Observations on the manners and customs of the Egyptians, the overflowing of the Nile and its effects, with remarks on the plague, and other subjects : written during a residence of twelve years in Cairo and its vicinity / by John Antes ; to which are added, Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, 1798 ; interesting memoirs of Admirals Nelson and Keith, Sir Sidney Smith, ... &c. &c. ; with an enlarged account of the Battle of the Nile, ...

  • Antes, John.
Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the manners and customs of the Egyptians, the overflowing of the Nile and its effects, with remarks on the plague, and other subjects : written during a residence of twelve years in Cairo and its vicinity / by John Antes ; to which are added, Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, 1798 ; interesting memoirs of Admirals Nelson and Keith, Sir Sidney Smith, ... &c. &c. ; with an enlarged account of the Battle of the Nile, ... Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    they knew every thing; others, and moft of them, will do it, be- caufe they hope to reap fome little advantage by it; and I have often been amazed to hear the incoherent fluff, which thofe inquifi- tive gentlemen received as anfwers to their queflions. If a foreign traveller, paffing through our polifhed country, fliould afterwards pretend to give a defcription of the manners, cufloms, go^ vernment, and particularities of the country and its inhabitants, by fuch information as he might have gathered from inn-keepers, coach- men, chambermaids, and from the company he might accidentally have met with in coaches, as we now and then find to be the cafe,, he has to blame himfelf only ; for, if he be a man of learning, he may always find people enough, capable of informing him of any thing he would wifh to know, and alfo of converting w ith him in one or other of the common languages. But this is quite otherwife in Egypt. Travellers there, though they may be otherwife very wTell informed, and may have all the advantages of learning, commonly know nothing of the language of the country, which is Arabic. They mufl, therefore, addrefs themlelves to an European to be their interpreter, or hire a Greek or an Armenian for that purpofe. Thefe latter are, upon the whoie, not fenfible of the importance of giving always a corre<ft and fatif- fa&ory anfwer: they are, perhaps, at the fame time, as well as many of the Europeans, ignorant where to apply for proper information. B 2 As Nt