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Untitled Article
he rode out to see the gardens of Alexandria . * Information was here obtained by him of the Egyptian , method of making Sal Ammoniac : he became , too , a spectator of the singular way in which the inhabitants hatch chickens ; and he paints , in faithful and lively colours , the fascination of even the most poisonous serpents by a practitioner in the art .
Hasselquist records in general terms his visit to the Egyptian Pyramids . It would seem that he purposely refrained from writing a detailed account of those wonderful structures , in consequence of their having been already seen and described by so large a number of travellers . His taste and his studies had certainly another direction . One of his remarks on the pyramids is worthy of being copied :
' * When conducted to the pyramids , I experienced / ' he says , " the difference between reality and conception , between seeing a thing with our own eyes , and seeing it with the eyes of others . I had read all which travellers have related of the Egyptian pyramids : I had met with drawings of them ; I had heard them described by actual spectators ; I had even viewed them , at various distances , since my arrival in Egypt . Nevertheless , I knew nothing of their outward appearance until I came upon the spot , or of their inward state , until I entered them . "
There is scarcely a paragraph in this or in any part of his volume , which does not set fully before us the singularity of Eastern manners , and call to our minds the notices of them in the Sacred Writings , f The picture that this author has drawn of the caravan from Cairo to Mecca , bears every sign of correctness . It was evidently the result of his personal observation .
We learn from him that the caravan is divided into two bands , one of which consists of about ten thousand men , who come from the whole of the African coast , and the other of Turks from most parts of the empire bearing their name ; that gain , and not devotion , is , in the case of many of them , the proposed end of the expedition ; that they carry to Arabia cloths ,
cochineal , spices , lead , brass , false pearls , and an immense number of Spanish or German dollars , and bring back coffee , balsam of Mecca , J myrrh , frankincense , china-ware , fine cotton-stuffs , turbans , India silks , gold stuffs , &c . ; that their profits are large ; and that the Bey who commands the caravan is well paid by them for deferring his march agreeably to their wishes and convenience .
Of the sepulchres of the Mummies , he informs us , that they cannot be visited without some danger of losing the way , «• especially if the visitor ventures too far in the passages . " These " subterranean places , " however , were explored by Hasselquist , who speaks with less p leasure and enthusiasm of them than of the insects and the plants which he found in the neighbourhood . That he was a devout as well as a sagacious and diligent observer of nature , some of his reflections evince .
Having mentioned the species of insects which he had collected , within a short time , on one spot , he thus proceeds : ' Of what use is a wild and uncultivated desert filled with burning sand ? Can any living creature subsist in it ? Are not such wastes quite devoid of
* See Plaisted ' a Journal , &c , p . 125 . t A striking example occurs in p . 38 ; see , too , Letters XI . and XIV . t P . 293 . How illustrative is this extract of Gen . xxxvii . 25 , xliii . 2 !
Untitled Article
220 Memoirs of the Life and Writing's of Frederick Hasselquist .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 220, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/4/
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