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.

Herodotus, on the other hand, says, "the only 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.

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"Isaac," he says, was circumcised on the eighth day; and from that time the Jews continue the custom of circumcising their children within that number of days. But as for the Arabians, they circumcise after the thirteenth year, because Ishmael, the founder of their nation, who was born to Abraham of the concubine, was circumcised at that age."

The instrument used in this operation, as well as in embalming, was an Ethiopian stone; I have seen this stone represented in sepulchral paintings in the temples; and also the original found at Thebes, in the possession of Mr. Salt.

What I intended to make the subject of this letter, namely, a few facts connected with the natural history of the country, I must reserve for my next letter; till then

LETTER XXVI.

TO JOSHUA BROOKES, ESQ.

MY DEAR SIR,

Thebes, August 7, 1826.

I HAVE already informed you that you were not to expect any thing like arrangement in the account I promised to give you, connected with the few cursory observations I had an opportunity of making on such animals as are to be found in the vicinity of the Nile.

About one hundred miles above Cairo I saw the first crocodile; after passing Siout these animals were very numerous on the sand banks of the Nile, and my only amusement for fifteen days was shooting at them. I had not the good fortune to kill one the entire voyage, though I frequently saw the balls gliding off their scaly backs into the water. Near Thebes I purchased a small one from the