In favourable seasons, pros isions of most kinds are 11( re vei y cheap ; wine. sweet oil, and fuel, whie II i used only for ( ookety, being the prodi,ee of for( ign countries, are rather dear. Onith,, still ( hr prized In this place, of l% hi( It jinni( Ilse quantities are consumed raw by the poorer sort. The w( II-•ater of Egypt is for the most part braeki .11, a , is also that which has stood for some time in tl• ( anals al (1 reser voirs. On this account, the water drank at ( airo, ( x cept durin• the i itindation, is brought in 1 atherll bags from the Nile, on the barks of camels. fir ing com monly vi ry muddy, it is poured into large earthen jars. previously coated on the inside with a preparation of bitter aimond.” and, in the spare ()I two hours, it be comes pure and limpid. Besides sherbet, which is used chiefly by the great, a fermented liquor, pleasant hut soon spoiling, is here obtained from maize, millet, bar ley, or rid e. The Christiars distil for themselves, from dates, figs, or currants, a strong liquor known by the name of aruki. The peculiar complexion of tie dis eases of a people, is produced, we venture to say. more hy the qualities of their food, and their mode of living, than by climate.
The government of Cairo is vested in the bee of Masr, assisted by the mulla, or chief judge and priest, who is annually appointed by the grata! seignior. The inferior judges, called cadis, amount, in this great city, to 200 : their revenue consists in the value of the tenth palt of the thing litigated. Besides these, there also are imams, or priests of the four sects, who exercise authority over their respective adherents. Notwithstanding the great extent of Cairo, its narrow and winding streets, and its barbarous population, fewer deeds of violence are com mitted here than in some European cities. For this se curity several causes may be assigned. Every calling here has a sheik, or chief, who keeps an eye on the members of his own fraternity ; by which means, a po lice is established in every craft, and criminals are easily detected. The streets, too, having generally no tho roughfare, and being at night shut up with gates. pre vent the possibility of escape. These gates are opened by a porter, who allows none to pass of a suspicious appearance ; and to insure respect, a guard of janissa ries is within call, who, being liberally paid by the town, and never changed as long as they give satisfaction, have thus a powerful stimulus to discharge with fidelity their lucrative office. But, besides these presentive measures, the execution of justice is bete prompt and terrible. The judges are constantly sitting. Officers, with a numerous posse of attendants, perambulate the streets by night and by day. The punishment of the bastinado is applied with unsparing vigour on the spot : and sometimes, when the wretched ()Wendel s are de tected in the commission of great crime s, the it heads are instantly struck off, and are received ir.to a leathern bag carried about for that purpose. With such a form of government, it is ohs ions that the rulers must commit more crimes than the people.
Under the despotism of the Turks and Mamelukes, it were vain to look for excellence in arts or manufac tures. In the furniture of houses, and decorations of silver and gold, there is much grandeur and barbaric parade ; but throughout the whole, there reigns a pot er tv of invention, and a miserably bad taste. The most perfect of their manufactures is that c f silk stuffs. which is. however, inferior to the European procincions, and much higher priced. Their other manufactures arc sugar, of a bad quality, obtained from the canes, which in seine places cover the banks of the Nile ; sal am moniac, which is much in request ; saltpetre, coarse gunpowder, glass lamps, red and yellow leather, and linen cloth of fine Egyptian flax. Their gun and pistol barrels, sword blades, hard ware, and mercery, are the produce of foreign manufacture. The carabines of the Mamelukcs are English, and their swords Persian or Turkish. We might here mention the hatching of eggs by artificial warmth, a very ancient art, and at present retained principally at Cairo. The chickens are thought by some not to be so good as those hatched by incubation.
The commerce of Cairo with distant places, though much decayed within the last three centuries, is still very considerable. As the Metropolis of Egypt, the residence of the begs, the lawyers, and the wealthy, it consumes all the commodities of that country, or trans mits them to the provincial districts ; as a centre of circulation, it affords great facilities from its position.
By the Nile, it corresponds with Upper Egypt and Abyssinia ; by the Mediterranean, with Europe and the Turkish empire ; by the Red Sea, with Arabia and In dia ; and even by the deserts, it communicates with dis tant countries by means of numerous caravans. Da mascus and Cairo are called "the two gates of Mecca," from the annual muster of pilgrims which takes place at these two cities, though we are uncertain what changes the Wachabees may have produced in this respect. Of these prodigious assemblages, the greater part are mer chants, who avail themselves of this religious opportu nity to conduct their traffic. Every year a great cara van from Abyssinia arrives in the neighbourhood of Cairo, on the banks of the Birque, or Lake of the Pil grims, bringing from 1000 to 1200 negro slaves, great quantities of elephants teeth, ostrich feathers, gum, gold dust, parrots, and monkies; and here it remains till joined by another immense assemblage front western Africa. These pilgrims and merchants, some of them from the Senegal, proceeding along the coast of the Mediterranean, and collecting in their way those of Al giers, Tripoli, and Tunis, arrive through the desert at Alexandria, and from thence proceed to the general rendezvous at the Birque. This caravan has been known to exceed three thousand camels, laden with the mer chandize of the West, consisting of oils, red caps, for 'which Tunis is famous, line flannel, and many other commodities. This multitude being now incorporated with that from Ethiopia, and swelled by the crowds of Egypt, the whole set out fur Mecca, under the orders of the sheik liellet of Cairo. This high officer has in charge the presents of corn and money from the Grand Signior, together with the precious covering for the caaba. After a period of one hundred days, this great caravan, to the number, on some occasions, of 100,000 Fouls, return in a body to the same place with the c,imicest productions of the East. These consist prin cipally of coffee, perfumes, gum-arabic, and other drugs, the produce of Yemen, with spices of Ceylon, shawls of Cashmirc, and muslins of Surat and other parts of India. The same contnioditics are also brought by sea from Jedda to Suez, where near thirty 1, essels annually arrive in May. There are, besides, many smaller caravans to and front Cairo, particularly one in October, from the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai. These Arabs arc ex tremely expert at adulterating the gum, which they convey to the minaret or 700 quintals, for which reason they cannot be prevailed on to enter Cairo. They en camp at a distance, and dispose of their goods by barter, receiving arms, clothing, and other necessary articles in return. The small caravans from Damascus bring silk, cotton stuffs, and dried fruits. Immense quantities of tobacco, which has become one of the necessaries of life at Cairo, are constantly landing at Damietta by vessels from Latikia, which take in exchange cargoes of rice. The vessels from Constantinople, which also return with grain, bring clothing, wrought silks, furs, and arms, into the port of Alexandria ; while those from Venice, Leg horn, and Marseilles, bring cloths, cochineal, Lyons stuffa and laces, iron, lead, grocery, together with Venetian sequins and German dollars, which are here imported at a great profit. All these articles arc conveyed in light ers, called djerms, to Rosetta, whence they are sent up the Nile to Grand Cairo. Notwithstanding the exces sive imposts, and the impolitic exactions of the Maho inetahs, the commerce of Cairo will appear, from the foregoing particulars, to be still considerable : it is said to have amounted in 1783 to between six and seven mil lions sterling. There can be no doubt but that the furi ous career of the Wachabees in Arabia, has considerably affected the external relations of Cairo ; and front the bloody and exterminating affrays which hate within the last year taken place there between the Turks and Beys, its commerce at present must be very precarious. Cairo stands in 30° 2' 44" N. Lat. and 31° 16' 16" E. Long. about 59 geographical miles west of Suez. See the Travels of Shaw, Pococke, Norden, Niebuhr, Savary, Volney, Bruce, Browne, Denon, Sonnini, Chateaubriand, Lord Valentia, and The History of the Revolt of Xi Bey. (E)