- quill. To prevent surprise, numerous small openings
led to subterraneous apartments below, through which, when their upper chamber was demolished, they always retreated with safety. It was no small compliment to the genius of these diminutive architects that their works could attract attention in the vicinity of the most sublime among the artificial wonders of the world, and appear, as they did to Hasselquist, still more wonderful than those prodigious creations of man.
Restrained in the indulgence of his curiosity by the extreme scantiness of his finances, poor Hasselquist was for the most part compelled to confine himself to the environs of Cairo. Had his means permitted him to execute the designs he had formed, few travellers would have surpassed him in curious or useful researches; though neither his tastes nor physical powers inclined him to undertake those daring personal adventures which in many travellers are almost the only things deserving of notice. His entering at the risk of his life into a mosque at Old Cairo proves, however, that he was courageous even to foolhardiness when he had an object to gain. But this achievement rather disgusted him with enterprises of that kind; for when he had put his head in jeopardy to gratify his curiosity, he found absolutely nothing to reward his hardihood.
Having visited the mummy-pits, and studied with great care the natural history of Cairo and its environs, he descended the Nile to Damietta. The soil of this part of Egypt, even when the inundation fails, is rendered extremely fertile by the heavy dews, for which it is indebted to its vicinity to the sea, and by the rain which falls at intervals during the whole winter and spring. It was about the middle of March when he arrived in this city, and already the male-palm had begun to put forth its blossoms. The female tree flowered a few days later. One of the latter, a magnificent tree, equal in
