Copy 1, Volume 1

Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt: undertaken by order of the old government of France / by C.S. Sonnini. Translated from the French, by Henry Hunter.

  • Sonnini, C. S. (Charles Sigisbert), 1751-1812.
Date:
1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt: undertaken by order of the old government of France / by C.S. Sonnini. Translated from the French, by Henry Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    two medinas* was enough to satisfy them. The old ones perceiving that these trifling presents were bestowed more willingly on the young, took care to employ them as their solicitors, in order to awaken our interest and our benevolence. They laughed outright when they found that this attention had good success, and above all when they remarked that the young girls became the objects of some tender glances. Whilst my companions were hold¬ ing a pretty lively conversation with the youthful Arabs, I was surrounded by a group of old women horribly ugly ; they had, to appearance, judged me to be more generous than the others ; they obliged me to remain in the midst of them, and would not permit me to proceed. I had a thou¬ sand difficulties to make my escape, and I congra¬ tulated myself sincerely on getting out of this circle of importunate old women, whose decrepit and blackish figures were rendered still more hideous by several black compartments which they had formed on the chin by pricking the skin of it. There were in these gardens turtle-doves, thrushes, blackbirds, and upon the date-trees some large beaks 'f. I saw here also two birds of prey, of the species formerly described as a species * The medina in Turkey, parat, is a piece in which there is a small portion of silver, and is worth rather more than a halfpenny. f Gios bee. BufFon, Hist. Nat. des Ois. et pi. enlum. No. 99.—Loxia coccothaustes, Lin. df