EGYPTIAN HAREM.

11

-in the provinces of Naples, I had occasion to observe the same fact, and the poorer the peasants the more chaste were their women; as if, indeed, they were already so indigent, that they could not afford to part with honour.

But, in the harem I was speaking of, when pipes and coffee were introduced, the husband entered; he asked me in how many days I could cure the sick woman? and how many purses I required? I always thought of Abernethy when these pithy questions were put to me. I told him (with all necessary caution), that life and death were written in the great book above, but that I feared the angel of death was hovering over his house. I perceived his anxiety was very great; I am sure he must have loved the woman, for the tears came into his eyes; a demonstration of feeling which I never met with in Turkey. His only observation was Kiddi, hakkim! "Is it so, doctor?" I assured him, whatever medicine could do for the poor woman should be tried, and sent to her immediately; and, as usual, I went away with the consoling ejaculation, that there was "but one God, and all things were possible to him."

On the stairs, as I followed my conductor, a

hideous old black woman tapped me

on the shoulder, and thrust an embroidered handkerchief into my hand. It was impossible to avoid looking back: on the top of the staircase I encountered the laughing eyes of the lady who complained of the pain in the region of the heart; I had just time to catch a gentle smile, and to see the yellow tops of her tapering fingers pressed to her eyelids. On opening the handkerchief, I found a bit of charcoal and a clove tied with a piece of red silk, and both enclosed in a scrap of paper. There was no writing, and none was requisite; the charcoal and the clove were eloquent. The Casheff offered me some pieces of gold, which I refused; he then promised he would send a courier to the different Casheffs in the neighbourhood, to ensure me their protection. I told him he might render me a greater service, by merely sending one of his confidential people with me to the Coptic priests and the Arab hakkim, in order to compel them to give me a true description of the ceremony. He immediately granted my request. Mr. Chantpie went alone to the Arab's house: I proceeded to the Copt's, gave him to understand that I was a

medical man, and that his telling me a single falsehood would only bring him into trouble; the Chiaous of the Casheff confirmed my threat. The Copt saw he had no alternative but to speak the truth, and this, I believe, he now did for the first time.

I learned from him that, in the summer season, the slaves are usually sent to Siout. They are too young to have any moral repugnance to the ceremony through which they must pass; and most of them, I was assured, were so delighted with the prospect of the fine clothes they were to wear, and the horses they were to ride, when they filled the high office of guardian to the Seraglio, that they were well contented to be qualified for this post of honour.

Immediately after the first step of the proceeding, they are thrown down on the hot sand, which is piled on a level with their backs; a mode of treatment which supersedes, in Egypt, the application of styptics as well as ligatures. They are left in the sand till sunset, two men by their sides never ceasing to rub their spines, which they consider the principal seat of the circulation; and

when they are removed they are kept on bread and water for fifteen days.

This custom is of very great antiquity: so early as the days of Nebuchadnezzar such persons were kept at court. The prophet Daniel was one of these; and we are informed by the scriptures that he was beloved by "the prince of the eunuchs." Josephus, moreover, says, " Among the eunuchs there were four of most excellent disposition, and one of these was called Daniel."

Whiston informs us that all courtiers were generally called eunuchs by the Jews, on account of the great number of ancient courtiers who were of this description. Indeed, there is reason to believe that men devoted to science, formerly made a merit of these practices; those which Nebuchadnezzar brought up were intended for wise men and magicians.

The female children of the Copts and Arabs undergo a peculiar operation at a very early age. Every traveller describes it differently; but Sonini, who pretended to have seen it, misled people more than any other. He would find it difficult to explain how it happens that the other inhabitants of

Egypt do not perform the operation, and yet are exempt from the inconvenience he describes. Neither the Levantines nor Armenians practise it.

The accurate Niebuhr was mistaken in supposing that the practice was merely a measure of cleanliness. The antiquity of circumcision goes as far back as the days of Abraham, three thousand eight hundred years ago. I purchased a mummy at Cairo, which proved that it was used amongst the ancient Egyptians, though not universally; for one mummy which bears the marks of circumcision, there are at least fifty which do not.

Josephus endeavours to prove, that Abraham not only imparted learning and sciences to the Egyptians, but also this custom.

"the only

Herodotus, on the other hand, says, people who used it, were the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians; but the Phenicians, and those Syrians that are in Palestine," (the Jews) "confess that they learned it from the Egyptians."

Which is in the right I do not pretend to say; but Josephus's reason for the difference in the period in Syria and Arabia is very satisfactory.