earthed the coin with the blade of a knife, and oftentatiously difplayed it as an incontestable proof of the truth of his pofition. He fent an account of the discovery to his own country, where it did not meet with much credit, and indeed hardly could, with perfons who knew the column. The Greeks, it is true, from the time of Adrian, had diffused over Egypt the principles of a beautiful architecture, and of elegance in all the arts. A judgment may be formed of this from the remains of the city which that very emperor had caused to be built in the upper part of that country, in honour of Antinous, a young man celebrated in ancient history for his extraordinary beauty of perfon, and his generous devotedness to a Roman who has been more cried up than he deserves. The columns which still fubfift at Antinöe are cut with greater delicacy, and have forms more elegant than that of Alexandria. Not that this last wants beauty; but its principal merit confifts in the prodigious magnitude of its dimensions, and the truly astonishing enormity of its mass. The fame confiderations which fuggeft a doubt respecting the afcription of this pillar to the time of Adrian, apply ftill more forcibly to that of the Emperor Severus. Abulfeda, quoted by Savary, only fays, "Alexandria poffeffes a renowned pharos, and the column of Severus *."" He adds not a word more, and does not fo much as point out the fpot where the column of Severus was reared. The city of Alexandria contained such a number of columns, that it is impoffible to ascertain to which of them the paffage of the Arabic hiftorian is applicable. Alexander Severus traced his pedigree up to Alexander the Great: it was natural for him to prize a city founded by the conqueror his ancestor, and it is by no means wonderful, that he should endeavour farther to embellith it by works of various defcription, to fupply the place of fuch as had been thrown down or deftroyed, with those which had already rendered it fo magnificent. On the other hand, on comparing the column dedicated to Severus, and still exifting in the ancient city of Antinöe, with that of Alexandria, we shall find it impoffible to conclude that they are both of one and the fame period. The hieroglyphics with which the granite-pivot, the immoveable support of the column, is fculp *Description of Egypt, Savary's translation. tured, tured, farther appear a new proof of the period of its elevation, much more ancient than the reigns of Adrian and Severus, and they indicate a production of the moft remote antiquity. This confideration, united with the filence of hiftorians on the fubject, feem to throw back to an Era more diftant than that of the defeat of Pompey, the conftruction of the column which bears his name. If amidst these uncertainties, which, in defiance of the researches of the learned, frequently involve the paft and the future in the fame obfcurity, I durft venture to hazard an opinion of my own, I fhould be tempted to afcribe the honour of the erection of the column of Alexandria to the ancient times which produced fo many prodigies in Egypt, to thofe Eras when myriads of men were employed, for years together, in transporting maffes of stone, the movement of which feemed to exceed human strength, and to demand the exertions of beings more than mortal. "Whatever bc in this fentiment, it would be difficult now to change the appellation fo long affixed to the column of Alexandria, and, whatever good reasons may be alleged to the contrary, it is very probable it will ftill retain the name of Pompey's Column. Nevertheless it is likewife probable, that pofterity will recollect that this column was the head-quarters, from whence Buonaparte iffued orders for the efcalade and capture of Alexandria; that the bodies of the heroes who perifhed as the victims of their own bravery, are depofited round the pedestal, and that their names are engraven upon it; it is likewife probable that, more ftruck with the genius of the victory, and of the fublime combinations connected with it, than with that which has conferred celebrity on ancient Egypt by her works of stupendous magnificence, absorbed in the immortality of the French nation, fhall be disposed to fix the Æra of this dawning glory, and that to future ages the column of Pompey fhall be the column of the French Republic ! ! ROSETTA is another town of celebrity in Egypt, and we muft indulge our readers with an account of it; the length of it will not be difpleafing to the inquifitive mind. "Roffetta not having, like Alexandria, an immediate communication with the fea, you do not find it fwarming with those thofe multitudes of foreigners, of adventurers, of dangerous men, whofe agitation, tumult, and uproar are their element, and which render a refiance, at the city laft named, fo very difagreeable. Remote from the bustle of fea-ports, and from the frequent political convulfions of Cairo, its inhabitants were abundantly peaceable. Not that the European was there fecured entirely from infult: he had, at times, difagreeable circumstances to encounter, but they were flight in comparifon with those which perfecuted him at Alexandria, and which abfolutely oppreffed him at Cairo. The filly and ridiculous pride which perfuades the Mahometans that they alone of mankind are adopted by the Deity, that they are the only perfons to whom he ought to open his bofom, a pride which the doctors of the law or the priests, the vainest and most intolerant of all men, took great care to foment, was the principal fource of those unpleasant attacks. The Turk describes the European by no other epithet than that of infidel; the Egyptian Muffulman, ftill coarfer, treats him merely as a dog. With him, Chriftian and dog were two terms fo exactly synonimous, and in fuch frequent ufe, that no attention was paid to the difference, and that they were indifcriminately employed by perfons who had no intention to offer an infult. Europeans, in the ufual dress of their own country, were likewife expofed, at Roffetta, to be hooted at, in the more populous quarters of the town, and to be purfuèd with repeated fhouts of Nouzrani, Nazarene. The Jews likewise underwent there those petty perfecutions, and, though stationary inhabitants of the country, were much worse treated in it than the Chriftians of Europe. But that nation is composed of degraded individuals, and deserves to be despised, inasmuch as infenfible to contempt, to the difgrace accumulated on them by wave upon wave, they fuffered themfelves, if I may use the expreflion, to be deluged with it, provided you left them the facility of glutting their vile and infatiable thirst of gold. Habited in the oriental ftyle, they were obliged, in Egypt, to wear a head-drefs, and to be fhod, in a peculiar and appropriate manner; but what principally diftinguifhed them, was the tufts of hair, or of beard, which they were forced to let grow, and to keep up, close by the ear, on both fides of the face. Most of the merchants were Turks or Syrians; there were fome likewife from Barbary. The Cophts, that degene rate rate race, defcended from the ancient Egyptians, refided there in confiderable numbers. Some Arabs too were domefticated in that city, and the plains adjacent were inhabited and cultivated by the fellahs; a term which, in Egypt, conveys an idea of contempt, as in ancient times that of peafant was with us, to which it correfponds, when the intention is to exprefs rude vulgarity and grofs ignorance. The chief command was entrufted to an officer of the Mamelues, to whom they gave the title of Aga. "The most ordinary pastime here, as well as all over Turkey, is to fmoke and drink coffee. The pipe is never from the mouth from morning to night at home, in the houses of others, in the streets, on horseback, the lighted pipe is ftill in hand, and the tobacco-pouch hangs always at the girdle. Thefe conftitute two great objects of luxury; the purfes which ferve to contain the provifion, are of filken ftuffs richly embroidered, and the tubes of the pipes, of an exceflive length, are of the rareft, and, for the most part, of the fweetcft fcented wood. I brought home one made of the jasmine-tree, which is more than fix feet long: it may convey an idea of the beauty of the jafmines of thofe countries, feeing they push out branches of that length, ftraight, and fufficiently large to admit of being bored. The pipes of more common wood are covered with a robe of filk tied with threads of gold. The poor, with whom the fmoke of tobacco is a neceffary of first rate importance, make use of fimple tubes of reed. The top of the pipe is garnished with a fpecies of mock alabaster, and white as milk: it is frequently enriched with precious ftones. Among perfons lefs opulent, the place of this is fupplied by faucets. What goes into the mouth is a morfel of yellow amber, the mild and fweet favour of which, when it is heated or lightly preffed, Contributes toward correcting the pungent flavour of the tobacco. To the other extremity of thofe tubes are adapted very handfome cups of baked clay, and whcih are commonly denominated the nuts of the pipes. Some of them are marbled with various colours, and plated over with gold-leaf. You find them of various fizes: thofe in moft general use through Egypt are more capacious; they are, at the fame time, of greater diftention. Almost all of them are imported from Turkey, and the reddish clay of which they are formed is VOL. VIII S found found in the environs of Conftantinople. There was a Turk at Roffetta who excelled in this fpecies of manufacture. I took great pleasure fometimes to look over him while at work: a great diverfity of small sharp-pointed tools ferved him to imprefs, with exquifite delicacy, various defigns on the clay in its ftate of foftnefs; but the process was long and tedious: his pipe-nuts accordingly fold very dear. I had fome from him which coft me fo high as fix franks (five fhillings) a piece. Some of them were covered with a capital pierced full of holes, in form of a perfuming pan. This Turk, who had lived a good deal at Conftantinople, was not deftitute of address; his shop was the refort of the most confiderable perfonages of Roffetta; he was a great friend to the French, and he employed his credit to procure for me the means of travelling comfortably through Lower Egypt. "It is difficult for Frenchmen, especially for those who are not in the habit of scorching their mouth with our short pipes and strong tobacco, to conceive the poffibility of fmoking all day long. First, the Turkish tobacco is the beft and the mildeft in the world; it has nothing of that sharpness which, in European countries, provokes a continual difpofition to spit ; next, the length of the tube into which the fmoke afcends, the odoriferous quality of the wood of which it is made, the amber tip which goes into the mouth, the wood of aloes with which the tobacco is perfumed, contribute more towards its mildnefs, and to render the fmoke of totally inoffenfive in their apartments. The beautiful women, accordingly, take pleasure in amusing their vacant time, by preffing the amber with their rofy lips, and in gently refpiring the fumes of the tobacco of Syria, embalmed with thofe of aloes. It is not neceffary, befides, to draw up the smoke with a strong suction, it afcends almoft fpontaneously. They put the pipe afide, they chat, they look about, from time to time they apply it to the lips, and gently inhale the fmoke, which immediately makes its escape from the half-opened mouth. Sometimes they amuse themselves by fending it through the nose; at other times they take a full mouthful, and artfully blow it out on the extended palm, where it forms a spiral column, which it takes a few inftants to evaporate. The glands are not pricked, and the throat and breast are not parched by an in ceffant |