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MAGNIFICENT PROSPECT.

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LXVI. Taking our leave of His Excellence, we proceeded to visit the curiosities included within the walls of the citadel. Previous to this, however, the kawass conducted us to the terrace of the palace, which commands one of the noblest and most extensive views in the world. Here the eye, almost at a single glance, takes in the whole of the city of Cairo, with its innumerable domes and minarets, its squares and public places, its walls, and gates, and groves, and gardens, and battlements; and those vast melancholy suburbs, the cemeteries, whither the gay and giddy Caireens, when the dream of life is over, retire to their eternal abodes. A little beyond, winding its way through the richest valley of Africa, was the bountiful Nile, whose broad surface glittered in the morning sun like a sheet of molten silver. the right hand were the Tombs of the Khalifs, Boolak, and the site of Heliopolis; behind us, the sterile ridges of Mokattam; to the left, the spacious plain where once stood Babylon, Troïa, Acanthus, and Memphis, cities which, excepting in the pages of history, have left no certain traces of their existence. Farther still, and beyond the reach of the inundation, were the Pyramids of Ghizeh, Sakkarah, Abousir, and Dashour, skirting the boundless expanse of the Libyan desert, whose dun, dismal colour seemed to be diffused over every thing on both sides of the river; for, in this interminable landscape, the fields, groves, and gardens of the valley appeared like mere specks of verdure in an ocean of sand and rock and water. Directly under the palace windows was

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a large open space, in which several regiments of the Pasha's military slaves were performing their evolutions, marching, charging, firing, and the other operations of war.

LXVII. Returning into the palace, we visited the mint, a wretched establishment, where we found a few Arab workmen employed in hammering out fourpiastre pieces (gold coins, value one shilling) on clumsy little anvils. The great wheel, turned by bullocks, by which the machinery had formerly been put in motion, was fast crumbling to decay; but the Pasha, we were told, had recently received from England a new and splendid coining apparatus. During my voyage into Nubia, M. D'Arcet, a young Frenchman in the Pasha's service, was employed in making several experiments at the mint, which were witnessed by several gentlemen; one of whom, on my return from the upper country, furnished me with the following account of them: “On the 10th of January," he observes, I accompanied the French Consul and M. D'Arcet to witness some experiments which the latter was about to make with his new reverberatory furnace. This furnace, erected by the chemist's own hands, was intended to supersede the old Arab mode of melting, which was with difficulty effected by a large pair of bellows, worked by six robust men, besides several attendants for the fire, &c. M. D'Arcet melted four thousand five hundred dirhems of silver (the residue of the stamping operation), in one hour and a quarter, with

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REVERBERATORY FURNACE.

twenty okes of charcoal. The same weight of silver, in ingots, could have been melted in fifteen minutes, with four or five okes of charcoal. In another experiment, the furnace, at various times, was charged with only ten okes of charcoal, which melted five hundred dirhems of silver cuttings, as above; and, after the experiment, there remained two okes of charcoal. The silver, being melted, was run into rectangular moulds, about ten inches long, one inch broad, and one eighth of an inch in thickThese moulds were made in a box of sand, with a long knife; which, having been rubbed over with a little oil, was plunged into the sand, and then drawn carefully out. This beautiful process, the invention of the Orientals, excited the admiration of the French chemist, who expressed his intention of introducing it into France; where, to reduce the silver to this shape, the metal, in bars, is run under heavy rollers, until reduced to the necessary length, breadth, and thickness." I may here remark, that the currency of Egypt passes for thirty-three and one third more than its real value; that is, the kheri, or nine-piastre piece, which has been assayed at Genoa and Paris, is worth only six piastres.

LXVIII. From the mint we proceeded to the celebrated "Well of Joseph," as it is called, excavated by the great Saladin. Though we had with us a kawass, or officer of the governor, we experienced

* An oke is about two pounds and three quarters.

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WELL OF JOSEPH.

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some difficulty in gaining admittance; a difficulty which was satisfactorily accounted for, when we had descended into the well. The entrance to this great work, which is far more useful than magnificent, and has little in it, more than a great coal-pit, to strike the imagination,—is as mean and obscure as the entrance into a cellar. Each person here kindled a small wax taper, to light him in the descent, after which we all followed the footsteps of the guide. The well is of a square form, cut perpendicularly in the solid rock to the depth of about 270 feet. A little more than half way down, it widens into a spacious chamber, containing a large deep cistern, and the wheel, turned by a cow, which draws up the series of small earthen pots (attached to a rope as in a common sakia) by which the cistern is filled. A similar apparatus at the top fills the cistern which supplies the citadel. A narrow staircase, hewn out in the rock, winds round the well, from top to bottom, with so easy a descent, that you might almost ride down on horseback; on assback you certainly might. In fact, the cow, or bullock, which turns the wheel below, descends this staircase, which resembles a macadamised road, though there seem formerly to have been steps. At short intervals cut in the rock, there are several large windows for the purpose of admitting light, and to enable those descending the staircase to look out into the well; and these windows, except that they are much larger and lower, considerably resemble those in the greater galleries of the Simplon. When we had reached the great

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STORY OF A MURDER.

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chamber, or half-way house, our guide related to us the ostensible reason, a desire to be bribed is the real one,-why so much difficulty is now experienced in obtaining permission to descend. About five years ago, a man was murdered in that very chamber, where his body being discovered, our cicerone himself had been suspected of the deed, and cast into prison; but, having remained twenty-one days in confinement, and no proofs of his guilt appearing,perhaps none were sought, he was liberated. The murdered man, an Armenian, had gone down with a sum of money about him; and the spot where the body had been found was pointed out to us, perhaps by the man who had hidden it there. On the same side of the gallery we were shown a large fissure in the rock, now walled up, to which another legend is appended. Two or three years ago, the cow employed in turning the water-wheel, on being liberated from her task in the evening, squeezed herself into this fissure, and, wandering away into some dark unexplored passage, entirely disappeared. One of the poor Arabs, more venturous than his companions, taking a lamp in his hand, entered in search of her, but was never more heard of. Twelve days they awaited his return; but at the expiration of that period, giving him up for lost, they walled up the cavern, thus cutting off all chance of his escape from this Stygian gloom. Perhaps he fell, by some oblique descent, into the well below, and they may now be

drawing water from among his bones.

The water

wheels, pots, ropes, &c. had an extremely antique and

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