CHAPTER VIII

Departure from Cyprus,—Damietta.—Weasels and carrier-pigeons.—
A narrow escape.—The Nile.—Crocodiles,—Hippopotami,—
Journey up the Nile to Babylonia {Cairo).—The Mamelukes.—
Reception by the Sultan of Egypt.—La Matarea.—The Pyramids.—
Elephants.—A Giraffe.—A game of Polo,

I DEPARTED for Paphos, where the King had ordered
me to be received in a village on a mountain, for the
plague was in Paphos, and this village had escaped,
and I lodged in the house of Diego Thenorio, a Caftilian
squire, with whom I had much pleasure. At the end
of three days a ship with eighteen rowers arrived at
Paphos, which was to carry me and the King's inter¬
preter who was with me, the ship being as well viftualled
as if for the King's household, and with it came the
particulars of the business I had to transaft with the
Sultan. The second day we set sail, and after being
eleven days at sea, with favourable winds, we arrived at
laft at the port of Damietta, where the river Nile,
which comes down from the terreftrial paradise, flows
into the Mediterranean Sea, and there we entered the
river and reached Damietta, a league and a half from
the sea. It is as big as Salamanca and is abundantly
supplied with bread and grapes, and all manner of
fruits and sugar. The city is very flat and unwalled
and without a caftle. It is excessively hot, but the
dwellings are very cool. There are so many weasels,
both in the ftreets and houses, that they are more
numerous than are mice with us, even in places where
they abound. I saw there for the firft time carrier
pigeons^ which take letters in their tail-feathers. They
carry them from the place where they are bred to other
places, and when the letters are detached they are set
free and return to their homes.    By this means the

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