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more elevated country which is not overflowed by the Nile, much smaller crops are to be expected. It adds very much to the fertility of Egypt, that it has a double summer every year; the former of which is very uneven and inconstant, with excessive heat, which is very trying to the body, especially of a stranger not accustomed to this climate. It begins in the month of March and continues until May. The other summer, which is called the second part of the summer, succeeds the former, for it begins in the month of June and closes about the end of August. This summer is more uniform than the former and more constant, less hot and offensive to the body. The autumn comprises two months, September and October. winter begins in the month of November and extends to January. The spring is observed in January and February in these months the trees begin to bud, and the earth is rendered very beautiful with green herbs, plants, and flowers.*

*

The

§ VII. The water of the Nile is said to be very wholesome, and productive of fruitfulness in women.

The water of the Nile is highly spoken of for drinking. But as it contains much dirt and mud, it is necessary first to strain it, and then to preserve it in earthen vessels, until the mud settles, and the water becomes clear. Galent testifies that the Egyptians used it strained through earthen vessels, by which process it is preferable to all other waters; for it is very pure, limpid, and of a sweet taste. Whence Aeschylust also calls the water of the Nile, surorovgos, that is a flowing stream, sweet and suitable for drinking. For who will not believe that the wa

* Confer Prosp. Alpinum de medicina Egyptionum lib. i. c. 7. Dapper's Beschreibung von Afrika. P. 126.

+ De Simpl. Medic. Facult. lib. i. Prosp. Alpin. I. c. Dapper p. 131. In Prometheo vincto. p. 49.

ter of that very celebrated river is the best of all for the use of man; secing that by so long a course, it passes through so extensive a country, burnt by the sun, which the ancients thought not habitable on account of its excessive heat; and seeing, moreover, that it is almost heated by the sun in its long journey, and by the motion and agitation which happen in so extended a progress, and by its descent from high mountains, the river being precipitated from lofty eminences, it becomes completely purified. And because that river has not a rocky channel, but one of very rich earth, it is evident that least of all waters it will injure by its coldness. For these reasons, Avicenna and Prosper Alpinus have spoken in the highest terms of this water. The Egyptians keep the water of the Nile in casks as wine is kept. For as it does not become putrid, according to Aristides, they preserve it three, or four, or even more years, at which time it comes in as great demand amongst them as wine with us. The Nile is said not only to fertilize the land, but also to produce fruitfulness in women. For Pliny states from Trogus that in Egypt it is very common for twins to be born, and that three, and four are often brought forth at one birth, and seven have been. Strabot asserts that Aristotle has said the same thing. But perhaps the text has been altered, and instead of επταδυμα it ought to be read πεντάδυμα, since Aristotle in various other places, ‡ speaks of five at a birth, and Gellius affirms the same thing from him. Aristotle the philosopher, has related that a woman in Egypt brought forth five children at a birth, and this is the largest number ever heard of, and this number very seldom is found. But it often happens that the Egyptians bring forth twins.

* Hist. Natur. lib. vii. cap. S. Aristotelis de hist. animal. lib. viii. cap. 4. Conf. Rittershusius in Oppiani Cynag. lib. ii. c. 143. p. 57.

822.

Geog. lib. xv. p. 695.

De Generat. Animal. lib. iv. c. 4. et 5 de hist. animal. lib. vii. cap. 5. p.
Gellius lib. x. c. 2. p. 504.

And ancient authors say that three and four are often born at a birth, and indeed in some lands that is common. It is said that a certain woman in four births, during the space of five years, brought forth twenty children, the most of whom grew up. Credible authors tell of a woman in Peloponnesus, who in five births brought forth four at a time.

It is certain that the three Horatii were of one birth, and likewise the three Curatii, as can be shown from the ancient coins which have this inscription, C. CVR. et TRIGE. Laetius also says, that he saw in the palace a freed woman who was brought from Alexandria, to be showed to Adrian, with five children, of which four were brought forth at a birth, and the fifth forty days after.t

§ VIII. The evils which arise from the Nile.

I have abundantly shown the benefits arising from the Nile and its advantages with respect to fertility; but it will bear no comparison with the fertility of the land of Palestine, which I shall now describe after having premised some of the evils that arise from the Nile. I have already mentioned that the Nile carries with it a great quantity of very rich clay. From this a great variety of insects arise, which putrefy when they die and poison the air. The bird called Ibis, is, on this account, of great utility, for it devours these pestiferous insects and removes the evil. Whence the Egyptians worshipped that benefactor with divine honours, and punished invariably with death every one that killed the Ibis, either willingly

* Patinus in Famil. p. 97. n. 1. et 2. apud Gorlæum p. 50.

+ Confer. Paulus Jurisconsultus in leg. iii. Digest. If the subject of heir ship be sought, Julianus leg. xxxvi, Dig. De solutionibus et liberationibus.

or unwillingly.* The Ibis is a bird entirely white, tall, with black feet, rough legs, and a long and horny beak: its wings have no feathers but are bare, resembling those of the bat. Its size is about that of the hen or the crow.

But the greatest evil that arises from the Nile is occasioned by the evaporation, which produces a noxious atmosphere. So that I think it may be safely affirmed that Egypt is the only country producing the plague, from which it is carried into other regions. The Nile in the winter time flows very slowly, and the water has a very disagreeable smell; and especially about the mouths of the Nile, where there are many marshes called Bucolia. Our geography of Egypt is by no means accurate or sufficiently minute; it contains much mistake and deficiency: we barely know from Heliodorus and Russel,t that there are fenny places there. For there are low grounds receiving the overflowings of the Nile, and lakes of unfathomable depth in the middle, and terminating in marsh about their banks. For what the shores are to the seas, the marshes are to these lakes. There also the Egyptian robbers have their republic, for they make use of the water instead of a wall; moreover there is a large quantity of reed in the marsh which answers them for a fortification. In Egypt also, the lepra and Elephantiasis (species of the leprosy) and other destructive diseases take their rise: Maundrell, Thevenot and Prosper Alpinust affirm that

Strabo, in Geograph. lib. xvi. says, all the Egyptians worship certain animals, in common; as, of quadrupeds, the cow, the dog, the cat; of birds, the hawk and the ibis, of water animals, the lapidotus piscis and the oxyrynchus. See the form of the ibis in Jac. de Wilde, Sign. Antig. No. 13. Dapper's Beschr. von Afrika, p. 120. J. R. Forster's Indische Zoologie, auf der Christen Kupfertafel. This bird is entirely unknown in our country, and has no name in Europe. Confer Aldrovandi Orrith lib. xx. cap. 3. pag. 312.

↑ Heliodori Aethopion lib. i. Russel's natural history of Aleppo, p. 49. 50. Conf. Goquet de l'origine des Loix, des Arts, et des Sciences et de leurs progres ches les anciens peuples. T. II. liv. 3. ch. 2.

Thevenot's Voyage au Levant p. i. lib. ii. cap. 80. Prosper Alpinus de Medicina Ægyptiorum lib. i. p. 14. Conf. Schillingi commentationes de lepra. Dapper's Besch. von Afrika p. 127–129.

the leprosy has raged in Egypt in their own times, and that they have seen men labouring under it. Pliny affirms that it arises in Egypt alone and that it is common there. Lucretius says the same thing in the following lines from lib. VI.,

Est elephas morbus, qui propter flumina Nili,

Nascitur Aegypto in media nec præterea usquam. Dioscorides and Avicenna, indeed, contend that this disease arises from the Egyptian beer, but this appears to be a mistake, although Scaliger to excuse Dioscorides refers it to the acidity of the beer. The whole cause is rather to be referred to the varying atmosphere, as Galen also thinks. Indeed, in Alexandria many contract the disease from the united cause, of the manner of living and the heat of the climate. In Germany and other countries this disease is very uncommon, and among the Scythians who live principally on milk, it has scarcely ever appeared. But in Alexandria it is produced by the manner of living For they eat boiled flour and lentils, shell fish and other salt food, and some of them, the flesh of the ass, and other things which produce gross and phlegmatick humours, whence, when the air is warm, the motion of the humours is directed towards the surface. Indeed, Egypt is generally represented as the native place of this disease, from which it afterward spread into other countries. The Israelites carried the leprosy into Palestine, whence Moses prescribed peculiar laws respecting it. And nothing appears to me more evident, than that it was this disease with which Job was afflicted. +

De curat. ad Glauc. lib. ii. cap. 10.

+ Levit. xiii.

+ Conf. Michaelis 36te Arabische Frage an die Reisenden und dessen Anmerkung zu Heob ii. 7. Mead on the most important diseases mentioned in the S.S. Chap. i.

Y

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