve his situation from the multitude of prior claimants, consented to his request for permission to depart. He gave him strong recommendations to the monarch, and a horse, camels, and other requisites for the journey. Achmed commenced his route with eclat, having with him fifty or sixty artificers, who had enterprize enough to encounter the difficulties of so long a passage, or who thought no change could render their situation worse. He had also four pieces of brass cannon, six pounders.
Thus an opening seemed offered to furnish the people of Soudân with one more, at least, of the equivocal blessings of civilized society.—What may have been the termination of Achmet’s voyage I have not heard; but his perseverance was scarcely equal to the undertaking, and it seems likely, that when his golden hopes should have vanished, he would return to Egypt in despondency, or perish in Dar-Fûr.
CHAP. XII.
ANTIENT EGYPTIANS.
Their persons, complexion, &c.
In the history of nations, some facts may gradually become obscure, by having appeared to the historiographer of the time, and even to those of some ages after, too notorious to require being particularly recorded. Amid the various information respecting the manners of the Athenians and Romans to be drawn from their respective historians, poets, and orators, we are not furnished with the means of ascertaining the appropriate enunciation of their own languages. A few casual hints, from Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Cicero, afford all the light that antiquarian labour has been able to throw on this subject.
The colour of the antient Egyptians has of late become a matter of doubtful investigation from the same causes; but is in its nature more interesting, and therefore merits a short discussion. By one of the most recent and intelligent travellers in that country, a conjecture, apparently novel, has been offered to the public, viz. that the original inhabitants of Egypt were negroes, and that, accordingly, the world is indebted for all those branches of science which had their origin in Egypt, and were afterwards perfected by the Greeks, and for all those monuments of art, the feint remains of which still excite admiration, to a people of that description.