L Phthemphu, eeppover, Plin. Ptol. Nu.

I. Phtheneu, Nu., Ptenethu, Plin., 40evórov, Ptol.

Akaleem el-Bahreeych, were the Gharbeeyeh, that of Er Rasheed, the Boheyreh, that of El-Mansooreh, the Manoofeeyeh, that of Ed-Dimyát, the Sharkeeyeh, the Kalyoo

1. Phylace vel Schedia, vxanh, xedia, Agatharch. See Mene- beeyeh, and that of El-Geezeh. The Middle Provinces, El

laites.

L. Prosopites, Пpoowairns, Her. Strab. Plin. Ptol. Nu.

L. Ptenethu, Plín. See Phtheneu. ab,

L. Saites, Zatrns, Zairinós, Her. Strab. Plin. Ptol. Nu.

L. Schedia, Agatharch. See Phylace.

Akaleem el-Wustaneeyeh, were that of Atfeeh, the Feiyoom, nd those of Benee-Suweyf or Behnesè, and of El-Minyeh or Ashmooneyn. The Southern Provinces, El-Akaleem el-Kibleeyeh, were those of Ayoot, Girgà, and Kinė.

La Sebennytæ duo, Σεβεννύτης ἄνω τόπων, Σεβεννύτης κάτω τόπων, Ti re is no doubt that these provinces sometimes correspond Ptol.; Sebennytes, Her. Strab. Plin. Nu.

L Sethroites, Zeepwirns, Strab. Plin. Ptol. Nu.

L. Tanites, Tavírns, Her. Strab. Plin. Ptol. Nu.

to the ancient nomes, though generally composed of the territories of more than one. (Cf. Jomard in Descr. de

T. Tenthyrites, Tentyrites, Teveupirns, Agatharch. Plin. Ptol. Egypte, 2d ed. ix. 594, 595.) By Mehemet Ali a new Τεντυρίτης, Nu.

L. Thebanus, OnBaîos, Her.

division was formed into districts governed by a mudeer, of which Lower Egypt, including a small portion of the

T. Thebarum, OnBev vouós, Ptol., enBaixos, Her. See Perithebe. Middle Provinces, contained four, and the rest of Egypt T. Thinites, Ovirns, Plin. Ptol. Nu.

L. Thmuites, Oμovíτns, Her.

L. Xoites, Eotrns, Plin. Ptol. Nu.

It is very remarkable that the Arsinoïte Nome of the Heptanomis does not appear in the hieroglyphic lists, because Sebek, the crocodile-headed divinity there worshipped was, at least in later times, disliked in most parts of Egypt (Brugsch, Hist., 2 ed., 109, 107).

The Notitia Dignitatum, composed under Theodosius II., A.D. 408-450, gives a new a division of Egypt into four provinces-Ægyptus, Augustamnica, Arcadia, and Thebais. Roughly the first comprised all Lower Egypt except the part east of the Delta, which was assigned to the second, and Arcadia appears to have succeeded the Heptauomis (Parthey, Erdkunde, 518, taf. vii.)

About the time of Justinian I. this division is found to be further developed, according to the statements of Hierocles. Egypt contained six eparchies:-1. Egypt Proper, Alyuriak, the west of Lower Egypt to the Sebennytic branch of the Nile; 2. The First Augusta, Auyovσra a', the north-eastern part of Lower Egypt to the Syrian border; 3. The Second Augusta, Avyovora f', the territory southward of the First Augusta; 4. Arcadia, 'Apkadía, the earlier Heptanomis; 5. The Nearer Thebais, On Bais eyyura, extending to Panos, or Panopolis, and including the Great Oasis; 6. The Upper Thebais, Onßais avw, as far as Philæ. The division into nomes" had evidently been almost effaced at this time (Id. 20, taf. ix.).

The Copts preserved the oldest division of the country, and called Lower Egypt, the Northern Region, E2 (Mem.), ¿IT, &c. (Sah.), Upper Egypt, the Southern Region, PHC (Mem.), aрHC (Sah.) The names of the nomes were also known to them, and are given by Champollion in L'Égypte sous les Pharaons.

Like the Copts, the Arabs generally know of but two divisions, the names of which are such as the people of the desert would naturally give to the country watered by the Nile. Lower Egypt is called Er-Reef, the cultivated, or fertile, and Upper Egypt, Es-Sa'eed, the happy, or for

tunate.

Under the Memlook sultans of the Báhree dynasty, as we learn from the list appended to De Sacy's Abd-Allatif, referring to A.H. 715 (A.D. 1315-6), the provinces of Egypt were less numerous than the ancient nomes. They are for Lower Egypt the territory of Cairo and the provinces of Kalyoob, the Sharkeeyeh, the Dakahleeyeh, Ed-Dimyát, the Gharbeeyeh, Menoof, Abyar and Benee-Nasr, the Boheyreh, Fooweh, Nesterawiyeh, Alexandria, and ElGeezeh; and for Upper Egypt-the provinces of Atfeeh, the Feiyoom, Behnesè, Ashmooneyn, Manfaloot, Asyoot, Akhmeem, and Koos. At the time of the French occupafion the provinces had been reduced in number to sixteen, and the division of the Middle Provinces introduced, thus reviving the Hoptanomis. The Northern Provinces,

three. At the present time Egypt is divided into fifteen provinces, each governed by a mudeer.

It will be readily understood that much confusion prevails as to the divisions of the country, more especially at times when an arbitrary administrative division has been used side by side with a popular one, depending upon what nature and artificial aids, such as canals and ikes, have done to map out the country.

The general appearance of Egypt is remarkably uniform. The Delta is a level plain richly cultivated, and varied alone by the lofty dark-brown moulds of ancient cities, and the villages in groves of palm-trees, standing on mounds often if not always ancient. We sometimes sée groves of palm-trees besides those around the villages, but other trees are, except in some parts, rare. In Upper Egypt the valley is in as rich a state of cultivation, but very narrow and bounded by mountains of no great height which hem it in. They form the edge of the desert on either side of the valley, which has been cut through a rocky table-land by the river. They rarely take the form of peaks. Sometimes they approach the river in bold promontories, and at others are divided by valleys with the beds of torrents which flow only at very long intervals. The bright green of the fields, the reddish-brown or dull green of the great river, and the tender tints of the bare yellow rocks, beneath the deep blue sky, always form a beautiful view. In form the landscape varies little and is not remarkable; in colour its qualities are always splendid, and under a general uniformity show continual variety.

Climate.--The climate of Egypt, being remarkably equable, is healthy to those who can bear great heat, and who avoid the unwholesome tracts of the country, such as the

1 M. Jomard states that the older appellations were used for the two provinces of Benee-Suweyf and El-Minyeh, though these towns had succeeded the earlier chief places after which the provinces were lamed. - Descr, de l'Egypte, is. 594.

which is more usual in the desert than in the cultivated tracts, but in either occurring only at long intervals. It is a kind of hurricane, most painful to experience, and injurious in its effects. (Englishwoman in Egypt, i. 96, 97.) The zóbá'ah is a common but remarkable phenomenon. It is a very lofty whirlwind of sand resembling a pillar, which moves with great velocity. Mr Lane measured some with a sextant, and found them to be between 500 and 700 feet in height, and one to have an altitude of 750 feet. When crossing the Nile a zóbá'ah frequently capsizes any boat which may be in its way, and of which the main-sheet is tied by the carelessness of the boatmen instead of being held. (Id., loc. cit.; Modern Egyptians, chap. x.) It may be mentioned that a sudden gust of wind from a valley in the mountains is equally dangerous when the sheet is tied, and a third danger is the attempt to move during a southerly gale, when the long shallow Nile-boat is easily caught broadside and capsized.

northern coast, where there are extensive salt-marshes. | called Samoom,3 is a much more violent hot sand-wind, Upper Egypt is healthier than Lower Egypt. The least healthy time of the year is the latter part of autumn, when the inundated soil is drying. In the desert, at a very short distance from the cultivable land, the climate is uniformly dry and unvaryingly healthy. Egypt, however, is unsuitable as a permanent residence to Europeans who do not greatly modify their mode of life; and it is almost impossible to rear European children there; but if they arrive after the age of ten or a little more they do not usually feel its ill effects. As a resort for invalids Egypt cannot be recommended without caution. Persons suffering from asthma and bronchitis are likely to gain benefit from a Nile-voyage, unless the season is unusually cold. The climate of the desert does not in all cases suit them, the small particles of sand which are inhaled increasing the irritation. The desert air is undoubtedly good for consumption, and a wise plan is to encamp near Cairo, or still better to find some kind of house within the limits of the desert; and there are ancient sepulchral grottoes at Thebes and other sites which afford excellent quarters for any one who will take the pains to build a court and a few rooms in front of them. A Nile-voyage cannot be so safely recommended. The climate on the river itself is more changeable than elsewhere, and often in winter far colder than is good for delicacy of the lungs. No one should visit Egypt in the winter without heavy as well as light clothing.

The atmosphere is remarkably dry and clear, except on the sea-coast; and even the humidity which is the consequence of the spreading of the inundation is scarcely felt | but by its rendering the heat more oppressive. Sometimes a white fog, very dense and cold, rises from the river in the morning, but it is of rare occurrence and short duration. The heat is extreme during a great part of the year, but it is chiefly felt when accompanied by the hot winds of spring and the sultry calm of the season of the inundation. The winter is often comparatively severe in its cold, especially as the domestic architecture is intended to protect rather from heat than cold. "The general height of the thermometer in the depth of winter in Lower Egypt, in the afternoon and in the shade is from 50° to 60°; in the hottest season it is from 90° to 100°, and about 10° higher in the southern parts of Upper Egypt" (Mod. Eg., Introd.) On the coast of the Mediterranean rain is frequent, but in other parts of Egypt very unusual. At Cairo there is generally one heavy storm in the winter, and a shower or two besides, the frequency of rain having increased since the growth of Ibrahim Pasha's plantations between the city and the river. At Thebes a storm occurs but once in about four years, and light rain almost as rarely.

The wind most frequently blows from the N.W., N., or N.E., but particularly from the first direction. The proportionate prevalence of these winds to those from all the other quarters, in the year, is about 8 to 3; but to those from the S., S E., and S.W., about 6 to 1. (Clot-Bey, Aperçu Général sur l'Égypte, i. p. 30.) The northerly winds are the famous Etesian winds of Herodotus (ii. 20), which enable boats constantly to ascend the Nile against its strong and rapid current, whereas in descending the river they depend on the force of the stream, the main-yard being lowered. These winds also cool the temperature during the summer months. The southerly winds are often very violent, and in the spring and summer, especially in April and May, hot sand-winds sometimes blow from the south, greatly raising the temperature, and causing especial suffering to Europeans. The famous Simoom, properly

One of the most interesting phenomena of Egypt is the mirage, which is frequently seen both in the desert and in the waste tracts of uncultivated land near the Mediterranean; and it is often so truthful in its appearance that one finds it difficult to admit the illusion.

Diseases. Notwithstanding the fineness of the climate, the stranger who visits Egypt is struck by the signs which he sees everywhere of the prevalence of many serious diseases, and in the first half of this century he might have witnessed the effects of a great epidemic.of the plague or the cholera. Yet he should remember the poverty of the great mass of the inhabitants and the insufficiency of their food (both due to the selfish rapacity of the Government), the insufficient training of the native medical practitioners, the false system of many of the foreigners established in the country, and the reluctance of the natives to take medical advice. Ophthalmia when neglected is frequently followed by blindness, and dysentery in the same circumstances is very often fatal.

The plague has been the greatest scourge of Egypt. We cannot tell whether the pestilences mentioned by Manetho as having occurred in the reign of one of the most ancient kings were the same as the modern plague; it seems, however, to be alluded to in the Bible as peculiarly Egyptian (Zech. xiv. 18). In 1835 there was an epidemic of plague of extreme severity, during which there died in Cairo a number of the inhabitants equal to the whole adult male population (Modern Egyptians, Introduction). The last occurrence of the disease was in 1843, when the mortality was comparatively insignificant. The immunity which Egypt has enjoyed for more than thirty years, in which interval there would ordinarily have been several plagues, has been attributed to the sanitary measures of the Egyptian Government, and no doubt these may have somewhat contributed to this result. It should, however, be remembered that the plague is always imported into Egypt, and that there have been no severe epidemics of undoubted plague elsewhere in the period.

This disease has usually first appeared in the east and south coasts of the Mediterranean, and part of the north coast, and when epidemic seems to pursue a similar course to the cholera in advancing steadily from place to place. In Egypt it usually appears first at Alexandria in the winter

Of the term samoom Mr Lane writes, "In the present day it is occurring in the spring or summer, in Egypt and the Egyptian deserts commonly applied to a violent and intensely-hot wind, generally usually proceeding from the south-east or south-south-east, gradually darkening the air to a deep purple hue, whether or not (according to the nature of the tract over which it blows) accompanied by clouds of dust or sand, and at length entirely concealing the sun; but seldom lasting more than about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes." -Arabic Lexicon, s.v., pt. iv. 1420,

fedo Annales, ed. Reiske, iv. 30, 31) founded a madhouse,
or máristán, at Cairo, which was still used thirty years ago
(Englishwoman in Egypt, i. 166). Its inmates were subse-
quently transferred to a modern hospital. Nervous affec-
tions are uncommon, probably owing to the calm life
which the inhabitants lead. Rheumatism is of more
usual occurrence; but, according to Clot-Bey, gout is
unknown (Aperçu, ii. 377). It is well worthy of notice
that, although ownerless dogs are very common in Cairo
and the other towns, and watch-dogs are kept by the
villagers, canine madness and hydrophobia are unknown;
but Clot-Bey is probably in error when he says that rabies
has never been observed in Egypt (id. ii. 78), for the
Coptic prayer-books contain a prayer to be used for a
person suffering from hydrophobia, and this is not likely
to have been derived from a foreign source.
(For
an account of the diseases of Egypt, see Clot-Bey's
Aperçu Général and De la Peste, and Descr. de l'Égypte,
xiii. 29).

or spring, and if the earliest cases occur towaras the close | sultans, Katáoon, following the example of Saladin (Abul
of the year, one may be sure of a plague of great severity
and long continuance. At first the cases are generally
few, but they gradually increase, and in the hottest
weather attain their maximum. The disease is not log in
travelling from Alexandria to Caire, but it rarely ascends
much higher up the river, and has seldom been known at
Thebes in modern times. Many medical writers have
denied the contagious character of the plague, in particular
Clot-Bey, a French physician, who was long chief medical
officer of the Egyptian Government, and who published a
treatise on the subject (Clot-Bey, De la Peste); yet the
evidence on the other side is too strong to be rebutted.
An epidemic of plague is greatly to be dreaded in the
present circumstances of Egypt. Rapid communications
would readily bring the disease to Europe, and the interests
of commerce would stand in the way of the reasonable
precaution of quarantine. It is stated that the plague is
endemic in the marshes of Chaldæa. Surely it would be
well if the European Governments were to appoint a com-
mission for the investigation of the disease and to ascertain
what, if any, is the value of the sanitary measures of the
Turkish Government.

the constant deposit of the Nile, and the corresponding elevation of the southern part of the isthmus of Suez. The consequence of this change of level has been the ruin of places on the shore of the Mediterranean, the extension of the salt-marshes, and the drying up of a considerable part of the northernmost portion of the Gulf of Suez. The bed of the Red Sea may be traced for several miles north of Suez, which now stands at the head of the western gulf; and places far north of that town were on the coast in historic times.

The form of the plain and valley inclosed by the deserts is remarkably regular. In Lower Egypt the cultivable land little exceeds the limits of the ancient Delta, but greatly exceeds those of the space between the two remaining branches of the Nile. The northern coast is protected by shoals and a low range of sand-hills. To the south of these are extensive salt marshes and lakes, or waste tracts, and beyond, the cultivated land. The deserts on either side are of low elevation. To the east of the ancient Delta, a valley, the Wadee-et-Tumeylát, is in course of being reclaimed by the Sweet-Water Canal.

705

at Rhinocorura, now El-'Areesh, or the Pelusiac or eastern-
most branch of the Nile.1

not traceable to either of the Egyptian names of the river,
The Greek and Roman name Nelos, Nilus, is certainly
Hebrew ones. It may be, like Shichôr, indicative of the
nor does it seem to be philologically connected with the
colour of the river, for we find in Sanskrit, Nila, "blue,"
probably especially "dark blue," also even black, as
Nilapan ka, "black mud." The two great confluents of
River," and the Bahr-el-Azrak, or "Blue River," and the
the Nile are now called the Bahr-el-Abyad, or "White
latter most nearly resembles the Nile in Egypt. As already
noticed, Alyvros, in the Odyssey, is the name of the Nile
(masc.) as well as of the country (fem.).
The Arabs preserved the classical name of the Nile in the
proper name

the نيل مصر or Neel-Misr

,النيل En-Neel

Nile of Misr (Egypt). The same word signifies indigo.2

The modern Egyptians commonly call the river El-Bahr, "the sea," a term also applied to the largest rivers, and the inundation "the Nile," En-Neel; and the modern Arabs call the river Bahr-en-Neel, "the river Nile."

The form of the valley, or Upper Egypt, may be best seen on the map; its leading peculiarities may here be noticed. Its course is nearly north and south until just within the border of the Thebaïs, when it takes a south-ing easterly direction as far as the town of Girga, and then turns due east as far as Kinè, from which town it resumes ts former direction. The mountains and desert on the western side throughout Upper Egypt, that is, above Cairo, are generally further from the river than those on the eastern side, which frequently reach to the water's edge. The difference is most remarkable as far as the town of Farshoot,

by the course of the river about 350 miles above Cairo, and

about 70 miles below Thebes. Near Farshoot begins a continuous series of canals, which flow parallel to the Nile, and near the Libyan chain, until they terminate in Lower Egypt, not far north of Cairo. Above Farshoot, the eastern mountains recede as far as a little above Thebes, and the western mountains gradually approach the Nile. Halfway between Thebes and the First Cataract, the cultivable soil is equally narrow on each bank. The greatest breadth of the cultivable land, all of which is not now cultivated, on the western bank seldom exceeds about 8 or 10 miles, and on the eastern bank, about 3 miles, but it is usually much narrower.

There is in Upper Egypt one striking deviation from the uniform character of the country. About 70 miles above Cairo, by the course of the Nile, an opening in the Libyan range leads to a kind of oasis, the Feiyoom, a fertile tract, lying in a hollow of the desert, and having at its further extremity a great lake of brackish water.

The Nile. The chief natural feature of Egypt is the Nile, and the great phenomenon of the country the yearly inundation. With the ancient inhabitants the river had, according to their usage with such names, its two appellations, sacred and common. The sacred name was Hapi, the same as that of one of the four genii of Amenti (Hades) and of the bull Apis. The probable meaning is "the concealed" (Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr., i. 77). The profane name was Atur, or Aur, usually with the epithet åä, the great. The two forms, of which the first appears to be the older, the second the younger, mean river," as is equally the case with the demotic and Coptic forms of Aur (Id. p. 78). There are at least three names of the Nile in the Bible,-Yeôr (, ), the same as the Egyptian name last mentioned, and probably of Egyptian derivation; Shichôr (n, in, h), "the black;" and "the river of Egypt," . The "torrent," or "brook of Egypt" (D), spoken of as the western limit of Palestine, and so the eastern limit of Egypt, is either a desert stream

|

The course of the Nile has already been noticed in speakof the form of the Nile valley. In ancient times the Delta was watered by seven branches; now there are but two, the other ancient branches being canals not always navigable. The ancient branches were, beginning at the west, the Canobic, Bolbitine, Sebennytic, Pathmitic, Mendesian, Tanitic, and Pelusiac, of which the modern Rosetta and Damietta branches represent the Bolbitine and Pathmitic.

be

put at from half a mile to three-quarters, except where

The mean breadth of the river in Upper Egypt may

large islands increase the distance. In the Delta the branches are generally narrower.

A remarkable change has been ascertained to have occurred in the level of the Nile above Gebel-es-Silsileh, (near the ancient Silsilis, more than 80 miles south of Thebes), and throughout part of Nubia. Indications of this change were first observed by Professor Lepsius, who discovered hieroglyphic inscriptions on rocks at the Cataract of Semneh, not far above the Second Cataract, showing that the river attained a much higher level in the time of Dynasties XII. and XIII. before B.C. 2000. He gives the difference of the mean water-level at Semneh as 7.30 metres, or 23.94 feet English. He observes that the whole level of Upper Nubia was anciently greater, and similarly that of Lower Nubia between the First and Second Cataracts, but that in this second tract the present level was attained since the time of Thothmes III. of Dynasty XVIII. (Auszug aus einen Schreiben des Hrn. Lepsius an Hrn. Ehrenberg, Philæ, 10th Sept. 1844.) Sir Gardner Wilkinson pursued the inquiry in a paper in which he argued that the cause of the change of level which he traced in the Upper Thebais was the breaking of a rocky barrier at Gebel-es-Silsileh, where the low mountains on either side confine the river to a narrow channel (Trans. R. Soc. Lit., n.s., iv.).

The water of the Nile differs considerably in appearance and purity at various seasons of the year. A little after midsummer it becomes very turbid, and not long afterwards

1 The manner in which this term is used (Num. xxxiv. 5; Josh. xv. 4, 47;1 K. viii. 65; 2 K. xxiv. 7; Is. xxvii. 12), to designate the boundary of Egypt and Palestine, precisely as Shichôr is employed (Josh. xiii. 3; 1 Chr. xiii. 5), would be conclusive as to their identity, were it not that the country between the Pelusiac branch and Rhinocorura is a waste region, which may have been wholly considered as boundary.

"En-Neel is the river (lit. the inundation) of Egypt: Es-Saghánee word Arabicized”” (The Misbah of El-Feiyoomee). says- But as to the neel [indigo] with which one dyes, it is an Indian VII.

89